Dr. Reuben Abati, a one-time Chairman of the Editorial Board of The Guardian Newspaper, an ex-presidential spokesman, a former Deputy Governorship candidate on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), a presenter on Arise Television, who is also a columnist with ThisDay Newspaper, does not require further introduction. He was a puritan media man turned political proselyte.
A proper digest of his back page article entitled “What’s Wrong with these End-Time Govs”, in ThisDay Newspaper of Tuesday, April 23, 2019, smacks of bare-faced opportunism, pathological fear and hatred. Abati’s circumlocution in the prologue is a devious innuendo to disparage, spread lies and feed the public with misinformation.
In his intemperance, Abati rolled out his artillery and mortar fire (his stock in trade) against Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State. In doing this, he uncritically and in puerile fashion, ventured into extrapolations and rationalisations in contempt of his professional calling and political affiliation.
He accused Governor Amosun of deploying caterpillars to demolish stalls at the popular Kuto market in Abeokuta. This is a clear attempt to demonize the Governor and rubbish his accomplishments which have been widely acknowledged nationally and internationally.
His Kuto market theory would only appeal to gullible appetites but certainly not the discerning public. It beats the imagination how he could be suggesting that an intrusive telephone conversation would derail a veteran columnist in the middle of a serious task and be swept off into impulsive pontifications? It must have been an escape strategy for an unproductive mind; strange symptom!
Without doing any background check of the facts, Abati simply succumbed to sentiments. In his normal professional mettle, he would not have used the information without carrying out independent verification. If he bothered to verify, he would have discovered that the developmental project at Kuto market is the scheme of Abeokuta South/West Local Council Development Authority under its Market Re-Development Initiative. Is it possible that he cannot differentiate between the State and a Local Council as separate entities? If nepotism had not got the better of him, Abati would have learnt that the LCDA followed due process, and that the affected parties were fully notified over a year ago. As a former Deputy Governorship aspirant in the State, people should be able to look up to him for dispassionate discussion on governance issues, not for pettiness and nepotism.
Abati is perhaps even more engrossed with the scoundrel in his figmentation that he forgot he was not doing a work of fiction. Otherwise, how could it be explained that as a member of the Dapo Abiodun’s Economic Transition Committee, Abati is unaware that there had been exchange of correspondence and telephone conversations between the representatives of the Government and the Governor-elect’s focal persons on the transition issue? He needs to come clean and let the public know that as far back as 3rd April, 2019, the 11-Man Committee representing Government side on the proposed Joint Transition Committee was communicated to the Deputy Governor-Elect in response to her letter of request dated 29th March, 2019. Government had since been waiting almost endlessly for the other side to do the needful.
There is no amount of harassment that will deter Governor Amosun from continuing with development projects in the State until his last day in Office in accordance with the Oath of Office he swore. He is unpretentious about his firm commitment to deliver on his mandate to the people, even to the last day of his administration. Government is a continuum. He has said that he will not be distracted or condescend to nepotism. In civilised societies, transition between administrations does not necessarily fetter the outgoing administration from its constitutional duties while its tenure lasts. The determinate of that obligation is not the number of days left for the administration in government but the job schedule of the Office as prescribed by the Constitution. Only a lazy Governor will be taken in by the red herrings and abdicate his avowed duties.
Understandably, there is no better specimen for a whining looser than a political neophyte turned desperado. Abati woefully lost his election bid for the seat of the Deputy Governor in the State, but now vilifies another candidate for losing at the same election when in the disputed election, the candidate he so ferers came ten of thousands ahead of him and his principal candidate, Buruji Kashamu. He calls it a humiliation. What an irony of life! He quickly jumped boat seeking for relevance and would do anything to assure his pay masters of his loyalty for the sake of crumps. In a decent society, Abati would have recused himself from commenting on the affairs of the government of Ogun State on the platform of a journalist and columnist. At best, he would have presented himself as a politician criticising a political opponent and that would have fore-warned his reader on what weight to attach to his (Abati’s) views. Unfortunately, we live in a society of “anything goes” where decency has taken flight.
Abati must remember that intellectual brigandage and uncharitable statements may achieve initial ephemeral ends, but they cause more self-damage to the individual who wields them.
While he is free to enjoy the latitude of his mischief, the public must not be underserved. They deserve better than what Abati has fed them with. We have a duty to put the records straight and that is why we bother, at all, to respond to his worthless treatise. More so, because Abati still pretends to write as a journalist rather than admit had he has somersaulted into a political acolyte.
• Rotimi Durojaiye is the Special Adviser (Media) to Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Governor of Ogun State.
Credit: Rotimi Durojaiye, Reuben Abati, Thisday