THE Federal Government's focus on Nigerians living abroad is deepening as plans are being proposed by the National Population Commission (NPC), some Nigerian consulates abroad and the United States Census Bureau to establish an estimate of how many Nigerians are living outside the country.


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This might end the difficulty in arriving at an estimate of Nigerians abroad, especially those in North America and Europe once the scheme is completed.

Nigerian government sources reveal that the NPC after a visit to the U.S., earlier in the year, is now considering collaborating with some embassies and consulates of the Federal Government abroad to commence an official count and database of Nigerians in foreign countries.

Ambassador Ibrahim Auwalu, the Nigerian Consul General in New York, said yesterday that the NPC was indeed interested in working with the consulate on the issue, after the consulate recently launched a new Internet database of Nigerians in the U.S.

The Consul General stated that it was the objective of the consulate to embark on a "scientific pilot platform for an accurate census of Nigerians in Diaspora."

He said the consulate actually had the official endorsement of the NPC for the project and was also seeking the cooperation of the U.S. Census Bureau which possessed pertinent information about Nigerians in the U.S. Auwalu added that the outcome of all of this would "form the basis of Absentee voting for our compatriots here in the U.S."

Already, by a judgment of an Abuja Federal High Court, Nigerians abroad have been deemed eligible to vote in future elections and the National Assembly is now working with groups of Nigerians in foreign lands, especially those in the United States and Canada to pass a bill designed to give legislative teeth to the right of Nigerians abroad to vote.

The move by the NPC to also count the number of Nigerians abroad will broaden their increasing engagement in affairs and development of the country.

Specifically, both the NPC and the Nigerian Embassy Consulate in New York are known to have started consultations on how to collaborate on the count, after the NPC visited the America and discovered that the Nigerian Consulate in New York, with covering- jurisdiction for Nigerians in over 20 U.S. states have already commenced an electronic database for Nigerians in the area for the purposes of gathering personal, professional and other pertinent information about U.S.-based Nigerians.

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