By Fred Chukwuelobe
SHE started off as a television reporter and we all watched her incisive reports of news, current affairs, and analyses. Then she found favour with the electorate in Ikorodu, Lagos who sent her to the House of Representatives where she became chairman of House Committee on Media and Publicity. She was also the former Chairperson of the House Committee on Diaspora Affairs, and was elected for the first time in 2003, and re-elected in 2007 and 2011.
In 2015, she was appointed as the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora. In November 2018, Dabiri-Erewa was given a new role of Chairman/CEO of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM). She is by all accounts well educated, well traveled, and was supposed to be well exposed too.
But, she is not. In her you find the truism that “a leopard cannot shed its spots.” Abike is true and true an unrepentant and unpretentious tribal bigot. She makes no pretences about that. She is not alone. So many of such people are found in all tribes in this beleaguered country. I used to think that when people attain certain heights, they become measured and diplomatic in how they respond to issues, especially ones that cast aspersions on a people.
Over the course of doing her job, which to me is an unnecessary duplication of the functions of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mrs. Dabiri, OFR, is known to have tarred all Igbos with one dirty brush. If she is not talking about 90 percent of people on death row in Malaysia being from one Igbo state, she is making comments that prove she has Igbophobia like many of them.
The lowest is the tweet on X recently made by one Wale Akere who posted via @akerele_s. The bigot lavishly praised his tribeswoman for rescuing one Mercy trafficked to Libya. The bigot berated Igbos for being ungrateful and described them as “monkeys, children of gorrillas and busyards.” Continuing, the bigot said, “My sister you are doing well allow those monkeys to continue to make unnecessary noises they are born to be ungrateful people. Those animals tagging you they are children of gorilla history told us about them.”
Very interesting! History told them about Igbos? Wonderful! I thought the use of that derogatory language of Africans being called “monkeys and gorillas” was restricted to racists? I never knew a blacK person will ever call his fellow African those names, and that a federal appointee would regale such idiocy with laughter emojis. Abike did, and it’s been trending.
Now, don’t get me wrong; I will never defend any criminal because he or she is Igbo. There are many bad Igbo people. There are equally many bad Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani, Tiv, etc, people. Like I keep saying, a people are not bad; only individuals are. Maybe that is one point the racists and bigots of our world have refused to accept.
It is unfortunate that, in the year of our Lord 2025, many people, particularly those in authourity, have refused to shed their tonga of tribal and ethnic prejudices. It is obvious that, no matter how educated and exposed some of us are, our hatred of a people will always remain with us until we leave this planet earth.
When this fellow, who may be a street urchin or one lousy fellow made that post, I expected Abike to either delete it or ignore the message if she cannot call the poster out. She didn’t. Instead, she amplified it with several laughter emojis, meaning she found the vile comments interesting. She amplified the derogatory X post that referred to Igbos, Nigerian citizens of South-East extraction, as “monkeys and gorillas.”
It would be recalled that she had earlier posted a video of a trafficked girl she identified as Mercy, who was rescued from Libya last Monday. In reaction to Mrs Dabiri-Erewa’s post, an X user, Wale Akere, posting via @akerele_s, lauded the NIDCOM boss for her work while berating Igbos as “monkeys, children of gorillas and bustards.” “My sister you are doing well allow (sic) those monkeys to continue to make unnecessary noises they (sic) are born to be ungrateful people. Those animals tagging you they (sic) are children of gorilla (sic) history told us about
them. Kudos to you madam @abikedabiri.
On Mrs Dabiri-Erewa’s timeline, the post was viewed within few minutes by over 15,000 people, gathering more than 53 reposts and over 100 comments. Some X users berated Mrs Dabiri-Erewa for amplifying a derogatory post calling Igbos “monkeys,” and said such comments further deepened divisive ethnic and tribal tensions in the country, especially between the Igbo and the Yoruba peoples.
I am yet to hear or read that Abike has walked back on the offensive comment or her seemingly patronizing emojis. She may not because that is one of the surest ways of walking up the political ladder in the country and staying there.
For this and many other untoward behaviour she has exhibited towards a people of the same country, I hereby suggest that she be awarded the ‘Lowest Bigotry Award.’
Let it be known that such people who encourage and promote such hate speeches are the reason why there’s so much hatred among our two peoples. It is getting worse by the day and as we approach the 2027 general elections.
If there is a breakdown of law and order and Nigeria walks the way to Kigali, Rwanda, let it be known that this was one of the footsteps bigots put forward which fastened our walk to that road of infamy.
