Thanks for inviting me to comment and advise you on how you can profitably engage with this in far away Canada. I would say, Engage, but let that engagement be driven by the right level of intellection and strategic deconstruction and thence construction. So, get a dialogue and discourse around the topic going. Some possible areas for such a dialogue?
1. Defining and conceptualising diaspora, when/how and geographies, physical contours, colors, identities and spaces intersect and interact
2. Mobilization and participation as constructed terms – issues of choices, preferences, sensitisation and rediscovered and reaffirmed loyalties.
3. Current practices, returning river flows, direction and magnitude of flow, diaspora driven investment versus diaspora sourced investment, purposes of such flows and investments, emotions, rationality and tokenism in investment choices and resource attribution for maximum ROI, issues of optimality and effect on poverty
4. The case for selective targeting. Is the payer of the piper always best positioned to pick the tune? (Pardon the failed alliteration!)
5 Rebuilding Imo – the beauty, danger, utility and futility of buzzwords and fuzzwords! What does Imo need to develop? Nna anyi Onukogu’s words ring from history – Owerri wan well, Owerri wan water.
6. Closing the gaps and moving forward
Reflections 