Abstract
In the era of globalization, the importance of political economy as a theoretical application to issues such as diaspora intervention becomes germane. Politics, it is argued is a function of economic needs of states and the international political economy since the early 1990s has become more linked and impacted by local occurrences in states. The diaspora of different states have become involved in the politics of contribution to homeland and place of residence albeit with transnational implications of movements and activities. Political economy emphasizes the interrelatedness between politics and economics. Importantly in Nigeria, emerging new grounds of democratic reordering brought the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo who identified the need to tap into the growing resource base of the Nigerian Diaspora. In a bid to achieve this, the government went all out with projects, proposals and policies to encourage the Nigerian Diaspora to participate in development. In the era of globalization, the porosity of state, state sovereignty and state survival cum development hinge on interventions beyond the borders of the state. In the global economy of today, accesses to knowledge and to those who possess such knowledge serve as an ingredient to national economic development. International political economy is the relationship between political and economic changes and their impact on global and domestic political, market, and production activities. This paper identifies the economic consequence of the politics of Diaspora relations consequent upon the new favourable policies of the Obasanjo administration (targeted at Diaspora intervention) and further introduction of the globalization advantages viz; telephones, the internet, and other electronic activities. The paper posits that these interventions have contributed to national development.
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