Reuben Abati, political analyst and journalist, has dismissed Peter Obi’s one-term presidency pledge as a “sign of desperation”, arguing that the idea will not gain traction, especially in Nigeria’s North. Speaking on Arise TV on Sunday, Abati was responding to Obi’s recent vow to serve only a single four-year term if elected president in 2025. […]
Reading Reuben Abati’s May 2 article (originally published in his ThisDay column, and widely syndicated) about Nigerians in Sudan, drove home again for me the fact that many Nigerian journalists need a masterclass in how not to denigrate their country falsely and needlessly; how not to downplay its positive attributes and commendable actions. So much […]
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has issued a warning to Reuben Abati, a former presidential adviser, and popular journalist, over an alleged remark that the group was funded by a drug trader apprehended by the Imo State Police Command. IPOB’s media and publicity secretary, Emma Powerful, issued a statement on Thursday advising Abati to […]
Reuben Abati, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, has noted that there were more crisp, mint notes in circulation at Oba, Anambra state, over the weekend than in the entire Nigerian banking system. Abati, in a write up on Wednesday, noted that the crisp notes “were abused” even by the law enforcement agents who […]
The former aide to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Mr Reuben Abati has said that the former Aviation Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain Femi Fani-Kayode has said that General Yakubu Gowon Nigeria’s military Head of State from 1966 -1975 does not qualify to be celebrated as a war hero or an icon of national […]
The Chairmen of the Committees on Public Accounts in the National Assembly – Kingsley Chinda (House of Representatives, PDP Rivers, Obio/Akpor Constituency) and Mathew Urhoghide (Senate, PDP Edo South) – have both had cause to ask the respective Chambers of the National Assembly to commence impeachment proceedings against President Muhammadu Buhari for allowing the withdrawal […]
By Reuben Abati Professor Wole Soyinka was keynote speaker at the maiden annual lecture of the Ripples Centre for Data and Investigative Journalism held in Lagos on March 15. Topic: “Rebuilding Trust in a Divided Nigeria: Can Nigeria be fixed?” The Nobel Laureate did not disappoint. His presentation titled “From Miyetti to Haiti: Notes from […]
BY Reuben Abati The drama, the controversy, the confusion, the double entendre, attended by seeming cowardice, that grew around a statement, perhaps the statements, purportedly issued by former military President Ibrahim Babangida on Sunday, February 4, is absolutely unnecessary, unfortunate and utterly avoidable. A statesman, the new role in which President Babangida has since found […]
I wrote the following piece, presented in italics, shortly after the postponement of the 2015 Presidential elections. It is important that the reader approaches it with an open mind, with an understanding of the context of its construction. The piece, titled “Buhari’s One Chance Campaign” never got published. One of my colleagues to whom I […]
Perhaps the biggest news this week so far, has been the attempt by the Presidency to debunk the allegation that President Muhammadu Buhari has been kinder to Northerners and Muslims in the recruitment of persons into his administration. The published list, itself a response to an earlier indictment by the BusinessDay newspaper, has been dismissed […]
By Reuben Abati “I hear say our Sai Baba don return from Turkey”. “Did you hope that he would stay there permanently? He went for the D-8 meeting, and he is bound to return.” “D-8 meeting. I have been thinking about it. We are supposed to be a secular country but internationally, we have continued […]
President Goodluck Jonathan has warned against negative celebration of the election victory of Major General Muhammadu Buhari as the President-elect. Jonathan also restated the need for the country to continue the healing process that he has initiated by conceding defeat. The president, who contested on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost to […]
As president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is moving out of office so also is his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Reuben Abati. But the question on the lips of everybody is whether the one time ‘very busy man’ will be back to do what he knows how to do best, which is criticising the government […]
The war of words between Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state and President Goodluck Jonathan’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati is far from over as the Lagos state governor has described the president’s spokesman as a “reckless serial talker” over his comment regarding the robbery incident at a branch of FCMB […]
The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Reuben Abati, has berated Governor Babatunde Fashola over his recent comments stating that the Lekki robbery succeeded, due to the presence of President Goodluck Jonathan in the state. Governor Babatunde Fashola had on Friday during his visit to the robbery scene in Lekki […]