Made in Aba: What Senator Abaribe has that others don’t

I spent over an hour following live the launching of Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe’s memoir, Made In Aba. Watching the proceedings was a study in Nigerians’ psychology, especially that of the class of people who run the affairs of that failed nation.

Thanks to zoom, I watched how they loitered around, how they shook hands, how they hugged, how they approached the podium, how they grabbed the microphone, and how they held a book. The way you hold a book says a lot about your relationship with knowledge.

It was interesting watching government officials from both the ruling and opposition parties come on stage and every one of them equivocally declared without any iota of irony that Senator Abaribe was a man of integrity. They each muttered the word “integrity” like dunces (itibolibos), calling someone a first-class brain.

How did that happen? What does Senator Abaribe have that others do not have?

Until I did my research before an interview with Abaribe last year, I didn’t remember him being the Abia State’s deputy governor. I did not remember him being up for impeachment three times before he finally resigned. It says a lot about the attention we pay to Deputy governors in Nigeria. His memoir exposed all the stories behind his recruitment and subsequent traumatic era as Governor…