South African politicians tell citizens that Nigerians are taking their women – Dabiri

Abike Dabiri-Erewa, senior special assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on foreign relations and diaspora, says South African politicians fuel xenophobic attacks by telling citizens that foreigners, including Nigerians, are taking their jobs.

Dabiri-Erewa admitted that there were foreigners who commit crime in South Africa, and they can be dealt with, but not by discriminating against Nigerians or any other race or country on or off the continent.

Speaking on The Osasu Show, Dabiri-Erewa said the xenophobic attacks in South Africa is driven by hate speech and misinformation.

“There are people who commit crime in South Africa, such people are in any country. If South Africa is fighting crime; let it fight crime, not fight brothers and sisters, who are legitimately working in South Africa,” she said.

“Don’t forget that these attacks happened in the past. This is the seventh attack. The last one was in 2015… the king of Zulu made some remarks that were inciting, that led to the last attack.

“This particular one, let’s look at the circumstances. Fine, there are economic issues everywhere in the world. Politicians are campaigning and telling their people, ‘you know what, drive these criminals away, they are taking your jobs, and they are taking your women too’.

“They don’t say that openly, but there is this thing about it; even the women are not looking at us.”

She said “it is a wrong message and there has to be education, awareness, that it is not these immigrants that are taking your jobs. Look at the jobs they are doing; vulcanisers, mechanics, barbers, these are middle income jobs”.

Dabiri-Erewa advised South Africa companies operating in Nigeria to do more to educate South Africans on the need to stop xenophobia.

“Nigeria must help South Africa to be more decisive, for instance, the only time the minister called this meeting in South Africa was after the MTN reprisal attacks here,” she said.

“Lately, multinationals here; Shoprite, MTN, DStv, also make conscious attempt to try and educate their  citizens. Imagine MTN sending text messages to everyone in South Africa, saying Xenophobia is bad, don’t do this and that.

“They should embark on some corporate social responsibility. Those multinationals should get up and do something. DStv should be doing various jingles on why xenophobia is bad, they should take over the awareness campaign.”

FG evacuates 41 Nigerian girls from Mali

The Federal Government on Tuesday evacuated 41 Nigerian girls from Bamako, Mali, through the Ministry of Defence, the Nigerian Air Force, Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons.

The 41 girls, according to the government, are victims of human trafficking to Europe but ended up in Mali.

They arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport , Lagos aboard a Hercules C-130 military transport aircraft at about 7. 55pm.

The Senior Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said the girls were trapped in Mali.

She said NAF was asked to bring them back after the government received a distress call to help evacuate the girls.

Dabiri-Erewa said their return home was part of the directives from President Muhammadu Buhari, who insisted that Nigerians stranded anywhere in the world, should be assisted to return home .

She said many Nigerians were still stranded in Mali and would be brought back home and urged the girls to make the best use of their lives as they had no business living in Mali.

According to Dabiri-Erewa, prior to their evacuation, NAPTIP officials had travelled to Mali for documentation and other logistics to ease the return of the girls.

She said, “NAPTIP will rehabilitate them and we have commenced profiling of the girls. We call on Non-Governmental Organisations to join us in tackling this problem.

“They were deceived into embarking on the journey. We will ensure we train them to the state of proficiency in different vocations, after which we trace their parents and counsel them.”

She said many of the girls came back with stories of woes, adding that they were evacuated alongside six suspected traffickers.

“We have arrested six suspects and have handed them over to security agencies for prosecution,” she added.

Some of the girls complained of not being allowed to take their belongings as they were literally brought home empty handed.

Opposition politicians are the ones inciting South Africans against Nigerians – Abike Dabiri

Abike Dabiri, the Senior Special Assistant on Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora to the Presidency in an interview has revealed that the opposition politicians are the ones inciting the people in South Africa against foreigners.

In her interview this morning on national TV, She said; “Opposition politicians are inciting the people in South Africa, telling them what they want to hear”.

She also said; “Xenophobia is not just a Nigerian thing, it’s an African thing”.

She further went on to challenge the South African Government to call the opposition to order, saying “It is important to embark on some awareness Education programmes to South Africans carrying out Xenophobic attacks”.

“This is about Africa killing Africans, Africa hating Africans, its not a Nigerian thing and the South African Government need to face the reality that opposition politicians are inciting the people. We have written to the African Union, it goes beyond just talking about it, AU must table this as a critical discussion. Africans need to be protected within Africa.”, she said.

Recall that this is not the first time Xenophobic attacks have been unleashed on foreigners especially Nigerians in South Africa.

“Not everybody that was affected the last time has been compensated. South Africa need to go down to the basics and educate the people. This administration wants to ensure that every Nigerian who calls for distress is sorted out”, Abike concluded.

Issuance Of Passport In Canada, Best So Far – Dabiri-Erewa

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has said the issuance of Nigerian passport in Canada is stress-free.

Dabiri-Erewa dismissed an old CBC video circulating on social media creating an impression that Nigerians in Canada go through hell in securing a new Nigerian Passport.

According to her: “This is not true.”

Dabiri-Erewa explained further: “The video in circulation was broadcast on CBC in 2013 and the High Commissioner to Canada, the late Ambassador Ojo Maduekwe diligently dealt with the issue then to strengthen the structure of the Passport Section of the Nigeria High Commission, in Ottawa at the time to make it possible to obtain passports in less than a day in Ottawa,

“The lady who was at the helm of affairs in Immigration section at the time was asked to leave Ottawa.

“Not only that, the High Commissioner at that time the late Ojo Maduekwe granted interviews to put into perspective what happened and promised Nigerians then that it would never happen again. And it never did.

“It must be pointed out here that up till today applicants can obtain their passports in two hours at the Nigerian high commission in Ottawa This is verifiable from Nigerians in Canada.

“It is really uncharitable and worrisome that the video in question was posted on a day late Ambassador Madueke was being buried and honored as a worthy leader and Statesman. I appeal to all Nigerians to disregard the video.”

While noting and admitting that some embassies must step up their attitude in dealing with issues relating to Nigerians in their host counties, Dabiri-Erewa said President Muhammadu Buhari’s Administration is determined to ensure that the rights and welfare of Nigerians whether at home or in the Diaspora remain major priorities of this administration.

2015: My Decision To Step Down Was A Hard One Says Hon. Abike

A federal lawmaker, Rep. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, on Sunday said she decided not to return to the House of Representatives in 2015 to give others the chance to contest.

Dabiri-Erewa, an APC member, who presently represents Ikorodu Federal Constituency, spoke with newsmen in Ikorodu, Lagos.
She was among delegates who voted at the APC primary election for the House of Representatives in Ikorodu.
The legislator said she would, however, continue to work for the party’s success as she was among the founding members in the South-West.
“The decision was a hard one, but I took the decision to allow others come in to gain experience and also to allow true democracy prevail.
“The constitution allows us to contest as many times as we want but having run for three times, we should give another person the chance to run and gather experience,” she said.
On the APC primaries for federal constituencies, she said that she hoped the best candidates would emerge.
She said that the peaceful nature of the primaries showed that APC would be the party to beat in 2015.
“I have the belief that APC will triumph at the forthcoming 2015 general elections to enable Nigerians experience the desired change.
“I’m not only being optimistic at winning in Lagos State but also sure that APC will triumph at the federal level,” Dabiri-Erewa said.
She urged Nigerians to go out and vote for candidates of their choice.

Source – Daily Times