Reuben Abati To Replace Ima Niboro.

The Chairman of the Editorial Board of The Guardian (Nigeria), Rueben Abati, has crossed the street, professionally, to become the voice of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Mr. Abati's position as Senior Special Adviser On Communication  is expected to be announced early next week When Mr. Jonathan returns from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, where he is attending a meeting of the African Union until the weekend.
 When announced, Mr. Abati, who recently wrote a 10-part article on the Jonathan presidency, will replace Ima Niboro, the abrasive and often angry Special Adviser to Mr. Jonathan.  Presidency sources told Saharareporters today that Mr. Niboro was yet to be informed of his exit.  Only last week, the outgoing Senior Special Adviser was said to have been all over the presidential villa threatening to “re-organize” his office.
Mr. Abati is a long-running columnist with The Guardian, but his substantive job was to chair the Editorial Board and the editorial pages.  In recent years, his star has dimmed professionally on account of allegations of corruption, including his name being found on a list of senior Nigerian journalists who accepted big plots of lands in Abuja from the Yar'Adua government.  Neither Mr. Abati nor The Guardian denied that allegation.