We demand apology from Abati

Sir: 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.

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 infactuation is what we get when we embark on intellectual expedition to equip our literary skills. Before Abati got consumated in the lustful of politics and the fouled Nigerian political terrains, Abati’s brilliance has in the past exposed the cloak of political secrecy of the Nigerian politicians. He was the star and a role model to some of African youths.

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. 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 immediate past. Some of my friends on social media seemingly ignore to read Abati’s pieces in parchment, 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, 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. Abati honestly needs to urgently re-invent himself in the minds of his aggrieved admirers.
Yahaya Balogun Arizona, USA.