Originally, the concept of the diaspora started with the Jews, and as with everything related to that band of individuals, it involved massive takeover of the world. The diaspora, tells of a period whereby the Jews migrated from their nation into other nations to live and to work. Nowadays, this title entails and includes the movement of people of any nation or group, into any other nation or group to get away from theirs. The concept of diaspora is now forgotten, the long ago practice of world domination and pursuit of excellence for the good of the entire peoples has been sacrificed on the altar of self-aggrandizement.
One of the issues lamented the most in the country we live in is the problem of the diasporan spill and the movement of Nigerians, especially Nigerian professionals to other countries where their talents and skills are utilised to the absolute bereft of their motherland. Originally perhaps, the Nigerian goes abroad to study, but the obvious lure of the milk and honey and grapes of the developed world gradually erodes all ties which bound him to his nation, and that cement so often occasioned to the promise of wealth and power ensures that he stays in that country, becoming in essence a Diasporan, like many before him.
It would do well to advise that, I do not seek to attack the idea of the human person leaving the country of which he was born to seek a life of success somewhere else, the reader would do well to read on and understand the objectives of this piece.
A person in diaspora, as has been seen a thousand plus times, while in his quest for financial excellence and self-satisfaction, endeavours to send some of the spoils of his riches back home to those he left behind, all the while assuring them that he would soon return or, better still, that they would soon be moved to join him. This is commendable and brings to mind an image of the mother bird fetching worms from the dangerous outside world for her fledglings. But my article is not just about the diasporans, enough has been exhausted on them, this is also about those who have been left behind, those who remain in Nigeria.
In an idealistic poll carried out in any state or geopolity in this nation, using whatever demographies, the greatest percentage (about 65%) of Nigerians are desperate in one form or the other, to reach for greatness and travel abroad (in diaspora) to recover the golden fleece. Of the remaining 35%, most are content in some form with the world or nation they live in, (in this category fall our leaders and godfathers), and the rest just don't care.
In visa offices, immigration offices and embassies in Nigeria, we see thronging crowds of such people as the 65%, and the fever is palpable and the desire visible and at one glance, one can tell that once gone, these people would not fly over the airspace, not to talk of return to the shores of this country. But it is not them we are concerned about, not anymore. Volumes of pages have been written on this diasporan syndrome and I am not ready for mine to be classified in that degree. Rather, right now, I am concerned with the remaining 35%.
Like I intimated earlier, ogf this 35%, a certain degree does not care, (of this lot, abject poverty has beaten them to a level of submission where they are just about ignorant of the dates and time in which they even live), but some do so. Of those that are concerned about the diasporan movement, but do not want to relocate abroad, a number of factors come into play. What such factors are is constantly an issue for debate, but I will try to elucidate a few.
Some of these people, do not have the financial wherewithal to travel out of the country. It is the absence of these funds that makes them complacent to their ordeal and thus take up the mantle of self-righteousness and patriotism and claim a desire to remain in the country. But there exist a few, certain people who despite their ability to relocate if they will, choose to stay behind. And then we wonder, why do these Nigerians reject the diasporan trail?
Some would say it is patriotism and a desire to stay within their country, these are the liars. Another school of thought, one which I subscribe to, say they stay because of a sense of belonging and a sense of ownership. A sense of belonging to the a country and a constituent of the whole, and a sense of ownership of the country in that you constitute what without you will not be an existent whole.
And now again, we remember diaspora and the original concept behind it, and we ask ourselves, in a contemplation of the Diasporan trail and the Nigerian citizen, what is wrong and which is right; to travel or not to?
Still trying to analyse the connection between the Nigerian and the diaspora, we take a look at the Igbo people of the South-Eastern Nigeria. If I may digress a bit, years ago, the people of the East, like the Jews whom they claim as ancestors, moved also from their homelands to the outside. Now in present day Nigeria, it is typical to find an Igbo person in any geopolity, whether North or West. Within this very country, Igbo people, so long ago denied a country of theirs, Biafra, live in diaspora.
One might wonder, and I do so for I am a scientist, whether the longing or trend for the Igbo people to travel in search of greener pastures is due to the Jewish blood flowing in their veins; a macabre testament of their true ancestory or perhaps, it is the situation in which they have found themselves in this country that prompts them to move out.
A few weeks ago, before issues such as the SNC and 'derivation' started to clog ,our headlines, the menacing scourge of the Boko Haram and its prevalent effect on the Igbos was of maximum interest. And we wonder why it is that within their own nation, the Igbo people are so often threatened and oppressed? Is it that they have no land of their own? And what must be done to alleviate this fear and insecurity?
Still on the diasporan trail, a lesson should be taken from the old Jews and, closer to home, the Igbos. It is a common trend, and we have seen it often, that Igbos do not consider each other as haven 'arrived' until a house has been built in the village they come from. Whilst ignoring this as another 'proof' of Jewish ancestory, we recall that the old Jews took to the diaspora in search for milk and honey which they may transfer back to their people. Here in is the lesson, and it is a lesson to the 65% who have trudged up the diasporan trail and opted to remain there; Bring the resources and the milk and the honey back home. Do not consider yourself arrived until there is a 'house' in the Nation.
Arguably, the conditions in the country are relatively unfavourable, and indeed that is what prompted the diasporan spill in the first place. Nevertheless, reawaken the spirit of belonging and the spirit of ownership, and realise therefore the essence of the diasporan trail, and so find your way home.
A seasoned critic would read this article and poke a lot of holes saying; I write this because I am stuck in this nation and from a heart boiling over with jealousy, I have decided to slander. Maybe so, and I do not claim scientific viability of any of my theories, but in it all is truth. There is a purpose to the diasporan movement, and by now, I would have reminded you.
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