Once upon a time, Operation Fire-for-Fire was the cognomen of the special anti-crime outfit of the Lagos State Police Command. Having lived and worked in Lagos for many years before his current job, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, seems to have borrowed a leaf from the outfit that later transformed into Rapid Response Squad. The way he has been firing from all cylinders at perceived enemies of his principal lately only suggests that he is battle-ready. Maybe the popular columnist got infested by the security operatives while he was serving on the board of the Lagos State Security Trust Fund!
How do you explain the way Abati went all out against a former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, during the week? Ribadu who chaired the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force constituted by Jonathan (by the way, what has happened to that report submitted since November 2, 2012?) had incurred Abati’s wrath when he described Nigeria as a sinking ship.
The presidential spokesman did not spare any word (in what many has described as unpresidential) in replying Ribadu. From being an ingrate to being a political prostitute, from being an hypocrite to being a tyranny, Abati hurled insults on the former anti-graft czar, whom he had in his piece in 2009 said he hugged when they met at Hotel Des Milles Collines in Kigali> As he said in the piece, he (Ribadu) “had lost nothing of his humility, his sense of humour and his humanity.” That was then, may be in Abati’s view, Ribadu has finally lost those attributes and more!
Before Ribadu, Rotimi Fashakin and Lai Mohammed, spokesmen for the opposition CPC and ACN respectively had at different times had their unfair share of Abati’s caustic pen. Fashakin had literarily scattered a beehive with his head when he criticised Jonathan for allegedly missing a speaking slot at the just-concluded African Union summit in Addis Ababa. For that act, Abati described him as an “arm-chair critic per excellence and a medieval-era ignoramus” whom the prize of being silly should go to. Abati also said the Federal Government was dealing with “such hideous and second rate characters” in Nigeria’s public space. Even Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon won’t have done better.
He did not stop at that. He left these words for the CPC spokesman: “Our case is not rested. When next Fashakin comes to the public with unintelligent thoughts about President Jonathan, it shall remain our duty to continue to remind him of the need to think before talking.”
What about some former public office holders he took on in his piece “The hypocrisy of yesterday’s men” widely published in February? What about his regular changing of the ACN spokesman’s first name from Lai to “Liar” for daring to always pick on the government in his widely circulated regular press statements? It is indeed fire for fire!
Olalekan Adetayo
