by ‘Bode Modupe

A ‘war of words’  has broken out between Presidential Media Spokesperson Dr. Reuben Abati and front-line APC politician Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, following comments posted on their official Twitter pages in the early hours of Sunday, using the hashtag #EvilWillNotPrevail ”

At 06:44 GMT Abati said: “@abati1990 For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking their hands will be so weak… #Scripture #EvilWillNotPrevail ”

President Goodluck Jonathan and the rice pyramid

The Tweet was to celebrate President Jonathan’s feat – the commissioning of ‘The Rice Pyramid’- a 105,000 Metric Tonnes Integrated Rice Mill in Nasarawa, northern Nigeria on July 16, tagged #ThePyramidsAreBack

As a presidential aide, Dr. Abati, has shown great ingenuity and mastery of social media to promote the business of government.

President Jonathan’s images of the commissioning of the rice mill – part of his Agricultural Transformation Agenda, to add an extra 20 million metric tons of food to Nigeria’s domestic food supply by 2015, reducing food importation bill as a result – were posted on Instagram.

On this Twitter page, President Jonathan stood proudly by the Rice Pyramid and imprinted on the picture, was a scripture verse from Numbers 6:9 (Amplified Bible).

They were the words of Prophet Nehemiah when having embarked on building the broken wall of Jerusalem, was faced with fierce opposition, chiefly from Samballat and Tobiah.

Asiwaju -Bola Ahmed Tinubu- former Lagos State governor popularly known by the sobriquet ‘Jagaban’, responded to Abati’s tweet about an hour later (07:29 GMT). He labelled the government a ‘failure’.

His comment: ” @abati1990: #Scripture #EvilWillNotPrevail If you people like, you can(n) even use the devil against Nigerians. Your govt remains a failure.”

The hashtag #EvilWillNotPrevail first appeared on Reuben Abati’s page on Wednesday, July 16, four days ago.

It was a response to a tweet by “Creative Gist @CreativeGist”. It stated that “No matter what, we will prevail #NoFear #HappySunday #Scripture #BibleVerse #EvilWillNotPrevail #Textgram @abati1990 ”

Abati wrote: “Inauguration of the Committee on Victims Support Fund at the State House Abuja #EvilWillNotPrevail.”

Perhaps, it would have made sense if he had simply said #BringBackOurGirls

As they say, if you can’t beat them, you may just as well do well to join them especially, when it does not besmirch your integrity or belittle your position.

But the Media Spokesman has an exclusive right to chart is own path and that should not be subject to debate.

The question to ask however is: #1 should the Presidential Spokesperson in his official capacity tow the path of religion in communicating his thoughts on a matter of national issue or adopt the hashtag #EvilWillNotPrevail in the first place?

#2 Does he share the belief that we wrestle against forces of evil, warranting the need to reinforcing an unflinching conviction by use of the hashtag #EvilWillNotPrevail if only it to help ward off the forces of evil?

#3 In what capacity did Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, being a major opposition leader, take up Dr. Abati when he reacted to his comment albeit, in very strong terms.

Could the “Jagaban” have felt an affront on his personality in anyway, or against the interest of the party or indeed, as a Nigerian in his own right, to have warranted his response to Abati’s use of the hashtag #EvilWillNotPrevail ?

It will be recalled that in a press release recently, the opposition party leader lashed out at President Jonathan and his subordinates who he said “delude themselves into believing the average Nigerian also loves them for the damage they have caused.”

Tinubu’s grouse: “The President avoided the parents of the Chibok victims for three months and gave a heroic welcome to Pakistan’s teenage activist, Malala a matter that has elicited mixed reactions from various quarters.

The real question here is to consider what evil we are up against since our focus here are Chibok’s girls

Malala Yesufu visited Nigeria on the plight of Chibok missing girls

The only evil that stands to be seen, are the abductors of the 219 girls that are yet to be found; and we may collectively agree that Chibok’s missing girls are being held by the only evil force we know – the insurgents.

It is noteworthy that Mr. President took steps to inaugurate the Committee on Victims Support Fund, and we must be thankful that Malala’s visit has again given implosion to the campaign to rescue Nigeria’s missing girls.

As we begin to count down to 100 days after the April abduction of the girls, will it not be better to join our voices on the same cause, rather than dissipating energy on a needless war of words that may not serve an overall good?

While we all can emphatically declare that #EvilWillNotPrevail , for evil must not prevail over our land, still, we must insist that they #BringBackOurGirls