The Chief Executive of the Nigeria Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri, has stressed that Nigeria cannot continue to pay lip service to diaspora voting, saying that they deserve to exercise their franchise as citizens.
Dabiri, who spoke on Newscentral’s TownHall Series in New York on Saturday, said the importance of diaspora voting cannot be overstated and called on the National Assembly to amend the constitution to make it happen.
“We all will have to lobby parliamentarians collectively. We’ll have to lobby the National Assembly because if they don’t make it happen, there’s nothing we can do.”
“It’s important that we work on lobbying the National Assembly. It’s important that we put the facts forward as to why it is now time for the Parliament to vote. And we, the Diaspora Commission, have written a memo to the Committee on Constitutional Review on the reasons why the diaspora should be able to vote.”
Dabiri added that there was no reason for Nigeria to be left behind on diaspora voting when over 100 countries, including African nations, have implemented it.