Abike Dabiri: Proving Her Mettle

Nigerian women home and abroad are undoubtedly cheering their own, urging stumped teenage girls to look up to the personage of diaspora affairs, and might have even taken to naming a child or two after her. Abike Dabiri is her name, and she wears the competence of a thousand men as her cape, with a reputation that has taken to the skies.

When Abike Dabiri-Erewa (full name Abike Kafayat Oluwatoyin Dabiri-Erewa) was appointed in 2015 as the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, she was expected to juice up that division of transnational liaison with the same élan vital with which she had retained her position as the Chair of the House Committee on Diaspora Affairs since 2003. Typical of any other woman of high wit and wisdom, she exceeded all expectations.

The ageless peregrine falcon has in recent times announced her presence in the social and political scene with a rallying success. The most recent of this is the disclosure she made on the release of Omolola Ajayi – who was trafficked to Lebanon under the curious guise that she was going to teach English language. Miss. Ajayi and others like her are almost certainly grateful for the intervention and quick work of Madam Dabiri-Erewa.

Never one to jostle for rights and privilege, Madam Dabiri-Erewa’s career path has taken her across notable personalities and industries, notably the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) where she anchored the weekly newsline programme. She distinguished herself by single-mindedly tacking matters relating to impoverishment and social justice. After 15 years, she decided politics was a handier contrivance for change, and tried for the House of Rep – a landslide win for her.

Madam Dabiri-Erewa has been credited with several passed bills, including one of noble intentions which ensures that Nigerians with physical disabilities are fully integrated into the society and economy and protected from discrimination.

Protector of the disabled, voice of the impoverished, and a leader of boundless capacity, Abire Dabiri-Erewa has proved her mettle and inspired Nigerian folks, old and young, male and female, to take an interest in the affairs of the society and state.