By John Ikani
At least, 1.5 million Nigerians in Italy cannot return home or get a job in the foreign country because they do not have Nigerian passports.
This was disclosed by Mr George Omo-Iduhon, Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe (NIDOE), Italy Chapter.
NIDOE is the European arm of a global Nigerian diaspora network, established in year 2000 by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
The diaspora organization has its headquarters in London, where it serves 21 regional chapters.
What NIDOE is saying
According to Omo-Iduhon, about three million registered Nigerians in Italy, 1.5 million are in need of passports, which had prevented them from returning home or getting jobs.
“The number of booklets allocated to the embassy in Italy, which is 500 is insignificant to the number of applicants; even giving Italy 20,000 booklets in a month may not go round.
“Using the same sharing formula for all the countries in Europe cannot work in Italy where we have more Nigerian residents. We cannot be compared with Sweden with fewer number of Nigerians,” he said.
The Chairman of the diaspora organization said members of NIDOE were “appealing to the relevant government agencies and our amiable Minister for Internal Affairs, Alhaji Rauf Aregbesola, to help us address this issue.”
NIDOE urged the federal government to “address this problem because Italy serves as the gateway to other countries in Europe,” especially for Nigerians.
More about NIDOE
NIDOE is recognised as official platform through which individual Nigerian in diaspora, their community, organisation and corporate bodies can channel their development efforts to Nigeria.
The organisation partners with Nigerian community, professional organisation as well as public and private businesses in focused areas such as Foreign Direct Investment, professional networking, stakeholders advocacy, medical missions, educational support and skill transfer to Nigeria.
