Re: Rueben Abati and Spiritual side of Aso Villa.

Freedom from ‘ignorance, disease, superstition and want,’ was urgent mission of strivers for Nigeria’s Independence. Anthony Enahoro was shaken when as a boy he observed that, rather than witchcraft as all thought, hole dug in ground to collect rainwater was cause of frequent ailment and child deaths in his paternal village.    

Today, many years later, it’s clear their mission failed. ‘Superstition,’ and its companions still permeates the Nigerian social psyche, even with foothold in Aso Rock, as detailed by Rueben Abati, Special Adviser to Nigeria’s ex-president, in: The Spiritual side of Aso Villa.

Rueben buttresses with ‘testimony’ of fire incidence at his apartment. Shocking. As it’d seem, like his other ‘examples,’ he’s unaware of how commonplace fire, started by cooking or electrical appliance, is, in homes across Nigeria. With heavy usage of candles, diesel and kerosene, Nigeria ranks number 1 on WHO data for deaths caused by fire. Even England, with safer energy sources, recorded 155,000 fire incidents in year 2014/15 (6 per cent started by smokers).

‘Around the Villa while I was there, someone always died or their relations died,’ is another example to lend credence to spiritual forces residing in Nigeria’s equivalent of ‘Number 10 Downing Street.’

As S.A Media and Publicity, if indeed Rueben was a ‘professional doing my bit…’ national data ought to be his vade mecum. 

With average life expectancy for men: 53.4 years, women: 55.6 years (an improvement from 2011–14), persons aged 25 and above in Nigeria, who haven’t experienced loss of a parent, an uncle, aunt or friend, is almost nonexistent. I’d conservatively put average staff age at Aso Villa, from chef to special adviser, at 31. 

Loss of sex drive and erectile dysfunction he graphical details with ‘merchants of dildo,’ is expected in men aged 40 onwards (age of most principals at the Villa) — decreased testosterones. It becomes clear that deaths, reports of familial deaths, and cold bed, is nonsensical proof of ‘powers and principalities’ in Aso Villa.

As in antiquity, many reach for power, or desire close proximity, not knowing what they plan to do with power, and how it’d affect them. 

Reuben writes: ‘When presidents make mistakes, they are probably victims of a force higher than we can imagine …in there (Aso Villa), they actually become something else. They act like they are under a spell.’ 

Seclusion of Aso Villa, its mighty security, long motorcades, sirens and deference, traps occupants in an ‘echo chamber,’ like colonialists. Their scope limited, and eventually they become out-of-touch with populace. Hence, Rueben thinks it a spiritual attack on his ‘special self,’ what is common occurrence in the land.

Had he paid attention to Yoruba folklore of Sango (Ajaokuta) or Ogun (olomi n’le feje we), Reuben would’ve learnt that atmosphere of absolute authority, unending praise-singing from sycophants, could lead to self-sabotaging behaviour in a leader and their team, let alone ones unprepared for power. More dangerously, both mythical Obas, would go on to tyrannise theirs’ and peoples of neighbouring towns to no end, both men eventually committing suicide.  

This phenomenon psychologists now term Hubris Syndrome. 

Pressure of hope millions of people place upon you when elected leader in a democracy, or paranoia when you’ve usurped power, can quickly turn anyone into a maniac or depressive. It’s job of persons like Reuben Abati to remind their boss they’re mortals, develop possible scenarios of how narratives may turn out, and be on-top of issues. Helping her or him put things in perspective so tangible results can be achieved within their tenure. 

Whilst a senator, and positioning to run for the ‘White House,’ Barack Obama, writes of a hubristic experience in Audacity of Hope: ‘…no job, an ailing son, his [factory worker he’d met] savings running out. Those were the stories you missed on a private jet at forty thousand feet.’

When his presidency is recounted we’d find out if he took his own advice. And if his Chiefs of Staff grounded him.

Achievements by Regional Governments in Nigeria’s First Republic are still retold starry-eyed. They were achieved by teams of alert minds who had the ears of each Region’s Premier, from typists to advisers. Sam Mbakwe, Lateef Jakande and Abubakar Rimi of Second Republic get fair-hearing, too.

Sadly, my takeaway from Reuben’s wild fantasy epistle of ‘persons in the Villa walking upside down,’ death ‘below their waists,’ and ‘we are happy to be out of that place,’  is that he was ill-equipped to discharge a key function with national implications for generations of Nigerians to come. 

Anyhow, if ‘Spiritual side of Aso Villa’ is why Goodluck Jonathan promptly handed over sovereignty the people entrusted in him after losing confidence of majority. May the demons continue to torment present journeymen occupying Nigeria’s presidential residence.