Now That Abati Has Joined Them

By Chuks OLUIGBO

Reuben Abati, journalist and public intellectual, who recently joined President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital, as Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, is no doubt a man of enviable pedigree. A renowned columnist and public affairs commentator whose opinions on socio-economic and political issues, local and international, are highly respected, Abati graduated with first class honours degree in Theatre Arts from the University of Calabar where he won the Vice-Chancellor’s prize for the best overall graduating student in 1985. He proceeded to the University of Ibadan for his Masters and Ph.D, which he completed in 1990, specialising in Dramatic Literature, Theory and Criticism. He was a university teacher from 1985 to 1996. Between 1996 and 1997, he did a journalism programme at the College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park, United States of America, as Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow. In the same 1997, he earned an LL.B (Hons) from the Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos.

Abati: new SA Media and Publicity to Goodluck Jonathan

In his many years as a journalist, Abati has won a number of awards. These include The Cecil King Memorial Prize for Print Journalist of the Year (1998), The Diamond Award for Media Excellence for Informed Commentary (1998), Fletcher Challenge Commonwealth Prize for Opinion Writing (2000), and the Diamond Award for Media Excellence for Informed Commentary, (2000). Until his recent appointment, he was the Editorial Board Chairman of The Guardian newspapers, a position he has held since 2002. He also wrote two weekly columns in The Guardian, one on Friday and another on Sunday, and his column also appeared regularly on a popular Nigerian website, Nigerian Village Square, NVS.

It is against the backdrop of the above sterling and impressive antecedents of Abati vis-a-vis his appointment as a presidential spokesperson, a position capable of dragging in the mud every reputation that he has built for himself in the past, that I write this piece. As it is, it would appear that the easiest way to get the attention of a government in power in Nigeria today is to criticise that government. Conversely, the easiest way to silence an avowed critic of a government, it is believed, is through a juicy appointment.

I may not be the first to have expressed this concern. I have read Dr. Wumi Akintide’s “I Hope Reuben Abati Does Not Become Another Ebino Topsy?” where he raised justifiable fears that power may corrupt Abati, thus: “Who could have thought that Ebenezer Babatope (Ebino Topsy) as one of the right hand boys and hatchet men of Obafemi Awolowo could turn 180 degrees once he was appointed a Minister under Sani Abacha? Once the guy tasted the forbidden fruit of power in Nigeria, he became a different man altogether. He used to be a fearless critic of the status quo with many of his powerful articles, but once he became a Minister, he was willing and ready to compromise and trash some of his long-held beliefs and some of the ugly things he had said and written for so long about the government in power at the centre and their total incompetence. It was as if himself and Lateef Jakande were purposely recruited by Abacha just to silence them and to turn them from the progressive into the retrogressive elements in a heartbeat.”

I have also read Lawrence Nwobu’s “Reuben Abati: From Government Critic To Apologist” where he contented that “Nigerian journalists have since become seasoned hypocrites and opportunists who send critical anti-government articles from their stables on a regular basis only to end up jumping into the same government at the slightest opportunity. Once in government, they become apologists of the same government they had spent years criticising. This has had the effect of diminishing any pressure such critical articles could ordinarily have exerted on the government as every journalist is now seen as a rabble rousing opportunist hypocrite who is only criticising because he has not been offered a position in government.”

I have also read a couple other writers.

They all seem right. Besides Dr. Akintide’s examples above, there are numerous others. I do not wish to name names. Just to say that, for instance, between 2007 and 2011, many state governors across the states of the federation surrounded themselves with shining stars from the media world who, before their appointment, had endeared themselves to readers through their weekly biting attacks on the excesses of governments in power. But they did turn around to spin and sell “the fairy tales of deceit” from their principals to the poor masses and to defend blatant lies. Now that the party is over, many of them have returned to their pre-party duty posts to keep churning out ideas they themselves could not defend in the last four years.

No wonder the late fiery lawyer and human rights activist, Gani Fawehinmi, reportedly refused all the attempts to shut him up via a federal appointment (I remember one particular year that it was rumoured that Gani rejected a ram sent to him as Sallah gift by the then military governor of Lagos State, Mohammed Buba Marwa) and Chinua Achebe turned down a national honour by Olusegun Obasanjo.

Saying I wish Abati had not accepted the appointment would be anachronistic. He has accepted, that’s the truth, and he’s already at work. The saying that “the change we all crave for may never come if all good men stay away from service” may have become plain platitude, but I buy into it. I believe that instead of taking the back bench and complaining every Sunday that the choir sings rubbish, one should join the choir and show the way. So, on the basis of that, I am happy that Abati accepted the offer.

Just a few words of counsel, now that he is in. Abati, you are now part of the system you have always criticised. You now have a chance to effect the change process you have always advocated. Remember those noble words of yours in that article on May 28, 2011 which you titled “The speech Jonathan shouldn’t have made.” I will quote what you said concerning the amendment of the Constitution because it is one of the issues in contention in the nation today: “If he (the President) wants to so amend the Constitution, the same Constitution that he will swear today to uphold and defend, then he should not have been heard attacking that constitution three days to the event. ‘It is a constitutional problem’, the President stated. The problem may be worth debating of course, and it may well be a good idea to ensure that Presidents and Governors spend only one term in office: five years or six at most. I believe that this may even help solve the problem of cut-throat competition for Presidential and gubernatorial offices, and cure the mischief of Governors and Presidents spending their second terms in office doing practically nothing. But even if the Constitution were to be amended along these lines, it cannot take retroactive effect, otherwise President Jonathan would be accused of subversion and he would have damaged the historic opportunities of his government.” I believe you would not forget to repeat these same words to Mr President as often as the need arises.

I hate to think that you might act like that man in that story who criticised the government in power only to suddenly become silent after he was offered a political appointment. When his friends, who were worried at his sudden taciturnity, confronted him, he simply told them: “Person wey dey chop no dey talk. It’s bad habit to talk while you’re eating”.

As a special adviser to Mr. President, you must reinterpret your role and truly offer wise advice to him without equivocation, and not just be like others before you who always tried to justify their pay by merely reading their principal’s script. And when you speak for the President, an essential part of your duty, please communicate coherently without those tongue-in-cheek blandishments of many a presidential spokesperson that Nigeria had been blessed with.

Then there is the option of resignation based on conviction. As they say, when the kitchen gets too hot, then it’s time to look for the exit door. You must know when to back out. Dr Akintide has already prophesied that you would resign in one or two years, unless “President Jonathan truly means business to live up to his promises to chart a new course for Nigeria”. Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala showed the way when in 2006, during the Obasanjo administration, she resigned her position as Foreign Affairs Minister because she was convinced that the then president did not show enough commitment to her vision. You will be expected to toe the same path when the situation warrants it.

Finally, there is need to keep your eyes wide open. Good name, the type that you have built for yourself, is better than one million political appointments. Do not disappoint younger ones like us who have always looked up to you as a role model in this noble profession. I will quote from a piece I wrote for a cousin of mine when he returned from the United States of America to join Nigerian politics: “Now that you step into their midst / mind: / crystal lies stare from the cornerlips / of their perjured truths.../ mind: / their innocent teeth smiling / hide hideous fangs dripping with blood...”

Dr. Abati, this is sadly true, and I know you know it. So, please let’s see the difference.