A former presidential aide to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan, and an Arise TV morning show host, Rueben Abati, has said that the River State Governor was too small to teach him journalism. Abati said it will take Wike one year to study his body of work over the several decades. He further boasted that Wike does not have the capacity or the intellect to teach him journalism as he started journalism several years before Wike came to the scene as a politician.
Abati was reacting to Wike’s outburst over Atiku Abubakar’s interview on Arise Tv where he singled him out for not doing a thorough investigative job on Atiku’s comments about him.
But Abati argued that all that needed to be done in the interview was done.
PDP in tragedy – Abati
In a discussion on Arise TV on Monday, Abati said it’s a tragedy for the Peoples Democratic Party that it has been reduced to the level of “tantrums and the melodrama of one individual called Nyesom Wike, a 59-year-old man who thinks that the party belongs to him. “
He said: I hope that the party itself will take part of the blame because after the 2015-2019 general election, when everybody that stepped in there, using resources – Well, I don’t know where those resources came from, but he stood firm to defend the party and to keep the party alive, hence he developed the sense of entitlement. And he thought in a royalistic manner that the top position in the party was meant for him.
“But when he was disappointed, he has gone ahead to throw tantrums. He didn’t make it to the presidential ticket of the party. He has also pushed aside the choice of the running mate to presidential standard-bearer, Atiku Abubakar. At the end of the day, here we are. The PDP has a Wike problem.
“I hope that going forward, the party will learn from their own conduct or their own mistakes how because of stomach infrastructure, many leaders of the party more or less handed over the party leadership to one man who developed a sense of delusion, a sense of exaggerated importance and thought that he could lord over other members of the party.
Wike’s position different from party’s – Abati
“Now, they had a meeting yesterday and one of the founding fathers of the party, Jerry Ghana said ‘ we are one.’ Well, that contradicts what Wike pointed out in the interview that he granted at the international airport when he returned from a trip. He said that he will talk more. What is he going to say again? In 15 minutes of rambling and protest, he said that Atiku lied in an interview he granted to Arise TV. Now, at the end of the day, he did not debunk the lies that he imagined. I’m not defending the Atiku’s camp. That’s not my job. I’m a journalist.
“What did Atiku say that he addressed concretely other than saying Atiku lied. What Atiku said was that he was given a shortlist and he chose from the list. Nobody was imposed on him and it’s his prerogative to choose his own running mate. How is that the problem? And you will ask the question; what exactly does Wike want? The other day when we discussed this matter, I said Wike throwing a tantrum and they should give him lollipops. The major takeaway from that interview at the airport is that nobody has brought the lollipop to him. And what is that lollipop that he wants? I said when a child is crying, you pet him, you give him sweet, let him lick it.”
Party’s decision supreme
Arguing further, Abati said the party is supreme and that Wike should follow the example of the former governor, Peter Odili, Rotimi Amaechi, Yemi Osibanjo, and Ahmad Lawan who in failing to get the ticket have shown greater maturity. He wonders why one individual with his own immaturity trying to distract everyone.
Wike can’t teach me journalism – Abati
He said: “ And then in that interview, Gov Wike was trying to teach journalism. He even singled me out. Well, Gov. Wike is not in the position to teach Reuben Abati journalism. He calls it investigative journalism because we went to do an interview. I put it to him that we asked all the right questions.
“Governor Wike does not have the capacity or the intellect to teach me – Reuben Abati journalism. If he wants to study my body of work over the several decades behind me, he will spend more than a year just trying to figure out the amount of work that I have done.
“I think it’s important for him to moderate his anger and allow Nigerians to focus on serious issues rather than self-promotion throwing of tantrums everywhere. We would like to engage him at the level of ideas, not at the level of his own emotional choices. People should not just think that because they are in government, they have the right to just misbehave in the public domain.”