Mr Ade Omole, Director, Directorate of Diaspora, All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council (PCC} says more than 1.6 million Nigerians with Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) are in the diaspora.
He said this on Monday in Abuja while speaking with newsmen at the party`s national secretariat.
Omole, who is also the leader APC United Kingdom, said registered Nigerian voters in the diaspora were willing to return to the country to cast their votes during the forthcoming general elections.
“We are all Nigerians, though we live outside the country, we have families in the country, we have sisters, brothers, fathers, mothers and our employees.
“Nigerians in the diaspora matter a great deal, not just because of the amount of money we remit to the country annually, which equal the amount from the sales of crude oil.
“But, because we are all stakeholders in the country and the electoral process, most Nigerians in the diaspora are registered voters,’’ Omole said.
He added that the directorate had gone into agreement with British Airways and Lufthansa Airline to offer rebate tickets to such Nigerians, irrespective of party affiliation to make travelling easy for them.
“From our last research, more than 1.6 million Nigerians with PVCs live outside Nigeria and would surely come back to the country to vote during the upcoming elections.
“This is probably more than the number of people in some states within the country, so Nigerians in the diaspora do matter.
” There are progressive Nigerians and supporters of Sen. Bola Tinubu, APC presidential candidate with PVCs, who will come back to the county to vote for him, “ Omole assured.
He added that even if the entire 1.6 million registered Nigerian voters in the diaspora do not return to the country to vote during the election, over one million of them would return.
Omole, who is also the Chairman, Nigeria Diaspora Voting Council, said though there was no law that currently permitted Nigerians in the Diaspora to vote from their countries of residence, a bill to that effect; the Nigeria Diaspora Voting Bill, was presently in the National Assembly.
“That bill went to as far as the third reading before it was eventually voted down at a joint meeting between the Senate and the House of Representatives,’’ Omole recalled.
He added that the directorate had been disecting the action plan of Tinubu for Nigerians to understand it better and had also put up a site, called; Teamtinubushettima.com.
Omole said the site had the profile of Tinubu and Shettima, his running mate, and all that Nigerians needed to know about them.
He said that the essence was to correct the erroneous narratives about Tinubu and Shettima that had been circulating in the social media, and provide answers to them.
Omole added: ”Knowing the importance of the international community in the affairs of nations, the APC PCC Diaspora Directorate had been meeting with officials of most countries and Nigeria`s international partners.
“Because we know how very important it is to have very positive feedback from the international community, we partner associations and foreign governments.
“We especially partner the United States and the United Kingdom, among other countries, because they do support us in several ways, security, being one of them.
“The diaspora the directorate has being meeting with officials of these countries to assure them that Tinubu, our principal, believes in democracy and its ethics,’’ Omole said.
He explained that the meetings were to ensure that the international community continued to extend hands of friendship to Tinubu, if he elected as the country`s next president.
Omole said the directorate had being mobilising Nigerians in the diaspora who were willing to travel down to the country to vote, to vote for Tinubu, saying that the feed backs had been great.
This, he said, was because of Tinubu`s action plan and his antecedents were not comparable to those of the other candidates.
“We call it action plan because it is a plan to take action over the affairs of the country; he knows what to do, because he has done it before as a former two-term Governor of Lagos State.
“He understands and feels the pulse of the nation, he is a detribalised Nigerian, he works his talk and he is ready to take tough decisions and do the right thing to take Nigeria to greater heights.
“Tinubu has done it before, and he has done it exceedingly well, he has the experience, integrity and character and that is why the feedback within and outside the country had been positive,’’ Omole said.
According to him, Tinubu is the only aspirant that had been talking to Nigerians with an ”organic crowd, wanting to listen to him anywhere he went to campaign.”
Source – NAN