Immediately I saw the writer and the topic i rushed to get into this piece by Femi Adesina. I was sure I was going to be let into a good helping from a wordsmith which Femi is. The contents of the epithet he wrote on his sisters death still stands as the best piece I’ve ever read from him . Maybe because of the emotional bruises of the Topic.
Abati on the other hand too is another certified word engineer. Anytime I see a piece from him I rush to read , except during the dying era of his erstwhile boss, when I couldn’t stomach the spin being dished out to sanitize the stench coming out of the Presidential Palace. I understand a man has got to do his job and I also reserved the right to reject a menu. It is not impossible Adesina too might gradually get to that state of pantomime if the change vessel eventually berths in the port of anomie as we are gradually getting into.
After reading both Abati and Adesina, my summation is that you are both right.
Evil locks in Aso Rock, but those who are spiritually fortified by the REAL God can step over that coffin and emerge whole .
During the Abacha era, I was introduced to the Abacha family by the late Christy Essien Igbokwe. The purpose was to produce TV commercials, in respect of Mariam Abacha’s pet project on women and children, multi camera coverage of the BLACK ENTERTAINMENT AWARDS, and yes documentaries and coverage of the 1 million man match. My crew and I was quartered at a point in the Abuja Sheraton for 13 months,because we had to move the complete studios to Abuja.
I became a regular visitor to Aso Rock for 13 months so
much that my cousin who recently retired at the highest echelon of the Immigration service was given the rare privilege of always driving beyond the designated official car park into the bowels of Aso Rock itself to drop and pick me everyday. This was rare in the security blockade mentality of the Abacha era.
On the day Abacha died I was in Jos with the topmost musicians in this country spread over 4 hotels at the beginning of a 36 state tour for the Presidency. It was the last time I entered Aso Rock.
During this period, I sometimes would stay for over 14 hours just to meet the man or the wife for 4 minutes to
Preview my job or take a briefing. I witnessed topmost Nigerians like Arisekola bring their praying mats along for a meeting that might not exceed a few minutes but which they will have to wait days on end before being attended to.
I always had very very eerie feeling in Aso Rock. I was convinced there was something very very dark and evil lucking in those walls. Late in the night when those Ostriches strolling the grounds make their strange noises I was always having goose pimples convinced I was in a house of horror . I could also add that I lost every material thing I bought , equipment or personal items, post Abacha. My cars, my cameras all mysteriously went to dust. After his death I became penurious, my studios closed down , all my staff who had enjoyed 13 months in Sheraton, left over night and I entered the darkest tunnel of my life. For the first time in my adult life I was taking Commercial vehicles. It was a year of intense spiritual battle that eventually got me out of the hole.
Two Presidents have died in Aso Rock , two First Ladies have died in or out of Aso Rock. Not to mention countless tragedies that have befallen the power brokers who have taken refuge there, some of which were chronicled by Abati. How many tragedies have we read about American White House or 10 Downing Street.
I know why Aso Rock is a quicksand.
I was involved in politics at low levels for a period of 6 years till 2007.
It was an expose for me. Politics in Nigeria is the deadliest enterprise anybody can get into. You are immediately sucked into s world of voodoo, terrifying spiritual experiences and your soul almost torn apart in miasma of sacrifices , late night spiritual cloak and dagger, travels into never lands etc. You enter politics you enter the world of darkness. The experience was so traumatic it led me out of fear and trepidation , to JESUS. I ran to Christ and got saved when I watched my soul descending into the abyss .
Aso Rock is the pinnacle of political power in Nigeria. Both the leadership and even the clerical hands regard the place as next to heaven.
The result, massive and very dark spiritual accruements get buried in those grounds or beamed by spiritual Bluetooth into its grounds.
No President , military or Civilian has occupied that palace without importing marabouts and men with third eye into its grounds and I dare say including its present occupants.
Abati was right , only those who God is kind to will exist un scatted in and out of Aso Rock.
However if I understand Femi very well, you can only fall to its evil spell if you are a spiritual paper weight or you worship the wrong God. I think Femi should actually wait and write his own experience in hindsight . It’s sometimes premature to analyze a life experience when you are still living it. I don’t pray that he will say years from now that Abati was right after all.
However people like Femi and Abati always live to write about it maybe because their mind set in the first place is anchored on the transient nature of that cocoon and a solid spiritual template .
A world ever so complicated.