Dr. Akintide let me weigh in here with my own opinion that Reuben Abati has gained in no small measure through supporting and defending the president who hired him as his chief spokesperson. He has gained significant experience as Dr. Onyeani also mentioned. Dr. Abati will be offered much bigger and better job positions in the coming days.
Dear Dr. Akintide
This demonization process that you have embarked upon such as your recent column “Reuben Abati: One of the Big Losers in the Aftermath of Jonathan’s Loss” will not help you or your APC Party. Many Nigerians with discerning abilities already know that APC is nothing but the same face of an old coin as the PDP. If in doubt look who is backing the party, or recent defectors such as OBJ (Hahaha). Some of us that studied Politics and the role of Political Parties or Political Appointments fully understand the fact that Reuben Abati did what a reasonable and responsible Presidential Adviser on Media Affairs would do to serve their boss.
I have never met Reuben Abati, the closest I have come to him is through reading some of his writings before he was appointed as an adviser to President Jonathan. Please refrain from these overreaching and self-fulfilling conclusions about President Jonathan who while many Nigerians myself included believe that he could have performed much better than he did, but he perhaps is one of the better preforming presidents Nigeria had since Independence. I challenge you to name which president performed better than Jonathan among all the presidents Nigeria had since Independence.
Nevertheless I believe that he could have done a lot more given the golden opportunity he had, with crude oil selling at nearly an average price of $100 per barrel during nearly all his entire presidential period. The president could have taken the bull by the horn in such matters as the Boko Haram thuggery and murderous adventures in Nigeria. Jonathan's advisers failed to let him know that he would not win a re-election bid with the level of insecurity in Nigeria.
In the final analysis, his administration is now on the verge of defeating Boko Haram along with some Nigerian neighbors that provided some help. The question i would like to ask President Jonathan if I have a chance is why did he not do what his administration is doing now in fighting Boko Haram? His answer should not be that the Northerners are in charge of Nigerian security as he once said because it is not an acceptable answer. He, president Jonathan is in control and he is the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and he has all the powers to chose who leads the fight against Boko Haram period. But that is a discussion for another day.
Dr. Akintide let me weigh in here with my own opinion that Reuben Abati has gained in no small measure through supporting and defending the president who hired him as his chief spokesperson. He has gained significant experience as Dr. Onyeani also mentioned. Dr. Abati will be offered much bigger and better job positions in the coming days. He can also become very rich by writing a tell all book about his job experiences and maybe disclose some surprises which many people don't know which will help him sell and market his book. Dr. Abati is a prolific writer and if I were in his position, the book option is an important option to pursue along with others.
Finally let me point out the fact that nearly 50% of the Nigerian electorate don't share your Jonathan demonization politics. APC and Buhari won the election with only about 2 million votes. This margin tells another story of the baseless population advantages often skewed in the direction of the north. The fact that the South-South, and the South-East along with 2 or 3 other states were able to put up nearly the same numbers of votes as the northern zones and the South-West comprising of 4 political zones has a lot of implication for the often depressed population projections for the South East in particular. So the point to have in mind is that nearly half of our nation does not share your assessment on this matter. Besides, it is easier to criticize from the outside, the situation changes when one becomes the 'criticized' a position which APC and Buhari would soon inherit, so the honeymoon will soon be over!
Those are my views, yours always welcome.
Okechukwu P. Oranika