Abati: Killing Journalism on the alter of ‘breakfasting with the Soludo’, by Onyiorah Chiduluemije

The piece “Breakfast With The Soludos” is clearly a skewed opinion of Dr. Reuben Abati packaged and thrown into the public space under the guise of presenting an objective assessment of the outgoing government of Prof Chukwuma Charles Soludo of Anambra State.

An article conceived in the euphoria of eating a delicious breakfast and later reduced to writing and brought into limelight by Dr Reuben Abati, former special Adviser to Ex-President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and currently a TV presenter on Arise News. By inferences, the piece in itself could not but represent a bad narrative about how far the lofty principle of objectivity in the practice of journalism has been so abysmally compromised and, in fact, destroyed in Nigeria by supposedly seasoned media practitioners.

As it were, from the beginning of the piece, Dr Reuben Abati did not seem to conceal the fact that he was in Anambra State to make the most of whatever Governor Chukwuma Soludo could offer, while ostensibly projecting the smokescreen of being in the line of his duty to moderate a media chat on the occasion of Prof. Soludo’s third year in office as the Executive Governor of the State.

In brief but precise words of Dr Reuben Abati, “it was not difficult for me to accept the invitation” by Prof. Soludo and his media team.

As a matter of course, one wonders why and how it could have been that difficult for Dr Abati to accept such mouth-watering invitation by Governor Soludo and his media team, knowing full well what that could hold in stock for him. In fact, that this media outing eventually offered him the providential opportunity to savour breakfast with Governor Soludo and his wife is, with hindsight, more than just coincidence.

By his account, the interview proper began by 7pm and ended at 9pm on the 18th day of March, 2025, and was aired live on Arise News, Channels TV, Television Continental (TVC) and Anambra State Television Service. Also by his confession, the Governor asked them, the four Journalists who had interviewed him – Babajide Otitoju of TVC, Maupe Ogun-Yusuf of Channels TV, Chris Molokwu of Anambra State TV (ABS) and, of course, Dr Reuben Abati, himself of Arise TV – to join him for breakfast the following morning before exiting from Awka, the state capital.

Meanwhile, Dr Reuben Abati could not as a matter of fact afford to conceal the presence of his wife and Journalist, Kikelomo Atanda-owo, whose own programme on Silverbird TV, we learned from Abati, is known as RealTalkWithith Kike. Somehow, it would seem from every indication that Kikelomo was not even directly invited by Soludo and his media team, but only happened to be there at the sole pleasure of Dr Reuben Abati – her coordinating spouse. To an extent, therefore, Dr Reuben Abati must have come well prepared for this more or less merriment tour ala special assignment in Anambra State.

Not surprisingly though, out of the four Journalist who had interviewed Governor Soludo the previous day and were invited to join him the following morning in his Government House residence for breakfast, only one was was perhaps ethically and professionally conscious to absent. And he is no other than Mr Chris Molokwu of Anambra Broadcasting Service (ABS).

Whether his absence from this schedule was deliberate or not is obviously immaterial here. The bottomline though is that he was absent; and such absence was and remains largely for good. This is essentially healthy when juxtaposed with the imperative for objectivity and/or objective reportage in Journalism within the Nigeria media landscape.

Ideally, there is a reasonable limit any serious minded Journalist on an assignment is meant to relate with his host interviewee, in order not to knowingly or unknowingly cross the red line of ethical standards and professional niceties.

This is highly important for certain reasons. For one, if not for anything, the need for untainted public perception and public trust matters a great deal in the production of credible reportage. And so, come to rationalize it, for a Journalist on an assignment as serious as moderating a media chat for his host interviewee over the dispassionate assessment of the latter’s performance in office over a period of time, to give in to wining and dining with the same host interviewee – be it either immediately before or soon after the interview session – does not seem to convey a good public impression, create bias-free public perception or enhance public trust for any media outlet such a Journalist represents. In addition, this sort of untowards development in itself does not seem most likely to pass the test of professional code of conduct for media personnel. Indeed, to all intents and purposes, this sort of undoing constitutes a clear case of professional misconduct. Hence it is not only condemnable, but also it makes nonsense of whatever claims a Journalist in this compromised position may subsequently raise in defence of him/herself.

Strangely enough, Dr Reuben Abati would later come out publicly to shamelessly dwell on his so-called “Breakfast With The Soludos”. In this write-up, he even throws light on the conversations that characterised their dining table session; what Mrs Nonye Soludo purportedly did that prevented what her husband refers to as hunger riots from breaking out in Anambra State, and a litany of other sycophantic pandering.

Most probably, because Dr Abati would appear to have lost his sense of rationality in the euphoria of the breakfast, he could no longer be smart enough to seek detailed and reasonable explanation from Governor Soludo himself regarding the concrete evidence of things he believes his wife actually did to save Anambra and Ndi Anambra from the bitter experience of hunger riot. For Reuben, therefore, whether this claim by Soludos is built around real fake news or sheer political propaganda is immaterial, hence his apparent silence on it.

What is more, by writing and even acknowledging that everywhere around the capital city of Awka is smeared with “major markers titled The Solution is here”, Dr Abati implicitly appears to take exception to that, though this slogan, “The Solution is here”, in itself is no indication or evidence of any substantial political or economic milestone.

However, one could of course grasp the fact that the use of this paradigm today by Prof. Soludo-led government draws from a piece written many years ago by Dr Reuben Abati titled “The Soludo Solution”.

But to stand on this and then use it as a premise to falsely argue that “water is now available in Anambra” and, also, that “three brand new cities are springing up” in the state, among other fallacies, is a great disservice on the part of Dr. Reuben Abati being unleashed upon the ideal of objective reportage in the practice of journalism on the alter of breakfasting with the Soludos. While of course there is obviously nothing wrong with Dr Abati toadying to Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s ego as it appeals to him, doing so by misrepresenting facts on ground in Anambra State ostensibly as Arise Television Journalist is where the trouble lies.

Therefore merely visiting Anambra State under the auspices of Arise Television and returning thereafter to personalise the visit with a debut Breakfast With The Soludos is glaringly a curious case of conflict of interest that must be shunned by all reasonable men and women of the media in Nigeria.

On a final note, Dr Reuben Abati would do well to remind President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Federal Government that rather than Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Lagos, immortalizing the bearer of this name would have been aptly restricted to institutions and facilities associated with his military background and career. And until this is done, Dr Reuben Abati must learn to live with the reality of the name “Prof. Chinua Achebe International Airport, Umueri, Anambra State.” If indeed Abati means well regarding a university being the most appropriate institution for Achebe’s memorial, then he should further proceed to make such wonderful recommendation to his brother and President of Nigeria, Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu. After all, Chinua Achebe’s legacies in the Literary world speak volumes not just about Nigeria but also Africa in diverse aspects.

Thus, that he deserves a plum and prime place of honour in our national life and that of Africa as a continent is unarguable. It is not therefore out of place for Dr. Reuben Abati to take the lead in the national and regional clamor for the immortalization of Prof. Chinualumogu Achebe.

Onyiorah Paschal Chiduluemije,
a Journalist, writes from Abatete – Anambra State and can be reached via
234(0)8127033908