Lere Olayinka, media aide to the Minister of the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has slammed Arise TV host Reuben Abati
over the latter’s remarks, questioning why he would kneel down to serve his
“master.”
During Arise TV’s Morning Show on Tuesday, Abati criticized
Lere, likening his service to Wike to the alleged sycophancy displayed by some
appointees of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said, “The high point of it was when our good friend,
Lere Olayinka, knelt down trying to serve his master. What is all this?
“Look, when we were in government, sycophancy was the
tradition then, before and after, generally in the Nigerian government. When
people knelt down before President Jonathan, he would tell them to stand up.
“In fact, I saw people crawling. This is how they behave.
But Lere Olayinka understands the game more than some of us, so he will kneel
down and serve the master. There is a time limit to all of this.”
Reacting, Lere said in a Facebook post that Jonathan
suffered from bad press due to Abati’s lack of focus during his time as Media
Adviser to the former president.
He wrote, “I thank you for making me a topic on Arise News
this morning. Try and continue till the end of January 2026.
“But as I have maintained, if you had been this focused on
your job as President Jonathan’s Media Adviser, the way you are fixated with
anything Wike now, you wouldn’t have failed to adequately protect him
(Jonathan) against the bad press he faced as President.
“And I hope you are less greedy now. That greed, which made
one of your concubines run away with millions of naira meant for running your
office, just because you didn’t want those working with you as SSAs and SAs to
know what you were receiving as a running grant.”
Source: Lere fires back at Reuben Abati after faulting him on kneeling down to serve Wike
