This piece is not intended to polish the already polished but bruised image of Abati. It is to give credence to Abati’s intellectual prowess and win back some of us who will immeasurably benefit from his intellectual wealth. I have come to realise that Abati is a gift to Nigeria if you juxtapose or match his brilliance and presentation with his counterparts here in the United States or elsewhere.
Image: ReubenAbati.com
Abati has ‘womanised’ our minds, and the minds of the literati. The envisioned literati amongst us continue to ‘prostitute’ his literary prowess to satisfy their thirst and intellectual starvation. As inquisitors, we will continue to ask and get more attracted to his literary work. Our current intellectual infatuation is what we get when we embark on intellectual expedition to equip our literary skills. Before Abati got consumated in the juicy but lustful of politics and the fouled Nigerian political terrains, Abati’s brilliance has in the past exposed the shenanigans and cloak of political secrecy of the Nigerian politicians. He was the star and a role model to some of African youths. Those of us who have tapped from his compendium of knowledge; or those who are products of his fertile mind can attest to this writer’s passion, unbiased, objective evaluations of spanking Abati; and the musing of Abati’s person and his famous intellect. Abati’s weaponization of information for his end users or consumers to arm themselves in civil or national discourse should be justly appreciated.
We can excuse Abati’s immediate past but existentially, we cannot excuse or escape his robust intellectual prowess. On our journey to intellectual phrenic, the likes of Abati is pitiably cannot be expunged from our literary minds. We will continue to regurgitate his sumptuous masterpieces in the literary world. Instinctively, peruse his past, Abati’s various articles in The Guardian Newspaper’s archive, and on Google speak well and clearly espoused Abati’s wordsmith and his intellectual capital. His deconstruction of Nigerian leaders and the average Nigerian is a masterpiece. Abati needs to craft a rhapsody to appease his former followers and redeem himself in us. He needs to apologise to us to defray his fettered talent and bruised image.
If we cannot detach ourselves from Abati’s ‘sins’, he needs to attach himself to us for our ‘lust and love’ of his talent. The only panacea to enjoying his writings is to temporarily or permanently close our eyes to his self-induced fallibility, his immediate past and roles in the corrupt and directionless administration of Goodluck Jonathan. Mr. Goodluck Jonathan is the author of a ‘new normal’ among the Nigerian politicians. This nuance is titled: “Corruption is not Stealing”. When corruption is not stealing in his boss’ administration, stealing is corruption in another civilized world. In fact, corruption is a circumstantial evidence of everything that is wrong with Nigeria. Corruption is a felony that attracts a long-term jail in penitentiary institutions for the offender(s).
Meanwhile, some of my friends on social media seemingly ignore to read Abati’s pieces in parchment because of his intentional fallibility, well, my admonition to them is not to do so, otherwise, they do that at their own intellectual peril. Abati’s writings are not what we can love to avoid to read or hate to devour. The more I loathe Ruben Abati’s mistake, the more I get infatuated in his literary construction. Abati is a wordsmith; a master at engineering words; a sentence constructionist or literary engineer who has mesmerised us in his work of outstanding artistry, skill and workmanship.
Abati is a literary gymnast, his craftsmanship in the study of art cannot be ignored or over-emphasised. The man is a literary witchcraft and wordmonger with lucidity in the presentation of his ideas and opinions. Without any pretence, Abati likes to mesmerise our mind with his clarity and well-constructed writings. The temptation of ignoring his articles is intellectually unnecessary and uncalled for in academics and arts. Avoiding his work of art is to sentence inquisitive mind to intellectual travesty.
Moreover, as Abati’s preachments or excuses on his roles in Jonathan’s corrupt government nauseate us, we are infatuated and inexcusably addicted to his fertile mind. Abati honestly needs to urgently re-invent himself in the minds of his aggrieved admirers.
