The federal government has hinted that it is putting premium on the 2015 Diaspora Day because President Muhammadu Buhari intends to leverage on the expertise of Nigerian professionals living abroad in prosecuting the ongoing war against corruption.

The president will tomorrow declare open the 2015 Diaspora Day/ Conference which will take place at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The permanent secretary in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mrs. Ibukun Odusote, who disclosed this, also noted that the targets set for the conference were clearly defined in such a manner that would support and enhance the change agenda of the president.

She said that while Buhari is doing a good job on the anti-corruption war, the president needs God’s wisdom to be able to approach issues of Nigeria because the country is a colossus that has so many sides to it.

On how Buhari is intending to engage Nigerians in the Diaspora in the anti-corruption war, she said, “The idea is to leverage on their expertise and experience out there, which means that as we are having this conference, some of them are experts being called all over the world to give their lead presentations on corruption.

“They have successfully helped some other economies to get themselves out of corruption, and they are Nigerians. So, we have an expert in that field that will be coming to Nigeria to speak in that area at the conference. We want to leverage on their expertise”.

According to the permanent secretary, the Diaspora Day was set aside by the government to celebrate Nigerians living abroad since it had been observed over the years that quite a number of Nigerians are contributing immensely to the economies out there.

Odusote said, “You can find a lot of them, specialists and experts in their various fields, making names for themselves and for Nigeria. We want to get an advantage of their experience out there in their global assignment.

“Number two is that we want to lure them into coming back to Nigeria and contribute to national development. Thirdly, we want them to contribute to the economic development of Nigeria even while they are out there.

“We want them to invest in Nigeria; we want them to attract investment in Nigeria that can bring expansion in the change agenda of Mr. President”.

Another idea of the Diaspora Conference, Mrs Odusote said, was to ensure proper documentation of the many Nigerians out there that are not even documented anywhere, yet they are there.

She said, “We are talking about those that should be documented legally in their positions and they are making waves. They are doing things that are unique in all their endeavours and exploits. They have IQs that are unparalleled even by the nationals of the countries where they are.

“So, the overall objective is that we have a direct relationship with them. We know who they are, we know where they are, we know how they are faring and then we take care of their welfare to be sure that they are not maltreated where they are.”

“We would want to also impress on them that they too will obey the rules of the countries where they are. Essentially that is what this conference is all about”.

She added that tomorrow’s conference will have a key participant, a young Nigerian student, Mr. Ufot Ekong, who provided answers to an unsolved Mathematics equation of 30 years.