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| Abike Dabiri-Erewa and Rufai Oseni |
By Fred Chukwuelobe
Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman/CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), is a former broadcaster and former member of the House of Representatives.
She is known to have shown bigotry in the discharge of her duties and has often cast aspersions on some Igbo people who found themselves on the wrong side of the law overseas. She is not alone in this act of infamy.
But what brought us to this sorry pass was her recent outing in Lagos, during which she stridently tried to defend herself against popular Arise Television anchor Rufai Oseni.
The point of disagreement was a smiling emoji she posted on X in response to an insulting post by a social media user who described Igbo people as “monkeys.” Oseni took umbrage at Dabiri-Erewa for appearing to dignify such a stupid generalisation of an entire ethnic group.
At an event in Lagos organised to celebrate Kike Abati’s 20th anniversary in the media industry, Dabiri-Erewa attempted to defend herself, insisting that she was merely laughing at the post. She went further to insult journalists, declaring that the profession had “gone to the dogs.”
“And let me tell you, some journalism is going to the dogs. There’s no journalism anymore. There are no standards. There are no values.
“The journalists that we were trained [by] are going to the dogs. There must be values. There must be standards. And not everybody is a journalist, please. That profession is destroyed,” she lamented.
No, ma’am. It was you and your ilk who went to the dogs, barking uncontrollably at everything Igbo. By stereotyping Igbos you threw journalism to the dogs.
When you post a smiling emoji beneath an offensive post, what are you communicating? Depending on the context, it could mean mockery, approval, contempt or gloating. You may not have written the offensive words yourself, but your reaction can reasonably be interpreted as endorsing them.
Madam, by posting a smiling emoji beneath the ignorant woman’s post, you gave her a thumbs-up. You endorsed her insult against Igbo people, whether you care to admit it or not. And this demeans you and the office you occupy.
As for your diatribe against journalism, the profession upon which you built a career and which helped bring you to where you are today, you are right about one thing. Standards have taken a beating with the advent of social media. Everybody is now a journalist. Every day, you see all manner of people struggling to post, share and comment on matters they have little or no knowledge of. Abuses and misinformation have become commonplace.
But rather than criticise journalism and professional journalists, you ought to ask yourself what contribution you have made to the very rot you complain about. Your manner of stereotyping Igbo people, when you ought to show responsibility, only encourages people who see nothing wrong with insulting an entire ethnic group.
If you had chastised the woman and warned her against such crude generalisation, she and other emergency journalists might have learnt a lesson or two. If you had shown responsibility in your public utterances instead of tarrying with the habit of tarring Igbo people with one dirty brush, those who look up to you might have learnt how not to indulge in such idiocy.
As we say in Igbo, an elderly person cannot be in the house and watch as a goat on tether delivers.
My dear ma’am, journalism was not thrown to the dogs by those who called you out for your indiscretion. You threw it to the dogs by your reckless behaviour and your subsequent diatribe against the profession.
Your anger with Oseni is not because he was wrong in calling you out for your unprofessional behaviour; you’re angry at him for going against you when he ought to show solidarity with your bigotry.
It is never too late. Admit that you erred and change.
(c) Fred Chukwuelobe, fnipr
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