Is Abike Dabiri Nigeria’s Dark Knight?

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Is Abike Dabiri Nigeria's Dark Knight?
Is Abike Dabiri Nigeria's Dark Knight?

The recent unrest currently taking place in Sudan, which began in the middle of April due to a power struggle between the two main factions of the country’s military regime has sparked major unrest all over the Nigeria Twitter space between Nigerians and Abike Kafayat Dabiri with both camps not willing to quell down just as the unrest in Sudan has not reached a peaceable solution.

Abike Dabiri, a Nigerian politician and Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, has born the brunt of Nigerians on several occasions regarding matters of Nigerians in Diaspora, the recent being the evacuation of students in Sudan which is currently in turmoil.

Most of the complaints have been about her way of speaking about matters concerning Nigerians, which they claim to be ‘undiplomatic’. Although matters like this are usually handled by the Minister of foreign affairs, the post is currently held by H. E. Geoffery Onyeama, who was appointed Minister by President Muhammadu Buhari in August 2019 but Nigerians have always seen Abike Dabiri rise as its dark knight concerning matters of Nigerians in Diaspora. This may be because many Nigerians on Twitter have raised questions on where the minister of foreign affairs is.

The relationship between Nigerians and the wonder woman Dabiri has spanned over several cases involving Nigerians in the diaspora. It all began when the renowned politician tweeted at the beginning of the civil unrest, that it was not possible to evacuate Nigeria students trapped in the middle of Sudan unrest of which she shared a screenshot of an article by CNN, which Canada told its citizens “Sudan evacuations not possible at this time”, which didnt go down well with many Nigerians as to why Nigeria could not evacuate its citizens, who are trapped over 2000km away despite the heavy resources made available during the presidential elections.

A Nigerian even tweeted saying “Where is our own Nigerian air that Buhari spent millions to flag off” when pictures of Uganda, another african country evacuated all its citizens using its country’s airline Ugandan Airlines.

Although Allen Onyema, CEO of Air Peace, had offered to evacuate Nigerians using his own airline company reports, however, revealed that Sudan airspace was currently not safe for flights like that. However, a solution arose through Nigeria’s Dark Knight, Abike Dabiri, who shared reports that Nigeria was working on evacuating its citizens, to which she tweeted a receipt of N150m being paid by NEMA for the evacuations of Nigerians by ‘buses’. However, some Nigerians are not pleased which resulted in many shots being fired through various tweets to Dabiri, which the renowned politician did not take lying down.

The exchange between both camp climaxed when the principal secretary for the Department for Diaspora Affairs of Kenya, Roseline Njogu rendered in a series of tweets informative updates on the evacuation process being deployed by the government, the evacuations of Kenyans trapped in Sudan, to which many Nigerians applauded and many tweeted “come and see your mate”. Although, some Nigerians have several times and even recently applauded Abike’s efforts in similar cases like this which according to Twitter user @araola_11, she has done in South Africa, Kenya, Benin Republic and even in Libya, while sharing pictures to prove.

This is however not enough for some Nigerians and they believe the commissioner should employ a ‘diplomatic approach’ in addressing Nigerians concerning diaspora matters as they believe, she is not portraying Nigerians in good light when she’s name-calling and usin ‘derogatory’ words in her tweets which usually set off a series of exchange of words before solutions are provided.

Abike Dabiri, who was a journalist before she rose to the prominent position that she is currently in, has been praised by many as a mother and a woman with versatile skills especially the role she played in the election campaign of APC presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu, of whom she sees as her mentor, which on the other hand does not please some Nigerians especially “obidents” due to how the recent 2023 presidential elections went.

However, it must be noted that this has not in any way hindered Abike Dabiri from supplying her skills to providing help to Nigerians in Diaspora while many Nigerians are still wondering where our supreme Minister for Foreign Affairs.