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In Defense of Reuben Abati By Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo

At conception weeks ago, the title of this piece was, “Why Reuben Abati’s Ass Is Showing.” But since Dr. Abati has been getting a lot of beating in the media, I am left with the adorable task of defending a one-time fellow pen-pusher.

At conception weeks ago, the title of this piece was, “Why Reuben Abati’s Ass Is Showing.” But since Dr. Abati has been getting a lot of beating in the media, I am left with the adorable task of defending a one-time fellow pen-pusher.

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It was all triggered by this Facebook message that I received a while ago.
 
“I have no doubt you are aware of the fact that you are a good writer and even if you are not, a lot of persons who are your fans must have told you so countless times,” started Ephraim Okonkwo in a Facebook message that has continued to haunt me.
 
“… I am a self confessed cynic and I hope telling you this will make you understand my reservation about you,” the young man continued. “Please don't take it personal, ... One of your "brothers at pen" who my Dad taught me to admire, left his desk for a breath of fresh air, and what he has transformed to, still beats my imagination. What confounds me, is not the fact that he switched sides, but the fact that even his lies is bereft of the intelligence I once loved him for. Lying is an art and I expect anyone who engages in it should aspire for perfection. I have a simple request from you, if you ever switch sides from being a critic to a beneficiary of any government of the day, please still retain your intelligence even if your job is selling a silly idea. Please still do so intelligently so that even you opponents when vilifying you, will do so with respect. I wish you the best and I hope you'll remember my request and grant it if and when the need arises. I assure you if you do, you'll still have ardent fans. I wish you the best.”
 
First and foremost, let me clear one often misunderstood thing about writing. With the possible exception of Dr. Femi Ajayi, if you write a column on any major platform once a week for ten years, you will become well-known. Some weeks, you will be inspired to produce brilliant works. Other weeks, you will produce bull’s craps. It will take fifteen years (apologies Benchley Robert Charles) before anyone can safely say if you have a talent for writing. But by then it must have become late because you are already too famous.
 
Dr. Reuben wrote two columns a week for over 15 years. So he had twice the chance and got there faster than many. Until we read Reuben Abati’s upcoming novel, already hailed as The Great Nigerian Novel, we cannot say for certain the degree of talent he has. The fate is the same for all of us “brothers and sisters at pen.” It is the fear that keeps us awake at night.
 
As a writer, once you are well-known, people will approach you for writing assignments, problems and jobs. Amongst the people that will approach you are politicians. Writers who schmooze with politicians regularly receive such offers. Depending on who the politician is, the goal may be to utilize the skill of the writer in the service of the politician. On the other hand, it may be to silence the writer by co-opting him.
 
I recently got a surprising call from one of those writers often referred to as “senior colleagues.” In his commendation, he said that I wrote what was in his mind. “Why didn’t you write it?” I asked, desperate to make conversations. He paused a bit and then said, “My hands are tied.”
 
Nothing ties the hands of a writer as fast as an inducement. Once a writer stretches his hand to accept inducement, the hands get tied by the inducer. In Nigeria, many journalists have got their hands so tied that placed on a keyboard their fingers can no longer move from Q to P.
 
The second misconception I want to clear is the one that suggested that the pinnacle of journalism is being the spokesman of a government. To understand how that took a footing in Nigeria’s psyche, you have to look at the nature of the journalism profession in Nigeria.
 
There are less than half a dozen news media in Nigeria that are run in a professional way. Many media outlets in Nigeria are set up by past, present, and future politicians with the sole purpose of maintaining their political relevance. The journalists working under these kinds of media outlets quickly recognize it. For their own survival, these professionally unfulfilled journalists design an escape route for themselves.
 
Most of the people who started with me in journalism have since escaped to be spokesmen of big companies. Some have settled as public relations consultants where they specialize in turning black into white. In Nigeria, there is no escape as prominent as being the spokesman of the government.
 
But that is not how it is in other parts of the world. Opportunities available to journalists within their profession are so enormous that they do not have to escape to find fulfillment. That is why top journalists are not the ones who usually end up speaking for the White House or other advanced governments. Top journalists in America are more influential within their media outlets than as spokesperson of the government of the day.
 
Money is not an incentive either. While an average New York Times reporter makes $75,000 a year, an executive editor at the New York Times makes about half a million dollars. Meanwhile a White House spokesman makes about $178,000. A major network news anchor makes seven figures. Other than Tony Snow, who spoke for George W. Bush during his second term, other White House spokesmen, starting with Stephen Early, have always been marginal newsmen. Some like Dee Dee Myers, Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan were not even news people. 
 
Someone like Robert Gibbs joined Obama’s campaign for president from the Democratic National Committee. His job was to shape the campaign message, respond to disinformation from opponents, schmoose with the media. He was never a journalist but had worked as a spokesman of democratic politicians. Jay Carney, the current White House press secretary was a Time magazine reporter before he left to become the Director of Information to Vice President Joe Biden.
 
Journalists who move on to speak for a politician are often those who are politically aligned with the particular politician or political party. They shared the vision of that particular politician and hoped to help the politician communicate that vision to the country.
 
I don’t know if Reuben Abati shared the vision of President Goodluck Jonathan. What is clear is that until he produced the 10-part series on Jonathan’s presidency, Dr. Abati was doing a yeoman’s job of covering the Nigerian political arena.  
 
Those motivated by the ideals of journalism are not likely to jump from the fourth estate to the first estate. The problem with working for the first estate is that the job entails lying for the government. The secrecy code of the first estate also hinders the journalist who jumped ship. That is why most of them try to make up for it by writing books after they have left. Even those books do not tell the whole story because the code of secrecy often extends beyond the journalist’s time as spokesman.
 
The tragedy of Dr. Reuben Abati is that he never leveled up with his readers. He allowed his readers to be lost in what T.S. Eliot called the shadow that falls between the desire and the spasm/ between the potency and the existence/ between the essence and the descent/. Now that his fortune has changed, he is trapped in Alexander Pope’s admonition that, “the higher you climb, the more your ass is showing.”
 
It was not Reuben Abati’s fault that President Goodluck Jonathan cannot communicate effectively with an elementary school pupil. It is however Reuben Abati’s fault that an elementary school pupil cannot understand what the government of Jonathan is trying to do. The reason is not that Reuben Abati is trying and failing. The real reason is that he is so engrossed in the ‘pursuit of happiness’ that he is not trying at all. In Nigerian panache, Abati is too busy chopping- legally, for the first time. And as a veteran journalist recently put it, “You don’t talk while you chop.”
 
You can be sure that when Reuben Abati is done chopping, he will be back to tell us things he should to be telling us now. Maybe then, his readers will understand what Charlotte Bronte meant when she wrote that, “Conventionality is not morality. Self righteousness is not religion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns.”

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