COMRADE REUBEN ABATI'S VITUPERATION: AN
HYPOCRITIC INTERVENTION.
Reuben Abati was the Chairman Editorial board of
The Guardian newspaper and later became Special
Adviser on Media and Publicity to President
Goodluck Jonathan. For years, Abati has the ears of
President Jonathan and was infamous for defending
the misdemeanors of his boss. During my early
years of political consciousness, I so much admired
Abati's Opinion on Guardian newspaper every
Saturday. Abati's write-ups inspired persons like
myself to contribute on national issues even on the
dailies. I was so elated to hear he was appointed
Media adviser to President Jonathan. To my
greatest disillusionment, Abati years at the
presidency was a misrepresentation of his
assertions on paper.
Going through the Guardian newspaper Sunday 13th
Dec, Abati lend his voice to the clamour of Great Ife
students, condemning the terrific welfare condition
and proffering ways forward. I must salute Comrade
Abati for going the struggle, as this is
commendable, however I will like to let him know
that he was in the presidency for years and yet
could not proffer such way forward.
Maybe I should demystify, the horrendous welfare
condition did not start overnight. It is a fallout of
poor underfunding which President Jonathan's
government is also guilty of, since he could not
divert some of the Abacha loot to the sector but
conveniently divert funds to is NSA account. During
this period Mr Abati did not write to publicly advise
his master to take this education sector seriously.
The issue of poor welfare is not peculiar to IFE. I
can say it on good note that OAU has a better
welfare than most federal University but unlike their
contempories, Ife students don't settle for
mediocrity. The intense academic rigour could not
permit us to keep mute in the face of such
dilapidated and ill-capacitated infrastructure.
Every OAU student is conscious and inherently
abhors oppression. This is why we are championing
the cause for qualitative education in Nigeria
through proper funding and enabling learning
condition. This is not only commendable but is in
alignment with our historical responsibility to
champion pro-students causes.
We appreciate Abati's opinion, but we will
appreciate him more if he can organise his
paymasters to come around, donate and invest into
our public tertiary institution.
Omotayo Akande
Great Ife Students' Union President
(A student activist and student researcher at the
Environmental Engineering Laboratory OAU Ile-Ife
where he is working on VOC's)