By Abdur-Rahman Balogun
Ike Abonyi in his recent write up attempted to hang a false garb of ethnic bigotry on Abike Dabiri-Erewa. His article may have been cloaked with fine sounding arguments but it was built on a foundation of falsehoods and half-truths. It is important to set the records straight.
Abonyi leaned on the now tired claim that Mrs Dabiri-Erewa referred to Igbos as monkeys. Nothing can be further from the truth. The facts are clear. An anonymous X handle called @VoiceofIgbo had for months hurled insults at her including a post calling her Mother Ape. Another user replied the users derogatory words , by telling the user that he or she must come from the family of gorillas Dabiri-Erewa ( who the user had described as “ mother ape”responded with smiling emojis. Mischief makers then twisted the whole scenario That is the whole story. It is therefore disingenuous to say she called Igbos monkeys. How could a woman so exposed, so cosmopolitan and so polished do such?
Abonyi also revived the Sudan evacuation saga and repeated claims from a pressure group that were already debunked. At the height of that crisis Mrs Dabiri-Erewa and NiDCOM worked round the clock to get Nigerians out. Many of those evacuated were from the South East. If she harboured the alleged hatred she would have looked away. Instead she ensured Nigerian students and families returned home safely. As the Sudanese war raged she said clearly “Every Nigerian is our responsibility regardless of state or tribe. No life is more important than another.” That is the spirit that guided the evacuation.
On Nigerians facing trial in Indonesia she was accused of stigmatising the South East. Let’s go into history, the delegation to visit Nigerians in Indonesia Prison was led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb Ojo Maduekwe. Hon Abike was a member of the House then. It was an emotional moment as they were face to face with young Nigerians on death row, Amb Madueke addressed a press conference in Nigeria in which he spoke about his intervention and revealed that 20 out of 21 are from one state and 4 have been executed.
As Chairman Nidcom years later Hon Abike Dabiri Erewa has not forgotten them. She is still advocating and pleading that the remaining ones should not be executed Leadership demands that we confront reality no matter how hard. As she once explained in another case “When we know the truth we can begin to find solutions. Pretending that problems do not exist will not save our young people from crime or exploitation.”
Abonyi further ignored Mrs Dabiri-Erewa’s interventions in Ghana when Nigerian traders faced harassment. She engaged Ghanaian authorities repeatedly to secure relief for hundreds of traders the majority of whom were Igbos. In her words during one of those interventions “An attack on any Nigerian is an attack on all of us. The Nigerian identity does not stop at tribe.” She never discriminated. She stood for them as Nigerians and defended their rights to earn a living.
In fact, the Nigerian Union of Traders Association in Ghana (NUTAG) issued a public statement in 2020 thanking her for “standing boldly for Nigerian traders, many of whom are of Igbo origin, at a time when our livelihoods were under threat.” During the xenophobic attacks in South Africa in 2019, she pushed for evacuation and compensation, earning praise from the Nigerian Students Union in Johannesburg who described her as “a mother who refused to abandon her children in a time of trouble.” These are not the actions of an ethnic bigot but of a national figure who sees all Nigerians as one.
To then turn around and attempt to paint her as an ethnic bigot is unfair and malicious. For decades Mrs Dabiri-Erewa has been a bridge builder. She is respected across regions for her consistency in speaking for Nigerians in the diaspora. From Ukraine to Libya to South Africa to Sudan her interventions cut across ethnic and religious lines. As former President Muhammadu Buhari once noted “She has been relentless in ensuring that Nigerians abroad are treated with dignity and that their country stands with them.”
Abonyi’s narrative is dangerous because it feeds into the toxic habit of reducing every disagreement or misstep to tribal warfare. Nigeria is already fragile. What we need are voices that calm waters not voices that manufacture hate figures. A woman with a track record of over forty years in public service cannot suddenly be reduced to a tribal jingoist because of a twisted social media episode.
Mrs Dabiri-Erewa’s reputation is secure. Nigerians know her for her work not for the caricature created by those determined to tarnish her. It is high time we called out these orchestrated campaigns for what they are. Social media mobs thrive on half-truths and commentators like Abonyi give them oxygen when they dress falsehood as analysis.
Abike Dabiri-Erewa has achieved what many before her could not. She has consistently defended Nigerians abroad and raised the profile of diaspora engagement. That record speaks louder than any concocted tale of ethnic hatred. As the Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council once remarked after her intervention in Ghana “We may disagree with government policies but we cannot ignore the fact that Mrs Dabiri-Erewa has stood up for Igbo traders time and again. She has shown empathy and courage when it mattered most.”
And what about Libya, Ukraine, Ghana, Bosnia-Herzegovina, where two young men; (Abia Alexandro Uchenna and Eboh Kenneth Chinedu) were rescued home by Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa.
Social media mobs and uninformed, mischievous commentators must stop tearing down its achievers with false labels. To continue on that path is to wound ourselves as a nation.
E-signed
Abdur-Rahman Balogun
Director of Media, Public Relations and Protocols, NIDCOM, Abuja.
Sept. 11, 2025.
