Abati: how to kill a columnist
By Olakunle Abimbola 10/04/2012 00:02:00
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Give it to Reuben Abati – the plucky way he defended his boss, President Goodluck Jonathan, in the latest scandal over a church building gift to Otuoke, the president’s village.

Jonathan may be Goodluck. But he suffers excessive ill luck in a loose tongue; that seems to move first before presidential thinking. The Otuoke “church affair” is the latest in a chain of verbal indiscretions that, were it to be tennis, would pass for “unforced error” – that all too common blunder that makes a player wilfully throw away vital points, even if he is under no apparent pressure.

Or how else would a president go to the dedication of a new church building in his village, only to start yakking that he indeed complained that the old church building was unbefitting of a presidential village?

And when he did, who came to the rescue? Not the rich of Otuoke, gifting their hearth a church that befits a presidential village. Not even the president himself, glowing with pride at the village of his nativity.

Instead, it was Gitto Contsruzioni Generalli Nigeria Ltd (GCG), an Italian contracting firm doing business in Nigeria! And the president, with Dr. Abati, his chief spokesperson, expects the opposition not to take him to the cleaners? Talk of one they would merrily roast dousing himself with petrol!

But what does the Gitto gift remind you of? An Olusegun Obasanjo, president of the Federal Republic, in full public glare, suborning the cream of Nigerian business to “donate” to his Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, and thereafter invoking some blind trust in the blind hope that the glaring misconduct would be blinded from the sight of a furious citizenry?

Or if that is too far in history – Nigerians after all have exceedingly short public memory! – does that remind you of the allegation by Timipre Sylva, embattled former governor of Bayelsa State? As President Jonathan and his henchmen were smoking him out like an executive rat from the Bayelsa Government House, the rattled governor made it be known to all that a certain contractor was allegedly building the president structures, as alleged kickback. Now, is the “church” the alleged real deal? Or are there others to emerge?

To be sure, between Goodluck and Timipre, there was no love lost. When a helpless looking Jonathan was to be denied his right to act as president in the dying days of President Umaru Musa Yar’adua, Sylva, governor of Jonathan’s home state, was among the James Ibori-led southern “conspirators”, aside from Yar’adua’s self-chosen northern cabal, that attempted to block the then vice president and humble the Constitution. That was 2010.

But 2012 was payback time. Jonathan returned the compliments, pulling all stops to do so! It was political quid pro quo at its nastiest and most deadly! Ironically however, after Pa Edwin Kiagbodo Clark’s initial fireworks, it was Sylva, at Sam Omatseye’s book launch at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in Lagos, that started the campaign for “Niger Delta to be given its due”, a coded euphemism for Jonathan to run for president. But apparently, that gesture was too little, too late!

This brief background is necessary to underscore that the allegations and counter-allegations might just be partisan punches and counter-punches. Still, the Yoruba saying comes echoing: the witch cried yesterday, the child died today. Who does not know that it was the witch that killed the child!

Of course, the Church of Nigeria’s (Anglican Communion) reaction to the brewing scandal is symptomatic of a Nigerian church that has lost its social conscience. So, because the Anglican Church is the beneficiary, the gift cannot be morally wrong?

It is amazing how, when loaded with freebies, Nigeria’s Christendom easily forgets the tragic fate of Nadab and Abihu, two rascally sons of the Biblical Aaron, who burnt strange offerings to the no-nonsense Jehovah. Pronto, the fire of Jehovah consumed them!

As the Nigerian state has resigned itself to secular racketeering, so has the Church in Nigeria made its peace with spiritual racketeering. That would explain the Anglican Church’s spirited defence of a controversial gift, a scandal at best; mindless corruption at worst.

The Church assures itself it is in good company, with the level of stress and privation in the land; and with the Church playing happy catharsis to distressed citizens. But these blues won’t last forever. It is then the Church would find itself in the dock like Nadab and Abihu. Would it be consumed like the duo? Only time and Jehovah will tell!

But if the three estates of government are lost to sundry racketeering, with the Church in merry cohabitation, what of the much vaunted Fourth Estate of the Realm, the media? That brings the discourse right back to Dr. Abati, presidential chief spokesperson and his spirited defence of his principal.

In the heat of January’s fuel price hike and the consequent national meltdown, Abati’s professional colleagues dug up a previous article in which the then Guardian Editorial Board chair, editorial page editor and star columnist in whom many Nigerians were well pleased, thundering with all the moral indignation at his disposal.

“It must be a joke, right?” the opening sentence of the March 2009 anti-fuel price hike piece he titled, “Soon, we shall all be trekking”, peremptorily queried! But all that counted for nothing, as the same Abati defended his principal’s even stiffer pump price hike with patriotic fervour! A credibility suicide never appeared merrier!

Now, another quarter in an eventful leap year is just barely a third of its first month and Abati has yet again been pressed into service to defend the indefensible – and, as usual, he has done that just as brilliantly, without even being troubled by the president’s seeming foot-in-the-mouth disease that, in the first instance, triggered a latent scandal! But how would Abati have reacted to this new scandal were he still a popular columnist, with a fiery moral temper?

Ah, his claim that a contractor built Abuja’s Millennium Park was a sure no-brainer, a veritable example of logical impunity! So, if a contractor built the park, whoever was president then was a native of Abuja, as Goodluck Jonathan is a native of Otuoke? Another case of happy credibility suicide?

Well, Dr. Abati has made his peace with his job, credibility be hanged! But he appears only a symbol of a seeming structural conspiracy by government to suborn the distressed Fourth Estate: pluck the media’s brightest minds, to put a spin to endless government rackets.

Philosophers would call it the logic of economic determinism! Truth is: since the great Awo spoke of the media jetsam and flotsam of his day, the media has not moved any nearer paying to retain its best minds. Abati is only the latest prominent example of this brain drain, which is not about stopping.

Still, take a good look at Abati. He is the perfect living example of how to slay a columnist!


http://www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/index.php/columnist/tuesday/olakunle-abimbola/42548-abati-how-to-kill-a-columnist.html

Is this what power does to otherwise sensible men? How would posterity remember Reuben? I guess: A man who voluntarily set fire to everything he ever wrote. Shame! - Dele Momodu

Oh well. . .nothing new here.
If history is anything to go by. . . THE CHURCH. . .symbolized by homosexual missionaries came with the bible in one hand and the sword in the other. . . Solid foundations for oppression and bigotry laid superbly. I lovvvvvvvvvvit!!!!

Oya. . . make una begin pay tithes!

Please tell me Reuben Abati is being held hostage in Aso Rock and is being forced to defend the indefensible. I can't find any word to describe my disappointment in him.

After GEJ, Abati might just go into farming and enjoy his retirement, It will be difficult for Guardian to give him a warm welcome back to his former job.

I still relish Dele Momodu's "How posterity will remember Abati" saying.

I really feel for him. He is truly a perfect example of how to slay a columnist.