By Steve Osuji
RAUCOUS LAUGHTER: It wasn’t one emoji. It wasn’t two; not even eight, but 18!
Abike Dabiri-Erewa tapped her screen 18 times on the famous laughter emoji. The one that signifies a happy, raucous laughter. The type of laughter that evokes tears and makes you roll over in utmost mirth.
Abike, a serving government official (Chairman, NiDCOM), tapped 18 times in a gleeful endorsement of a hate tweet on X.
NO NEED FOR LONG EXPLANATION: The facts of this matter are graphic and simple. They need little explanation or adumbration: A friend of Abike’s on X shared a post with her calling Igbos monkeys and gorillas and she found it extremely funny, so raucously funny🤣 that she encouraged it by endorsing it 18 times with images of joy and excitement. (See screenshot).
When people begin to endlessly explain something they have written in the English language, it becomes obvious they are lying and being smart by half.
The tweet is written in the collective sense, it never refers to an individual.
Here’s a verbatim quote of the tweet by Wale S. Akerele: “MY SISTER YOU ARE DOING WELL ALLOW THOSE MONKEYS TO CONTINUE TO MAKE UNNECESSARY NOISES THEY ARE BORN TO BE UNGRATEFUL PEOPLE. THOSE ANIMALS TAGGING YOU THEY ARE CHILDREN OF GORILLA HISTORY TOLD US ABOUT THEM. KUDOS TO YOU MADAM @abi…”
Does anyone need a tutorial on the meaning, intent and import of this tweet which Abike honoured with 18 LAUGHTER emojis?
Abike knows for sure that her vile friend is hereto, referring to Ndigbo as “those monkeys,” as “those animals,” as “children of gorilla.” Yoruba call this “arun oju,” meaning that the evidence is plain. It requires no long explanation!
She simply has horrid Igbo hate in her DNA; she has been getting away with it all these years. Her cup is about full this time!
If Abike was not partners in hate crime with such friends on X; if she didn’t have ingrained hate for Igbo people, she could have reprimanded the fellow who tweeted such despicable hate. Rather she encouraged it with hearty laughter.
By the way, how come you have such friends who would disparage other ethnic groups in such terms?
Show me your friends, it is said, and I will tell you who you are!
DOUBLING DOWN, NOT DELETING TWEET: A multitude of X users were aghast and protested as right thinking people. But Abike doubled down on her folly. She stood her ground. She hasn’t pulled the tweet down even as you read this.
Worse, since the 1st of September, she never bothered to offer her woolly explanations until this column called on her to resign a few days ago.
Abike didn’t only commit a hate crime, she was remorseless, putting up a “go to hell” attitude.
UNLEASHING YOUR HACKS ON THIS COLUMNIST WON’T HELP: No number of number of social media goons unleashed on this columnist will help the situation. She needs to eat the humble pie and apologise.
The matter is straight forward and no spurious explanation or personal attacks on this writer will hold water.
You have a dark heart towards Ndigbo and perhaps other ethnic groups in Nigeria. But you are a public servant bound by the constitution and Service rules. You swore an oath to be fair to all and serve without bias.
Most important, you draw your huge emoluments from the taxes paid by the same people you secretly hate and say vile things about. This is unacceptable.
Your hacks, in writing their tripe, tried to dredge up the professional tiff I had with the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE). Nothing comes sillier in this conversation than this.
Well, since you don’t understand the nuances of the Guild matter, let me educate you. I had a professional disagreement in which I contended that the body of editors should never suffer any form of muzzling or blanket black out during their biennial convention. It is about practice principles and has nothing to do with professional integrity.
Only true journalists understand my stance here and they upheld it. Even the Guild, upon further review of the matter, have determined that I was acting professionally and not out of malice or defiance.
Apparently Abike didn’t understand the full import of the situation. But then the true journalists in Nigeria know themselves and they also know the jeun, jeun journalists. In this great divide, we know where Abike belongs.
ABIKE MUST APOLOGISE OR RESIGN: The call still stands: This column insists Abike would have to apologise to IGBO and to NIGERIANS generally or resign honourably.
Of course, everyone knows you’re President Bola Tinubu’s ‘daughter’ and that you are probably playing his Igbo exclusion script and following in his anti-Igbo policies but we are not deterred in seeking justice.
We shall have to escalate this matter to the UN Human Rights bodies to adjudicate if you don’t do the right thing. We shall initiate a class action against you if we must…
Pray, how do you face thousands of Igbo Diasporans who you regard as monkeys and gorillas? How do you face them in your day-to-day engagements?
Isn’t it elementary to you that your position as a paid government official has become untenable?
If you had tried this idiocy in the UK or US for instance, you would have gone before dusk of the same day! You know too well that you would have made profuse apologies too!
#ABIKEMUSTGO
>> OSUJI was editor at The Guardian, THISDAY, etc.
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>> OSUJISTEVE/15.09.25
The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.
