NIDO Europe And The Dangers Of Institutional Amnesia

By Moradeke Kolawole

The recently published article by Cyriacus Nnaji, titled “NIDOE Diaspora Day Celebration: Good Intentions and Undiplomatic Fallouts,” is as misleading as it is conveniently selective. It attempts to frame a principled decision as an affront, while completely ignoring the complex, chaotic, and judicially contested backdrop that defines today’s NIDO Europe.

Let us be clear: the refusal of Hon. (Dr) Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman/CEO of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), to accept a plaque “on behalf of NIDO Europe under the leadership of Councillor Harold” as mischievously announced by one Peters Omoragbon (who allegedly left a lot of division while in the leadership of the Nurses Association in the UK) was the best thing any unbiased leader would do, it was restraint, rooted in institutional responsibility. It was also a refusal to be set up on live television by individuals who, by all available legal and moral standards, had no unified mandate to speak for NIDO Europe.

When NIDO Europe was conceived in the early 2000s, the vision was noble: a single umbrella body uniting Nigerians across European countries, providing structure for engagement, investment, and nation-building. For a while, this vision held.

But ambition without accountability is a recipe for collapse. What started as a structured diaspora body governed by a constitution quickly devolved into something less flattering: factions, abuse, parallel executives, multiple caretaker committees, and eventually, court cases that made headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Today, NIDO Europe is not united. It is fractured. And it has itself to blame.

From 2022 onwards, internal power tussles gave rise to multiple factions laying claim to the “authentic” NIDO Europe. They called each other illegitimate. They wrote petitions. They used abusive language freely. They even took themselves to court, publicly. And all the while, Nigerians in the diaspora and at home watched a once-revered institution reduce itself to courtroom brawls and ego contests.

Now, to show up at the National Diaspora Day 2025 Celebration in Abuja, a national platform, and try to publicly present a plaque “on behalf of NIDO Europe” is not just misleading, it is deceptive. It ignores the bitter truth: that NIDO Europe, as a single cohesive body, currently does not exist in practice. It is split. And this is no secret.

Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa has maintained, time and again, that NiDCOM will not take sides in NIDO Europe’s internal crisis. That position hasn’t changed. And it is precisely why she refused to accept the plaque. To do so would have been to give public endorsement to one side in an ongoing dispute, a side that, despite its PR polish, does not speak for the collective.

Let us remember, this was not the first time these individuals tried to corner the Commission. A faction had already visited the NiDCOM office prior to the event, demanding to see the Chairman. She refused, politely but firmly. She knew what they were trying to do, and she did not oblige them.

So when the plaque incident happened on stage, it was not spontaneous. It was calculated. And it is backfired.

In all of this, the issue is not a piece of engraved wood or glass. It is the politics behind it. You do not show up at a national event with internal cracks papered over and pretend to represent unity you haven’t earned. You do not stage a public presentation knowing full well that your leadership is being contested, even in court.

You especially don’t do it in the name of “Diaspora progress” when your actions have done more to destabilise that very progress than any outside force could.

What happened at the National Diaspora Day 2025 Celebration was not an embarrassment by the Chairman of NiDCOM. It was a sobering reminder that integrity matters more than optics. The Diaspora cannot claim to be a beacon of national development while tolerating internal manipulation and constitutional breaches.

No matter how passionately worded, the statement released by the Public Relations Officer of NIDO Europe cannot erase the facts:That NIDO Europe is split, and its current leadership is being challenged internally and legally.

That NiDCOM has consistently chosen not to interfere in that conflict.

That The attempted plaque presentation was not sanctioned by a universally recognised body but by one of the contending groups. And that refusing to legitimise that act was the right thing to do.

Rather than spin this into a public drama, perhaps the focus should be turned inward. The real tragedy is not that a plaque wasn’t accepted. The tragedy is that NIDO Europe, once envisioned as a rallying point for Nigerians in the diaspora, has become a cautionary tale about what happens when the process is sacrificed for politics.

Let them put their house in order first, chaos wrapped in a plaque is not unity.