Willy's comment (the first on this thread) is in terrible bad taste.
Such exhibition of raw hate should not be condoned in a forum like this.
He owes all of us an apology.

Having said that, we must equally point out that Abati has since purged himself of his undiluted, crude Igbophobia. Like Ken-Saro Wiwa, he had thought that, perhaps, he needed some dose of anti-Igbo essays to capture the public space. Now, he has realized that he no longer needs to do that, and he has been trying to atone for his past indiscretions. He needs to be forgiven!

There was also the suspicion that he was enjoying the rebuttals he was attracting then from brilliant Igbo minds whom he never believed could take him serious enough to engage him in on the pages of the newspaper. It also looked like Abati could not just swallow the feeling around town that Ndigbo were the bright stars of Nigeria (given their rapid survival and ascendancy even after the thirty months of BIAFRA-Britain/America/Rushia/Nigeria genocidal, extermination project (also referred to by some people as the Nigeria Civil War), and so he felt called to cut them down to size. But he soon realized the folly of his misplaced zeal and sheath his blunt sword. He may have to continue to battle the ghosts of that infantile preference for a long time to come. No tears for him.

For all you care, Willy may just be an OBJ acolyte trying to influence the course of
comments on the article, which clearly does not do OBJ's image any good, since it is very clear that not even OBJ and his very succulent concubines believe his “cocktail of lies”. But I must hasten to say that in this regard, Willy is only trying to be an accurate imitator of the fellow that goes by the name of WALE AKIN, who once formed the habit of being the first to comment on any article, with the sole intention of influencing the course of comments.

Although, he failed most of the time, because of his inability to make sense, and muster the requisite capacity to sway people by powerful arguments, he still continued to do that, because of his exaggerated assessment of his abilities. I had thought that after one fellow on this forum cautioned him, that he would learn his lesion, but what has become clear is that I was really wrong in my expectation.

Reuben Abati is a columnist and Chair of the Editorial Board; at that level, there is a level of caution he can receive from his MD. Even if he is using the column to fight an ethnic war, there is no way Emeka Izeze can stop him; he can only give him friendly advise, and if that fails, he might advise the management to on the implication, and management may choose to ignore him. So, to say, as Wale did with dogmatic certainty, that if indeed, ABATI was writing anti-Igbo articles, that Izeze would have stopped him, is one bold way of advertising ignorance.

WALE AKIN also lacks discretion. In a debate of this nature in which his very name would easily depict where his interest would lie (rightly or wrongly) on the matter, he should exercised some restraint in coming out with his colourless, drab input, delivered with the same unintelligent authoritativeness that never ceases to annoy every right-thinking person on this forum. This is not to say that even a partisan Yoruba would not be able to ward off the effects of Wily’s missile on ABATI but WALE lacks what it takes to do that, and so, has merely portrayed his post as one those I-must-defend-my-brother comments. Nothing more, nothing less.

How can anyone who had ever known anything about Abati’s writing, and who is even claiming that he has read ABATI for years, deny that at some point Reuben was behaving like a licensed Igbo-basher! Well, only WALE AKIN can vomit such a clap-trap! And for all you care, to him, he has made the greatest point here!