Photo: Left -Reuben then / Right-Reuben Now
The presidency, yesterday, said
the invitation by the Nigeria Police Force to Leadership newspaper over
its story which purported that a presidential directive had been issued
to clamp down on opposition parties and its key figures should not be
seen as an attempt to stifle the press but as part of police
responsibilities to ensure that it acted in the public interest.
In a response to Leadership
position that the invitation of its editors and reporters was part of
government plan to abridge the freedom of the press, the Special Adviser
to the president on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, said rather
than view the invitation from this context, it behoves on Leadership and
the media to ‘to double check their claims, and where errors had been
made, to quickly retract the story’.
The Leadership newspapers had
in a banner headline alleged that government had issued a presidential
directive to security agencies to truncate the propose merger of
opposition parties to present a formidable challenge to the Peoples
Democratic Party, PDP, in the coming elections.
Following the disavowal of the
presidentcy to the existence of such directive, Leadership newspaper
published a bromide of what it said was the directive, prompting the
police to invite and subsequently detained some of its editors for a day
before they were released.
The newspaper restated that it stood by the authenticity of its story.
But in a reply titled “Leadership Newspaper, Media Responsibility
and the Police” Dr Abati said freedom of speech which this government
has not only guarded by promoting, comes with responsibility which
Leadership newspapers owe to have imbibed.
According to him, rather than
play the victim, Leadership newspapers ought to have done a soul
searching and “see this as an opportunity to co-operate with the police
as required by the laws of the land”.
Culled - Vanguard
In-fact Fast-forward, the piece you are about to read was written by Reuben Abati when he was an activist or lets say a journalist working for Guardian newspapers.
Title: The 76 Jeeps of Modu Sheriff >By Reuben Abati
>GOVERNOR Ali Modu Sheriff of Borno State must be in a foul mood. He must be angry with the Nigerian press. For a while he had decided not to talk to the press, according to him "because of the things some of you were writing about my administration". But as part of his New Year resolution for 2005,
>His Excellency decided to "continue to speak to the press and put the past behind me." He says: "Every year people have resolutions. You have a new life and a new beginning. My new year resolution is to continue to speak to the press..." To give effect to this resolution, Modu Sheriff met with correspondents in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, recently, in the course of which he was asked a number of questions about his administration.
Continue reading after the cut...
>When the story was published in The Daily Sun of Monday, January 24, the editors played up one sentence out of what the Governor said: "I had 76 Jeeps before I became Governor". Since this publication, Nigerians have reacted with a near sense of outrage. At least in one letter to the editor in The Punch, one Nigerian decided to query the source of Modu Sheriff's wealth asking such provocative questions as: Where did he get all that money from? What was he doing before he became Governor? Why should anybody have 76 Jeeps? In conversations here and there, similar questions have also been raised. And so, Modu Sheriff must be wondering whether he has not made a mistake by resolving to continue to talk to the press in 2005. His aides must be telling him that journalists are rascals.
>Of all the things he said in the interview with correspondents, the only thing that they have chosen to play up mischievously is the declaration that he had 76 Jeeps before becoming Governor. The Governor's friends are also likely to tell him that he was wrong to have assumed that journalists would ever change their ways!. This stigmatisation of journalists is the favourite sport of public officials. One very important Nigerian had placed a sign in front of his home: "Beware of journalists!". He had also on other occasions accused journalists of dishonesty. Only a few days ago, the same man blamed journalists for Nigeria's bad image.
>You must know who I am talking about. If you do not, then take that as a quiz to be answered. In fact, many Nigerians always claim that they have been misquoted by the press. When some public officials hear the word, "journa...", they do not wait for the remaining "list" to be pronounced before they take to their heels. In a country such as ours where people have a lot of things that they would rather hide, the journalist is something of an irritant. Governor Modu Sheriff therefore has my sympathies.
>Here is a man who has made a resolution to talk to the press; here is a Governor who has chosen to identify with us, give us stories, open his doors, and see how we have treated him. I want to appeal to Governor Modu Sheriff to consider changing his resolution. I mean, a resolution can always be changed. Besides, he is the Executive Governor of Borno state, so he has the powers to pay journalists back in their own coin. For example, when the other year, one journalist had the temerity to write something unflattering about the President, he was promptly chased out of the Aso Villa press centre, with a strict warning that if he ever showed up there again, he would have himself to blame. What Modu Sheriff can do is simple: let him send a bill to the Borno state House of Assembly asking the lawmakers to enact a law that bans journalists from coming anywhere near the Governor again. A request for an interview from the governor should be classified a punishable offence. Journalists should be prepared to pay such a price for daring to embarrass a man who recognised them specially in his New Year resolution. What ingratitude! Out of all the categories of people that the Governor relates with in a year, he chose journalists, imagine he didn't choose bankers, or medical doctors, or women, investors, or alfas, but common journalists, and now they have caused him so much discomfort. I am a journalist fine, but I think a spade has no other name.
>In the said interview, the Governor said a lot of things. For example, when his transition committee discovered that the former Governor Malla Kachalla could not account for a certain N7 billion, Modu Sheriff had the option of setting up a panel of enquiry to get the money back into state coffers, and at least find out what exactly happened. But when respected elders began to mount pressure on him to let sleeping dogs lie, his hands were tied. He found himself in a dilemma, and he had to overlook the missing N7 billion. Isn't this a nice man? If it were some other people, they would have been complaining about corruption. In this same country, some people have been disturbing the public with allegations that one public official has a mere one billion naira in his account? Ordinary one billion! And here is Modu Sheriff, who has overlooked N7 billion, and Borno state has not collapsed.
>So, why would any editor raise alarm about such a man when he reveals that he had 76 Jeeps before becoming Governor. Modu Sheriff does not believe in all that talk about probing corruption. He believes in the wisdom of respected elders, "both within and outside Borno state." Now, this is a Governor who is telling all of us that elders know best even when corruption is involved. Is he not a true Nigerian? Is he not a true symbol of our social process? Going through the interview, it is obvious that the correspondents kept asking him about how he has managed to sack so many people in the state. But the Governor explains himself indicating that he has had no hand in the misfortune of others. If he did anything at all, he did so in good faith.
>The major problem he has had is with the opposition, "those people who will not want you to succeed so that you don't come and run for second term". You see now. The governor was very sincere. He made it clear to the press that he has enemies in the state. He must have chosen friendship with journalists as his New Year resolution, in the expectation that they would reciprocate and be nice to him. But the caption: "I had 76 Jeeps before I became Governor" is precisely the kind of ammunition that the opposition needs. The Governor added "I declared them in my assets declaration". Suppose he didn't and he was merely trying to impress his friends, the journalists. What if the opposition now goes about looking for Modu Sheriff's declaration form and the 76 Jeeps? He can be accused for example of anticipatory declaration! Some enemies of progress can suddenly start sniffing around and before you know it, the public will be told that since the man became Governor he has acquired more Jeeps, more mansions, and accounts in foreign banks. Even the EFCC could start asking questions:
>Where did Modu Sheriff work? How much was his salary? What is the cost of a Jeep? If he had 76 Jeeps, how many more has he bought since he became Governor? How many houses has he acquired? Does he like Dariye have bank accounts? When this man won the election in 2003, that was how some people went to court to insist that he never went to the schools he claimed he attended in London. They even went as far as telling the tribunal that those schools never existed, and that his certificates were forged. They queried his Grade Two Certificate and tried to suggest that the man cannot write a successful paragraph in the English language. But Modu
>Sheriff is better than Barkin Zuwo, the second Republic Governor who could not speak English at all. So who is he being compared with? And to think that the man who has been exposed to this searchlight, this needless wahala, is someone who accepted to be Governor of Borno state at great personal risk, in fact he has made it clear that he is doing the people of Borno state a favour. The Sun didn't consider it necessary to highlight this important fact, this big sacrifice that Modu Sheriff is making. He tells us for example that he was doing well as a Senator in Abuja. "As a senator then, you are entitled to 11 staff. As a leader then, I had 20 staff..." This is what Modu Sheriff had to forgo in Abuja, in addition to all the privileges he was enjoying as a Senator to come and serve in Borno. And the opposition would not allow him to rest. Poor Governor Sheriff has not even been able to go to London to see his children. Hear him: "Since I became Governor, I have slept in London once. And it was because of my children. Before I became Governor, I spent my vacations in London with my family. There was this period my family travelled there after spending three weeks, I called them. And my son said, 'daddy, don't you love us again?" That statement touched me. That was why I had to spend the night with them." How great! In fact Modu Sheriff should be given a national award for this alone. He has slept in London, good old London only once since he became Governor, the same London that other Governors go to as if they are visiting the next town. Oh, what a sacrifice! And then his son doubting his love for the family just because he is Governor? Ah, what a pity! In fact, I can see the young man posing the question and Daddy Modu Sheriff feeling so concerned! The interview contains all these and the only thing that people are talking about is 76 Jeeps! People should know that nobody has ever accused Modu Sheriff of taking their money. As a Senator in the other republic, the fellow had a special parking space at the National Assembly premises. In Nigeria, when you are rich, you should be prepared to flaunt it. What Modu Sheriff is trying to say is that he is not of these Governors who see their election as an opportunity to enrich themselves. In fact he does not need a Governor's salary. The man is so rich he does not have to live in Government House. And he loves cars. He as Ali Modu Sheriff is even richer than the state if the truth be told. And there is nothing unusual about this. In Nigeria, public servants are usually richer than the same government that they are serving. Nobody should blame Modu Sheriff if he concludes that journalists are suffering from a poor man's mentality. Only 76 Jeeps? So, if they get to know the number of houses that he has, what would they do? Or the number of shoes in his wardrobe? Meanwhile unlike some people, Sheriff does not have a Godfather that is disturbing him. He is his own Godfather. This is a Governor who throws money onto the streets when he is driving round the state. On one occasion one poor man was hit while scrambling for the Naira that Sheriff had thrown to the masses. The man nearly lost his life. He was so knocked out that "he could not talk nor identify his relations that visited him at the hospital." In addition, I understand that Modu Sheriff does not drive all the cars he has. He only likes to look at them on display, and as he inspects his treasure every morning, he smiles and that is his happiest moment!
By-Reuben Abati
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Lesson:
The case of Reuben is typical to that of Obalende Harlots...'Money for Hand...Back for Ground''...Shekinaa.!
One-day...that water will run dry and tap close..then only then will he come naked to give account of his stewardship. That's on the judgment day!
Drop a comment if you like....thanks!
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