The political economy of forced economic migration in Nigeria: prospects and challenges in the new millennium

The post-colonial experience of Nigeria has been marked by missed opportunities, truncated development and frustrated hope. The failure of governance manifests in poor socio-economic performance, causing suffering and unfulfilled expectations as well as facilitated insurgency, conflicts and political instability. The involvement of multilateral development agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in the management of the nation's economy further aggravated the development challenges. These conditions have led to massive migration of trained professionals like doctors, nurses, engineers and academics to developed countries in Europe and North America and increasingly to emerging countries in Asia and Latin America, a situation conceptualized in this paper as forced economic migration. Contrary to the prevailing notion that the migration of skilled professionals is voluntary and good for the sending countries in terms of brain gain, brain circulation and remittances, the sending countries lose more as they are deprived of the expertise and services of these migrants, which is critically important for their development. The paper concludes that Nigeria must re-orient her development strategies toward ensuring that the conditions that necessitated the forced economic migration of professionals are mitigated such that when people migrate, it will be done on a voluntary basis. Also, in view of the current reality that substantial numbers of Nigerians now work as professionals outside the country, deliberate efforts must be made by the government to creatively engage this Diaspora population toward achieving the much needed development goals. Reprinted by permission