Like the proverbial man who ‘defecated on the pulpit during the pastor’s sermon’ in the presence of all congregation. Reuben Abati has once again desecrated the public space with his brazen and unabashed war of political words. The Baba Legba with no shame has dared the growing population of Nigerian children of democracy with his unrepentant stones of no remorse.
Like the proverbial man who ‘defecated on the pulpit during the pastor’s sermon’ in the presence of all congregation. Reuben Abati has once again desecrated the public space with his brazen and unabashed war of political words. The Baba Legba with no shame has dared the growing population of Nigerian children of democracy with his unrepentant stones of no remorse.
Arrrrrrgghh, Reuben Abati, a once crisp and eloquent critic has turned back with words of confrontation and altercation against his own comrades and constituency. Baba legba has thrown away his many years of hard work and professionalism through the window with months of giving in to incompetence and Jonathan’s infamy. Ah, oma se ooo, Reuben Abati has crossed the boundary of decency and of intellect with stupidity and silliness.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
In the proverbial Yoruba saying: Abati has because of ede spoilt his own ede. Roughly translates as (Because of porridge sold his constituency). How dare he refer to comrades and writers and collective public thinkers as children of anger? How dare Abati refer to our gege wura (pen of gold) as gege alaseju? How dare Abati challenge our rights and freedom to write and run commentary against our incompetent administrators and appointed public servants?
Through his brazen face, Abati shall live to see that the voice of the people is the voice of God and that the voice of Reuben is the voice of shame and of self-absorption. Reuben must live on to see that although persistence may not be financially rewarding but brings self respect, honour and dignity. Persistence, which Reuben Abati lacks in its severity, is not about self righteousness but continuous commitment to the task at hand. As Napoleon Hill once says, “there may be no heroic connotation to the word persistence but the quality is to the character of man what carbon is to steel”.
Reuben oni je kuje, tells us that he has travelled with the president for the past 14 months. He knows that the president is an intelligent man, a man of honesty and one with many clues. Reuben has told us that nobody is more committed to the Nigerian Project than President Jonathan. Abati wants us to know that President Jonathan is a clever, methodical and intelligent man who understands the complexity of Nigeria”. Really?
All this baseless claims and assertions makes Abati no better than Jonathan in any slightest way (Awon alakori meji – Aves of the same plumage). May be we should ask Abati where Jonathan’s many clues has led Nigeria. We should ask Abati what his boss’s competent character has added to Nigeria since his ascension as President. Abati in many of his previous write ups has written about Jonathan’s faux passes and incompetence, therefore the acclaimed clues and transformation of Jonathan must have come within the last 14 months.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });
There hardly passes a day in Nigeria without the dreaded boko haram throwing bombs and pellets at innocent citizens killing people in their multitudes, yet Jonathan has Nigeria at heart. A day hardly passes without multitudes of people dying through our dilapidated hospitals, roads, bridges and schools yet Jonathan has many clues.
Hardly there passes a day when people do not die of diseases, hunger, robbery and generator fumes, yet Abati claims that Jonathan is working.
There is hardly a Nigerian day that passes by when there is no kidnapping of innocent children and foreigners and yet Jonathan is a man of method and intelligence. Over the past two years, Nigeria’s corruption perception index has worsened. Inflation rate is now standing at 12.8% and has continued to fluctuate so unevenly. For the records, since Jonathan’ time at the presidency, inflation has been (2010: 13.72%), (2011: 12.4 %) and possibly before the end of the present year we may be bargaining for over 13% inflation rate. Abati should tell us where is Jonathan’s sharp edge with this constantly increasing double digit inflation rates?
Just last week, the CBN admitted that the naira has lost its value. When asked, the CBN would say that while the value of the naira may be determined by monetary policies, such policies are greatly influenced and cannot be isolated from the macroeconomic and political environments. Therefore, it is all down to political decisions and what politicians do.
The recently concluded summer Olympic games is yet another evidence that Abati’s boss has gone to sleep. Not only did Nigeria fail to win one medal, Nigeria indeed failed woefully in the preparations to the Olympics yet one yeye president claims he is working in the people’s interest.
The oil subsidy saga of January this year also attests to one of the President’s misinformed knowledge about governance and leadership. Claiming any progress for President Jonathan is ridiculous and a very false claim that must be crushed in its entirety without mercy. Abati claims that the President is doing everything possible to bring electricity to the country and that is why we have crossed 4,400 MW.
Making such statement as the one above makes Abati sound like one of our desperate politicians who have no shame and those who travel 1500 kilometres to open 2 kilometre roads with fanfare and carnival.
Boasting of any success with 4,400 MW is a shameful act. It simply shows that Abati like his sleeping boss knows nothing about governance and the type and level of commitment needed to transform the Nigerian state from its sinking position. Boasting of 4,400 MW in a country of 150 million people is like boasting of 1 borehole in the city of 5 million people. It is ludicrous.
Reuben Abati claims that his boss is doing everything possible to transform the state of Agriculture by distributing fertilizers to farmers and that sounds like another political sweet- talk
The problem faced by Nigerian Agriculture is beyond fertilizer and baseless political words. We have written and have talked several times that Nigerian agriculture apart from its many problems is seriously facing the problem of De-Agriculturalisation where for many reasons it is becoming impossible for thousands to farm again and farmers are simply finding their ways to the urban centres as okada riders and obioma as well as bus conductors. Intelligent Nigerian researchers and writers have spoken that the problem of Nigerian Agriculture is not solely about fertilizer distribution or seed dissemination; it is also about issues with land allocation, water management, storage, processing, marketing and transportation. Perhaps, Abati should have talked about his boss’s sustained progress over the past years with regard to those specific problems.
Baba legba also claims that the president eats modestly and is a not a glutton yet has no explanation for his boss’s irresponsible budget on presidential feeding. If indeed, the President only eats boiled plantain and fasts during lent and Ramadan seasons as Abati claims, then something must be wrong with the President for allocating such a gargantuan amount on feeding. Abati has chosen not to explain but to brag that the president only eats cassava bread and boiled plantain. Cassava bread indeed!
Abati also claims that that the President is a man of simplicity and an epitome of loyalty but Abati always gets it wrong. He should get it in his skull that most sensible Nigerians do not flipping care about simplicity and loyalty? Effective leadership is about committing himself absolutely to the task at hand even if the character needed to succeed is to be far from being simple? President Jonathan whose simplicity one admires and would admire were he to be the head of Bayelsa zoo is far from being anything close to effective or convincing.
Ebele Jonathan is characterized with too many flaws which do not pass him the president of the world’s smallest island not to talk of a complex country like Nigeria. Mr Cassava bread is too meek and simple to create and stimulate the change that we desperately need to move the ship of our sinking nation forward. Where the president of the day should be flying because of too many backlog of work, he, Jonathan is simply crawling. Where the president of the day should be found shouting and jumping, our current president is mimicking and not doing anything at all.
It was the Portuguese author “José Maria de Eça de Queiroz, who once says that “Politicians and diapers should be changed frequently and all for the same reason”. While it certainly untrue that all politicians are rubbish, the crops of our present day administrators’ including the cassava bread man stinks.
But it is not only them who stink, their ministers and advisers like Abati also stink. They stink of cluelessness, ineptitude, corruption, self-righteousness and whatnot.
While one appreciates that democracy is a game of election and that we have to wait till the next electoral calendar. It is hard to accept that this serious measure of incompetence and cluelessness will go on till 2015. The deaths and killings and hunger cannot go on.
If miracle truly happens, this is the time.
Where is the wind of change that blows away incompetence? Arrrrgggh, where is that fire that rages like hurricane Katrina that burns down anything with no solid orientation. Ina oooo.
Abati ain’t seen nothing yet, the children of war are still coming.
[email protected]
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });