Demons in ASo Rock!!!


I do not believe in demons but some part of this article got me talking,from the moment the Ex aviation Minister motioned that Buhari is possessed we have seen people write up articles showing the demonic side of Aso rock, Reasons behind either a presidents death or his wife's , Here is what Abati has to say...

“when Presidents make mistakes, they are probably victims of a force higher than what we can imagine.” What unimaginable higher forces could have been responsible for the massive looting carried out by human – not superhuman – agents right under President Goodluck Jonathan’s nose? To what extent were evil spirits responsible for the profligacy of the very corrupt government Abati worked with? Did those evil spirits also join their company to indulge in the bacchanal feasts through which they frittered valuable public resources? What supernatural power could account for Jonathan’s lethargy that caused the security issues that plagued the country under his watch to greatly deteriorate? None of the issues that fueled public angst against Jonathan’s government came up in that essay; none of the human agents was apportioned responsibility; instead, Abati gamely tried to pass off incompetence as metaphysically induced “mistakes.”

Sadly, he failed to demonstrate in his piece that either he or anyone else explored other options to explain why the fire incidents occurred; whether their diet and work schedule could be blamed for their sexual impotence; how the ratio of the road accidents their convoys were involved was any different from the rates of accident that occurred in Nigeria. From 2011 to 2015 they were in Aso Rock, the Federal Road Safety Corps recorded 44,761 accidents all of which claimed 26,488 lives. Did Abati imagine that they were insulated from the reality that claimed that many lives because they could blow everyone off the road with sirens? Statistically, Nigeria has one of the highest accident rates in the world. Given the figures, Abati should not be wondering why they were involved in accidents but instead should be asking why it did not occur more frequently.


While I found Abati’s article entirely nonsensical, I have no wish to contest whether the forces he alluded to in that piece exist or not. That is beside the point; besides, more people’s lives are ruled by one superstition or the other than we know. Some have tame and mundane beliefs such as lucky numbers or particular outfits they wear on certain days. (Some people have blamed the white jersey of the Super Eagles anytime Nigeria loses a football match at any level wearing that colour). Others take certain phenomena seriously. They are all entitled to hold such private beliefs if it soothes them.

The underlying lesson one comes off with from the piece is not that some demons seized control of the thing below their belt in Aso Rock but that a Legion of demons apparently messed with the thing above their necks. I am doubly disappointed by Abati because he was supposed to be the decorated academic whose opinions on certain subjects should have been legislated by intellectual rigour and curiosity. At the end of the day, the people he was surrounded with successfully dragged him down to their level. By touting beliefs that no rational basis, it was obvious he capitulated.

Such depictions of supernatural power are a staple of filmmakers who raid beliefs nurtured in the African traditional religious imaginary, exaggerating and exploiting them for cinematic content. They then create stories where the evil indigenous beliefs purportedly propagate is vanquished by the power of the Judeo-Christian God. These ideas of the “true” God conquering deviant powers are regularly snagged by Nigerian churches and then dedicate their energy to exorcising a representation of evil created in their own imagination.

It is not for nothing that Abati says if he were to become President of Nigeria tomorrow, he would build a new Presidential Villa that would be dedicated to the “all-conquering Almighty.

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