Gov Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta has activated the state chapters for indigenes living in Some African and Asian countries to engage them in the policies and programmes of his administration.
Dr Favour Obakoro, the State Ambassador, Senior Special Assistant on Morals and Diaspora to the Governor, disclosed this at a press conference on Tuesday in Asaba.
Obakoro said that opening the state chapters in Ghana, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Qatar and Malaysia has offered veritable platforms for the Gov. Oborevwori led government to related with her indigenes in the diaspora.
She said that the governor won two awards including a 24 karate Gold souvenir from Government of Malaysia for creating a platform to enable a robust partnership between Delta and Malaysia.
According to her, the successes recorded in the five countries with the state’s presence would spur her to go extra miles reaching out to Delta indigenes in the United Kingdom, U.S.A.; Italy, Spain, Canada and others.
Obakoro, who lauded Gov. Oborevwori for her appointment, said that Nigerians in diaspora had negative perception of what life was like in the country given the account of what they read online particularly on the social media.
She said that it was wrong for any body to focus on internet or social media report which were not in conformity with the reality to judge the state or the country.
Obakoro berated the social media for its negative reports that had heightened stigmatisation and discrimination but urged them to focus on Nigeria’s rich culture, policies and programmes which were potential for development instead.
According to Obakoro, most countries who stigmatised Nigerians have began to have a change and positive development towards them due to a sustained sensitisation and reorientation of what Delta and Nigeria truly represented.
“Moving around the countries to sell Delta and Nigeria has enabled the creation of the state chapters and enabled us educate our people on the M.O.R.E. Agenda of the Gov. Oborevwori’s adminstration which offers opportunity for all indigenes of Delta, home and abroad.
“We met with prominent people in the countries that we visited, they received us, listened to our stories and that has help to reverse the negative belief that they had about our state and the country.
“Our focus is on Deltans living abroad and in all the countries we visited, we created a state chapter and we encouraged them to come back home and invest and that they do not have to pay to see the governor to get a land or start a business.
“We had a lot of challenges because Nigerians are being stigmatised and trafficked and dehumanised for the wrong reason being that people believed most of the negative reports they read online about us.
“I, therefore, call on social media and media practitioners to be cautious of what they publish because whatever you put out there is impacting directly on Nigerians in diaspora and will also impact you.”
Obakoro also urged Nigerians to embrace decency whether home or abroad to bring out the best in them, be morally upright and eschew corrupt tendencies.
” I rewrote my story and it inspired the countries we visited, and Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori found the new me and engaged me as a brand ambassador for the state.
“As we speak, I won an award as an Official Brand Ambassador of Africa to Malaysia.
“Gov. Oborevwori also won two awards including a 24 karate Gold souvenir from Government of Malaysia
for sending a delegate to care for the state indigenes and for creating a state chapter in Malaysia to enable them work as partners,” she said.
Obakoro said that consequent to her campaign visits abroad, certain investors from Ghana, India and Malaysia had concluded arrangement to invest in the state infrastructure, oil and gas this year(NAN)
