Lere Olayinka, media aide to FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, has fired back at Arise TV host Reuben Abati, questioning why he would kneel to serve his “master” in response to Abati’s comments.
During Arise TV’s Morning Show on Tuesday, Abati criticized Lere, likening his service to Wike to the alleged sycophancy displayed by some appointees of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said, “The high point of it was when our good friend, Lere Olayinka, knelt down trying to serve his master. What is all this?
“Look, when we were in government, sycophancy was the tradition then, before and after, generally in the Nigerian government. When people knelt down before President Jonathan, he would tell them to stand up.
“In fact, I saw people crawling. This is how they behave. But Lere Olayinka understands the game more than some of us, so he will kneel down and serve the master. There is a time limit to all of this.”
Reacting, Lere said in a Facebook post that Jonathan suffered from bad press due to Abati’s lack of focus during his time as Media Adviser to the former president.
He wrote, “I thank you for making me a topic on Arise News this morning. Try and continue till the end of January 2026.
But as I have maintained, if you had been this focused on your job as President Jonathan’s Media Adviser, the way you are fixated with anything Wike now, you wouldn’t have failed to adequately protect him (Jonathan) against the bad press he faced as President.
“And I hope you are less greedy now. That greed, which made one of your concubines run away with millions of naira meant for running your office, just because you didn’t want those working with you as SSAs and SAs to know what you were receiving as a running grant.”
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