2023: Diaspora Nigerians may vote, as Reps mull re-introduction of voting bill

Ahead of the 2023 elections, the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora has pledged to reintroduce the Diaspora Voting Bill, to accommodate Nigerians living abroad.

This was made known by Rep. Tolulope Shadipe, the committee’s chair, when Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the chairman and CEO of the Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), came before the committee.

Dabiri-Erewa was in Abuja on Thursday to defend the commission’s 2023 budget, and its performance in the 2022 budget.

“We are going to reintroduce the diaspora voting bill which was rejected at the constitution amendment exercise,” the Chairman noted.

The diaspora voting bill would be approved this time, according to Shadipe, because it is the direction the world is moving in and Nigeria must not fall behind.

“We will be back with the bill, they are Nigerians and they have the right to vote in Nigerian elections.

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“The modalities and the issues raised the last time will be resolved and we will come back to it,” she said.

She added that the committee was also examining the question of people of Nigerian ancestry who were not now Nigerian citizens but desired to do so after DNA tests revealed they had ties to Nigeria.
Diaspora voting was dropped in March when the House of Representatives rejected a bill during the constitutional amendment.

In her statement, Dabiri-Erewa encouraged Nigerians to refrain from emigrating to other nations if they did not have jobs there.

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