Instituted by the Federal Government of Nigeria, Diaspora Day is meant to recognize and appreciate Nigerians in the Diaspora for their outstanding contributions to National Development.
The Nigeria Diaspora Day celebration is marked with an interactive dialogue between Government Officials, Nigerian Professionals and industry experts in the Diaspora, in a national dialogue to discuss developmental challenges and solutions for growth sustainability in Nigeria. The Diaspora Day Conference is organized by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Office of Political Affairs – Nigeria.
Lilian O. Ajayi, Founder and Executive Director of Global Connections for Women Foundation (GC4W) joins other speakers on the “Sustainable Development through Youth Empowerment” panel at the Nigeria Diaspora Day conference. Lilian wrote her first feature story on The Huffington Post titled: “A Generational Change in Attitude Is Essential to driving Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda”
According to recent findings, there are 3.25 million Nigerians living in the United States today, of this number, there are over 115,000 Nigerian medical professionals, 174,000 IT professionals, 87,000 Pharmacists, 49,500 engineers and over 250,000 legal, financial , real estate and related business professionals. The findings also suggests that Nigerians in the US are among the highest compared to other Africa countries. A recent Washington Post article also suggests that per capital household income of Nigerians in the United States, and the median education level of Nigerians are both equal or slightly below the figure for Asian Americans.
It is therefore in celebration of these human resources, and gains of over 50 years of sojourning in the Diaspora that in 2005, the Federal Government of Nigeria declared that July 25th of each year will be the national celebration of THE NIGERIA DIASPORA DAY.
Additionally, Special guests and guest speakers of the Nigeria Diaspora Day conference include, The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI; Vice President of Federal Republic of Nigeria PROF. YEMI OSINBAJO (SAN); Nigeria Senate President SENATOR BUKOLA SARAKI; Speaker of Nigeria Federal House of Representatives RT. HONORABLE YAKUBU DOGARA; Permanent Secretary, Political Affairs MRS. IBUKUN ODUSOTE; LILIAN O. AJAYI Founder and Executive Director of the Global Connections for Women Foundation; UFOT EKONG Multi Award winning Nigerian Student who broke a 2 decade academic record; President of Nigerian Reunion Corporation (NRC) SEGUN ADEYINA; and other distinguished individuals.
Learn more about the 2015 Nigeria Diaspora Day conference on www.nigeriadiasporaday.org.
