Abati Vs Oshiomhole: When the Pen (Mouth) Provokes the Fist

By Valentine Obienyem

When Adams Oshiomhole challenged Reuben Abati to settle their disagreement “on the street,” it was more than a lapse in decorum – it was a reversion to primitive instinct. Stripped of political context, the challenge echoed an age-old pattern: the urge to resolve disputes not through dialogue or principle, but through confrontation and dominance. Far from being novel, it is the tragic survival of barbarism beneath the surface of civilisation.

At the mention of a street challenge, one’s mind is drawn to the ancient pankration – a brutal contest often decided only when one opponent died. Indeed, feuds of old were frequently resolved by one party killing the other. Ah yes, to settle disputes by killing one another is a solution so old that it precedes civilization; and so absurd that it survived civilization in people like Adams, as primitive as the old Adam.

Oshiomhole’s verbal aggression may not carry swords, but it echoes the same absurd impulse to trade reason for combat. What we witnessed was not strength, but the unmasking of how easily a man of public standing can discard civil discourse for primal theatre, appealing not to intellect, but to instincts best left behind.

Oshiomhole is, in many ways, a specimen of human  contradiction – unsteady from centre to circumference. At one moment, he praised Mr. Peter Obi as the best governor in Nigeria, declaring that other governors tried to emulate him. In another breath, he claimed Obi achieved nothing as governor. This pendulum of pronouncements reveals not political calculation but a deeper inconsistency – a restless mind that rarely holds a conviction long enough for it to mature into principle.

The man has really demonstrated to us that true civilisation is not measured by offices held or titles worn, but by consistency of conduct and clarity of thought. That Oshiomhole so easily abandons both only proves how fragile the facade of maturity can be, even in those who have once worn the garments of statesmanship.

Obienyem, a Lawyer, writes from Awka, Anambra State