Between Abike Dabiri And Geoffrey Onyema

President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Adviser on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Matters, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, recently courted the ire of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyema.
Her offence? She always moves ahead of him in foreign affairs matters.  While the Foreign Affairs Minister was busy attending and addressing local and international conferences, frolicking and taking pictures here and there, Abike was issuing travel advisory to Nigerians who would travel to the United States of America, USA.
She had expressed deep concern at the plight of her fellow Nigerians who were turned back at the US border even with valid travel documents. Seeing how unpredictable the Donald Trump administration is, Abike advised that until the US government came up with a permanent  immigration policy, Nigerians who would like to travel to the States should think twice.
Rather than get commendations for a laudable act, the Special Adviser was vilified and called names such as ‘busybody’, while the Foreign Ministry was visibly angry. Till this? point, it is unclear who Onyema and his cohorts were out to please by their reactions.
A statement was quickly released by the office of the Minister castigating her severely and creating the impression that the US government was unhappy and disapproved of her travel advisory. But who really cares about this. Who does Onyema seek to please? Trump? Can Trump be pleased, anyway?
It is indeed shameful that a Foreign Affairs Minister is more concerned about doing the bidding of the US and keeping them happy than being honest with his own citizens, who suffered undue deprivation by a confused US authorities that failed to respect travel documents validly issued by their embassies.
Of recent, Nigerian travellers have been experiencing hell and tough times in many countries. Do we need an Abike Dabiri to tell this story to the hostile world out there? It is common knowledge that the Nigerian green passport has become an offense to many nations. Even in this, do we need an Abike to launder the image of our passport?
What has the Foreign Ministry done about the issues? In the past few weeks, Nigerians have been subjected to all manner of attacks. From xenophobic attacks in South Africa to mass executions in Libya or outright denial of entry into the US as well as the ongoing mass deportations. Yet, Onyema and his group failed to utter a word.
When Onyema managed to speak in response to the xenophobia in South Africa, it was a mere feeble statement which never reflected what he was doing to stop the attacks against Nigerians in the former apartheid enclave. If the Foreign Ministry truly cared about Nigerians and acted accordingly, the attacks would have ceased.
Nigerians will continue to be attacked by other countries because we have a Foreign Ministry that is permanently on vacation. When Trump signed his first executive order widely interpreted in some circles as potentially curtailing the tenure and cost of US visas for Nigerians, the Ministry kept mute even when Nigerians demanded a response.
A Nigerian student, Japheth Omojuwa, was detained recently along with a fellow Nigerian student in South Africa.  Omojuwa took to his twitter handle to alert the world. He did so not because he knew he would get attention from Onyema’s Foreign Ministry, but because with the kind of Foreign Affairs Ministry we have, every Nigerian might as well add foreign affairs to their laundry list of do-it-yourself.
At last, it was Abike, whom Onyema thinks wants to hijack his job, that rescued Omojuwa and his colleague. It is on record that whenever Nigerians in distress abroad cry out for help, Dabiri has always been the first person to respond and give succour.
Onyema has to keep his prodigious title aside and allow Nigerians to enjoy the services of those who are willing to work in our foreign affairs sector. Many Nigerians complain about the apathy they suffer in the hands of our foreign missions abroad. Since this is the treatment our people get from their government, why do we blame other countries that always put their citizens first?
At this time of grave uncertainty and rising wave of nationalism globally, an infighting between the Minister and the Special Adviser is absolutely unnecessary and unhelpful to Nigerians. It doesn’t make any sense to the average Nigerian who is overwhelmed with hunger and anger, looking for a means of survival. After all, does it matter who killed the snake? What is important is to get the job done.

Arnold Alalibo