Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chief executive officer of Nigerians in
Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), says citizens who fled South Africa
over xenophobic attacks will be empowered.
She gave this assurance on Wednesday when she received the first
batch of returnees at the tarmac of the Nigerian Aviation Handling
Company (NAHCO) in Lagos.
She told the returnees that besides stipends to help them get to
their destinations; for ease of communication, they will receive
SIM cards with N40,000 worth of airtime, plus 9GB of data valid for
two months, as well as soft loan from the Bank of Industry to
support those interested in small trade and businesses.
“There will be process of reintegration, most importantly like
Bank of Industry said there will be empowerment program, training
program for those who are interested and we’ve always had program
of reintegration for all of them, and also counselling,” she
said.
“We are going to get their data, phone numbers and we will
remain in touch with them. The commission will ensure we do that
and keep in touch with them and we can even form a WhatsApp
group.
“Thanks to President Buhari and Air Peace and everybody for
achieving this.”
She called on other Nigerians willing to return to join the next
flight made available by Air Peace.
Dabiri-Erewa also said though she is unhappy about the attacks
on Nigerians in South Africa, Nigeria will not break off
relationship with the country.
“We expect to even be stronger and closer but we are saying that
our people should not suffer and we can’t tolerate killings of
Nigerians anywhere in the world,” she said.
The Air Peace flight which was supposed to take off at 9:10am on
Wednesday was delayed for about seven hours, and this Dabiri-Erewa
blamed on South African immigration authorities who gave the
returnees a hard time.
She said some Nigerians were not allowed to board the aircraft
because they did not have proper documentation, but that the
Nigerian mission in South Africa will look into it.
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