Okay, so there were a bunch of rumors about why Reuben Abati wasn’t on his usual Arise News broadcast. Some people tried to say he got suspended or was in trouble, but he cleared it up and said he just had a literary thing to go to.

I’ve noticed in politics and media, there’s always this weird pressure where if you’re not on screen, people think you’re hiding something or you got canceled. It’s kinda funny and a bit unfair, to be honest. We don’t see that stress in regular jobs, but with political journalists, everyone’s watching your every move.

In my experience watching the news, if someone’s missing, everyone starts gossiping right away, and that’s just part of how things work with big media personalities in Nigeria. People want drama, so even something normal, like going to a book event, gets twisted. I think if more presenters were open like Abati was, a lot of these fake stories wouldn’t stick.