The Nigerian way of doing things always rears it’s head no matter how hard or how long you try to suppress it. So it was when during a live show in Arise TV’s infamous ‘The Morning Show’ Reuben Abati, erstwhile spokesperson to former president, Goodluck Jonathan flared up at his co-presenter for referring to him simply as ‘Reuben’ without the title ‘Dr’. The look of incredulity and perhaps something in-between concern and apprehension that graced Mary Chinda, the co-host’s face said a lot of things.
That exchange has left many people divided. Some seem to believe that, Abati perhaps deserves some form of ululation from his younger colleagues, but the majority have pitched their tents with convention. The use of first names on-air is the norm they said and although I’m inclined to agree, I dare to submit that it’s not a rule etched in stone. Convention implies agreement at a given point in time, but nowhere was it written that it must be so everywhere.
Now, while many professionals and even veteran anchors have also had their say on the matter and it is almost wholly against ‘Dr. Reuben’s’ desperate demand for respect, I seem to believe his actions are not simply about craving respect, but something in-between condescension premised on the age and gender of his co-host. Abati is not new to this kind of public scrutiny.
Personally, I admire the man for returning to his profession straight from Aso Rock. What happened could be dismissed as the lure of deification inherent in the actions of many who have traveled the halls of that all powerful presidential seat of power. It is said that Aso Rock has a college of stubborn witches who are in the habit of following whoever has enjoyed their protection home. I believe the witches it was who showed up during the show to remind Reuben of the debt of power he owes them.
Moving on from Dr. Reuben or should I say, Reuben for short? Well.
Yesterday, suspended DCP ABBA KYARI was brought to court alongside his accomplices who the NDLEA is accusing of working with others in Brazil, Ethiopia and elsewhere to transact in illicit drugs including cocaine. While two of Kyari’s accomplices pleaded guilty to the charges, the big fish in the middle of it all, represented by perhaps one of the most decorated Nigerian lawyer in Kanu Agabi, maintained his innocence. Bail was denied him as his lawyer pleaded with the court for Kyari to remain in the custody of the NDLEA as against remanding him in prison.
The request to keep him out of the prisons even if just temporarily until such a time that he has been convicted is a reasonable one. Having enjoyed the exalted position as the arrowhead of the now notorious Police Intelligence Respons Team (IRT), there’s a chance that majority of the criminals cooling off in these prisons may have been put there by him and his team. Never mind his and the IRT under him’s Gestapo methods. As such, putting him in the midst of these criminals is akin to a summary execution.
Talking about methods, many stories of Abba Kyari’s highhandedness while serving as the head of IRT have hit the public space since his fall from grace. From, the gut wrenching stories of how his team used to force suspects to transfer huge sums to their accounts or accounts of POS operators, to the audacious practice of matching suspects to banks to either withdraw cash or move cash to other accounts, the brazenness of these acts is just incredibly disturbing. Agba Jalingo, a journalist who was accused of all sorts of bogus crimes including cybercrime and treason by the Rivers state government and incarcerated for 174 days recounted how Abba Kyari arrested him in Lagos, before driving him all the way to Calabar in the boot of a car. Not short of kidnapping!
All these chilling stories typified the kind of power DCP ABBA KYARI once wielded as the famed supercop and poster boy of the Nigerian police and he’s not alone. In fact, blatant disregard of people’s rights has become so rampant that you begin to believe it is the operational rule of the Nigerian police.
Sometimes in 2018, the police in my area arrested and beat up a young lady whose crime was simply that she used her phone to videotape the brutal manhandling of a motorist by the cops. By the time I got to the Police station to enquire about her, the young lady has been so battered and broken that they got her believing she had committed a heinous and unforgivable crime punishable only by death. It took the intervention of the Police Public Complaint Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU) to not just free her, but reassure her that she committed no crimes. Poor lady never recovered and she had to leave Abuja completely.
But before Abba Kyari’s court appearance, stories had emerged that the Federal government of Nigeria has acceded to the request for extradition preferred against Kyari by the FBI in furtherance of their investigation into his alleged culpability with Azeez Ramon aka Hushpuppy who is facing charges of wire fraud and other sundry offenses in the United state. Nothing can be so disturbing as this news. Does it mean Nigeria does not have the capacity to try it’s citizens for crimes committed on the shores of this country? What kind of independent nation will handover it’s citizens, criminal and all, to another country, especially when the crimes they have been accused of were not committed on the shores of that foreign country?
I know DCP ABBA KYARI would have been challenging FG’s decision in court had he not been enmeshed in his current case with the NDLEA. It will be interesting to see what the courts will have to say on the matter should it ever make it that far.
Meanwhile, Baba has jetted off to London for his regular Panadol, but this time, he confirmed that his able VP will be in charge of government. VP Osinbajo is to be assisted by the Secretary to the government of the federation he said. It is disheartening that after more than 6 years in office, our president has failed to build or equip one hospital that could treat him and others in right here in Nigeria. Not even the lessons of COVID-19 have motivated him to look inward. This is even as Aisha Buhari who by the way now lives in Dubai, confirmed that the State House hospital lacks as little as Panadol despite appearing at the end of huge sums after every round of budgeting.
Lest I forget, ASUU has also insisted that there’s no more room for renegotiation of an already negotiated 2009 agreement. They are of the opinion that FG should simply go into its shelves to bring out the agreement document already signed by both government and University based unions. All ASUU is waiting for now is implementation. As it stands, Nigerian students must continue to mark time at home. Never mind the attendant restiveness that comes with idleness.
