By Adekunle Sulaimon
The Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri, has expressed her displeasure with the broadcasters and presenters of Arise Television over the comment made on Nigerian YouTuber Emdee Tiamiyu’s interview with British Broadcasting Corporation that assumingly corroborated the ban of Nigerian students from bringing their dependants to the United Kingdom.
In a recorded video posted by a Tweep, Arewa Daddy, an Arise TV anchor, Ayo Mairo-Ese, had berated the President, Major General Muhammad Buhari (retd.), on a Morning show, for telling the UK government that Nigerian youths are lazy and criminally minded adding that Dabiri also called the youths drug dealers and cultists.
“I don’t know why Nigerians like to demarket Nigerians on the International scene. Take it back to 2016, our president had referred to Nigerian youths as largely lazy. And that United Kingdom should not grant them asylum because many of them are criminals.
“The chairman of NiDCOM, Dabiri also referred to Nigerian people as cultists and drug dealers.
“So what Emdee Tiamiyu has said is in accordance with what our leaders are saying,” she added while speaking to Tiamiyu’s interview.
Irked by her remark, Dabiri took to her Twitter page debunking the claims made by the presenter while calling for the orientation of the presenters (girls) of the television station.
“I worked hard to be where I am today, and if women nowhere your age and achievements feel the only way to bring you down is spew nonsense, they will meet their Waterloo!
“Nduka Obaigbena had better call these girls @ARISEtv ruining the broadcast profession to order,” she wrote.
The PUNCH had reported that Tiamiyu granted an interview to the BBC where he claimed that Nigerians seeking admission into schools in the United Kingdom only considered it as an alternative means to escape from Nigeria.
Tiamiyu, who is known for advising Nigerians on studying in the United Kingdom noted that most Nigerians were not looking for new qualifications, but to start a new life abroad.
He said, “The student route is more like an answered prayer. It is a big bracket that’s able to take a lot of people, the ordinary people.
“We’re beginning to see that a lot of people just hide behind the studentship. So the student thing is not real, it’s not like they need the degrees,” he added.