Regrettably, Nigeria is a place where history is never consulted or cared about. Hence anyone can pontificate ad infinitum and expect to be applauded. Such is the case of Dr. Rueben Abati.
Many of us grew up respecting and seeing him as a beacon of what a true Nigerian should be, especially during his Patitos Gang days. He was always espousing patriotic platitudes, very good in dropping poignant thought capsules, deemed essential for optimum national growth.
But subsequent events and activities around him, seem to consistently project him as a white sepulchre.
He came down hard on Obi Cubana and the way the young man and his friends handled the burial of his mother. In the process, he tried to situate most of Nigeria’s ills on most activities like what happened at the burial in Oba.
He was in such a hurry to crucify the young man, that he either deliberately or ignorantly ascribed an unrelated video of scantily dressed women cavorting in a lucre-filled swimming pool as part of the events at Oba! How convenient!
It seems Rueben is regrettably painting himself as a paid watchdog of the old order! He revels in their adulation of his writing prowess and seeks opportunities of reassuring everyone of his readiness to defend the ideals of society.
Imagine comparing the burials of Adenuga and Aig Imokhuede mums with the burial of Obi Cubana’s mother?
Any well-intentioned comparison should factor in the following facts – the advent and capacity of social media, to multiply the noise level of activities, the ages of the respective mourners as well as the profession or industry of the mourners.
However, Abati would wish to downplay the extravaganza of Adenuga’s mum’s burial, which was described as the most lavish burial in Nigeria then. The time to refute this appellation was when Adenuga’s extravagant spending was made, not now when Abati conveniently needs to reduce what was said about Adenuga’s mum’s burial to isolate the burial at Oba for downright condemnation.
We challenge him to give us links to his condemnation of the amount of money spent on Madam Adenuga’s burial?.
Aig Imokhuede is a banker, Obi Cubana is into entertainment, It’s a lot of stretches to expect activities of practitioners in two opposing sectors to be the same. Bankers are by their training and profession, rather conservative by nature.
Read Also: Obi Cubana and the Oba Burial
A pastor burying a departed mum would of course attract other pastors to come and commiserate with him. People will expect pastors in attendance to use the opportunity to preach and compete for both lost and new souls.
Same with a musician, who would attract fellow musicians to his event. Attendees will expect musicians present to mount the stage and seek to outperform each other.
In Obi’s case, he is into showbiz, club management, and in reality, the people we saw at Oba were players in this category. Should we then expect a musician at an event to behave like a pastor or banker?
Whilst Rueben Abati was waxing lyrical with the calibre of personalities who visited Aig Imokhuede, the real report from the street will only show anger and contempt for those same people, who reduced Nigeria to a shadow of itself.
The former CBN governors, ex-governors, ministers, and even presidents who went to commiserate with Aig were the gang of leaders who mismanaged the affairs of this nation for decades.
If the national scorecard of their combined leadership are; Insecurity, joblessness brain drain, depleted economy, and high inflation, why should Nigerians on the street respect them? Convince me!
It’s only someone who had been sucking from their nipples like Abati who, understanding what he gained from them, could nonchalantly prefer to praise them. Quite unlike these young men, who instead of running from the country mismanaged by the likes of those serenaded by Abati, opted to stay back, create values from almost nothing, provide employment and seek their ways of rekindling hopes in our youths.
The children of most of those commiserating with Aig are outside Nigeria, but those who came to Oba are those who prefer to stay back and stick it out in Nigerians.
The average American graduate is weighed down by student loans. The billions of dollars, spent by Jeff Bezos in going on a wild goose chase into space could have been used to wipe out student loans, but he chose his passion.
Expect Abati to praise him!
In all of Abati’s vituperations, he avoided mentioning the N300M Obi Cubana provided to lift 300 hundred Oba youths and by extension 300 Oba families out of poverty. How many of those he prefers to praise, have affected that quantum of empowerment in their private capacity!
If all those who attended the preferred burial of Abati had set up similar endowments from the funds they siphoned from either corporate entities or government coffers, millions of Nigerian youths could have been lifted out of poverty.
But as long as the likes of troubadours like Rueben keep on singing their praises instead of telling them the home truth of their being part of our present predicament, they would rather be buying art paintings of millions of dollars instead of helping the youth.
Would the average youth on the street prefer the conservativism of the Reuben people with their Chop alone/ chop and clean mouth attitude, or the money spraying cum 300 million redemption approach? I am sure the preference would be for the latter.
If Dr Abati had apportioned the same level of wrath he spewed on the Oba burial on the major causes of Nigeria’s current situation, probably we would begin to see positive changes in governance. Rather as a watchdog of the elite, he prefers to treat them with puppy gloves, whilst he bullies those he believes are unknown in the league of the nouveau riche! Really typical.
Late Senator Kashamu Buruji was up for extradition on drug-related charges to the USA! Somehow, he managed to be a candidate for Ogun state governorship election.
His extradition status was in the public domain, guess who agreed to be his running mate? The watchdog of the elites himself. Rueben Abati!
For some of us, “E come dey clear for our eyes” as Fela sang. How could a top social critic, an evangelist of good governance, agree to be the running mate to Buruji?
Some even wondered if an angel like Abatto could sit in the same room with Kashamu? Alas, the rumour was proved to be a fact! This Abati surely possesses an Achilles heel like other politicians.
So did the rumour of his arrest by the EFCC swirl, some of us refused to believe such could be possible. But then, it was a report too that Rueben Abati allegedly received N50 Million from Dasuki, which he claimed to have used for media work.
When did such a man then imbue himself with the cloak of impartial justice, when he is equally guilty of what he condemns?
In organized climes, Reuben Abati would have quietly eased into oblivion, based on his apparent failings, instead, he struts the stage, hoping to convince his handlers of his importance to their cause.
The propriety or otherwise of the burial of Obi Cubana’s mum should not be within the scope of an Abati critique, as he is now seen by Nigerians as a flawed umpire.
His courage and impartiality, if he ever had such values, are now nonexistent or at best suspect, since he went to dine with political devils without the proverbial long spoon. He chose to attend such dinner without a spoon at all, rather preferring to be fed by the political devils by hand.
One cannot serve two masters at the same time! Since Abati had chosen to eat with compromised politicians, he is now a flawed social activist.