Originally Posted by Willy 
Auspicious,
Good questions, I believe gentlemen do not necessary have to dance naked even if they must dance at all.
For starters, Okey Ndibe is a paid columnist of The Guardian, that comes with responsibilities and privileges, so the aspect of submitting his work on time or not, or Abati’s democratic discretion on publishing same does not come up.
And to your other questions, yes, I know a few more things that I do not have to necessarily write here, I am offering Abati a decent leeway to retrace his steps, raising the stakes much higher will make it more difficult for him, and less productive.
I challenge Abati to refute that his refusal to publish said essay citing a comment on Akala & Fayose as unproven that may lead to The Guardian being sued is untrue.
I have my information from right inside because I am much closer to him than he realizes.
That he is also in touch with some urchins that are writing under the pseudonym of Andy Uba is also very well known to some of us that have taken personal interest in the Anambra debacle. I will name names and incidences if Abati continues in this path of infamy.
As a parting comment, I challenge Abati to claim he is not aware of the author of that thrash on leadership that was published under Andy Uba’s name.
A word is enough for the wise, clean up your act Abati.
Willy my brother... all I can say at this stage is that in the end, the Nigerian Guardian is a business and not a charitable organization. They are there to break even at the end of their financial year. The Editorial board (of which Ruben is merely the chair) has the discretion on what to publish or not publish. If they decide that it is best to avoid a liability, via Ndibe's article like you suggest it might be wise for them to refrain from doing so. For some reason, I doubt that Ruben alone makes the decision of what to publish and what not to publish in the entire paper. He also has bosses at the Guardian and is also an employee of the Newspaper, so he answers to someone too. Furthermore, I am aware that there is a meeting of the members of the Editorial board which Ruben chairs every Thursday at Rutam House where major decision about news stories, editorials focus and framing of news are decided. It will not be the first time they are refusing to publish Ndibe's article. If publishing Ndibe's article will end up costing the business more harm than good, then it is a decision they will ultimately take for the benefit of the paper, the business, the staff and the company's finances. If Okey Ndibe does not like it, he can do two things: decide to seek another platform and write for another paper, or open up his own Newspaper house and publish what ever he wants. There are many people employed by the Guardian Newspaper and the company cannot be held ransom due to one columnist's article. Opening up the company to liability because of one individual makes little or no business sense to me either!