By Ladi Ayodeji/Don Peter Okoro
Presidential Spokesman, Femi Adesina, in this exclusive interview with our editors, spoke on his appointment, his relationship with the President and several key issues. Read on:
What was your immediate reaction when President Muhammadu Buhari first contacted you for your appointment?
It went this way: on that night in March 2015, when it had become apparent that Major General Muhammadu Buhari would be our next President, my phone rang some minutes past midnight. It was Alhaji Ismaila Isa Funtua on the line. He said, “Please hold on for the President-elect.”
The President came on line, and said he was calling to thank me very much for my support for him over the years. He said there were people who could have paid millions of naira for my support, but that I chose not to follow them, and threw in my lot with a man who could not even give me a bottle of Coca-Cola. He was very profuse in his thanks.
After the call, I told my wife: Hmmmmm. I suspect this call. Hope the new President would not ask me to come and work with him, this one he has chosen to call me on the very night of his victory.
I was Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of The Sun Newspapers. I was also President, Nigerian Guild of Editors. I was enjoying both responsibilities tremendously, and didn’t want any other thing at that time. Certainly, not service in government. I didn’t see myself as a government person at all, though I loved Muhammadu Buhari, and had always supported him.
What I did thereafter was to deliberately stay away from the President-elect in the next weeks, leading to inauguration on May 29.
But a week to that event, ThisDay newspaper published that I was going to be media adviser to the incoming President. I hadn’t done anything to seek the position. In fact, I read the news with mixed feelings.
On May 31, a Sunday, I was home in the early evening, when Alhaji Funtua called again. He said in his regal voice: “Adesina, your appointment would be announced tonight. Should we go ahead?” I paused for a moment, and said; “it’s okay sir.” And by 9 pm, on NTA Network News, the deed was done. As they say, the rest is history.
You share the job of Presidential spokesman with Garba Shehu; what’s the basic difference in your portfolios? Have you ever experienced any “clash” of functions?
I head the media department, Mallam Garba Shehu is the next in rank to me. Our roles are complementary to each other, and six years down the line, I’ll say we have worked together very well. There has not been any unresolvable difference between us, and nobody has ever summoned us to a peace meeting. No clash whatsoever.
Have you ever found yourself in an awkward situation where you held an opinion different from Answer: Not any that I can recall. I can say that I know the mind of the President on most issues, and can then speak for him. Anyone I’m in doubt about, I go to see him, and clarify. Therefore, we have been on the same page at all times.
Question: Of all the contentious issues you have had to deal with, which one did you find most tasking?
Answer: Maybe when the President was on medical vacation in 2017. Because he was indisposed, direct contact was impossible, so I relied on some of my colleagues who were with him in London. I trusted whatever information they gave me, and same I transmitted to Nigerians, making them know that I was not in direct contact with the President. Of course, when he recovered well enough, he phoned me directly, and I let Nigerians know.
Question: How did the President react to the story of his cloning of one Jubril from Sudan, and his purported death, when he first heard it? How come he hasn’t said anything about it till date?
Answer: It’s not necessary to dignify such hogwash with an answer. To do so would be to give some sort of recognition to those behind the idiocy. It never even came up for discussion, because we knew the truth, and still know it.
Question: Can you adduce reasons why the President is often slow to react to issues?
Answer: Being slow is relative. What you call slow, may simply be being calculating and deliberate. As he said in one National Day broadcast, “order is better than speed.” You can stumble or crash when you speed too much. And you should not subject the fortunes of a country of 200 million people to such unfounded haste. More haste less speed, is still a true saying.
Question: Do you have sufficient facts to support the claim that the government has performed better than all the previous administrations since 1999?
A: Very much so. The justifications are there. If you want the facts, it would takes weeks and months to bring them up. But they are all in the public domain. Infrastructure, security, economy, war against corruption, the facts are there. By the grace of God, we should document them before the administration exits. There are stiff security challenges, but there are also massive successes on different fronts.
Question: There’s a widely held opinion that while it could be argued that this APC government is making some impact in the development of infrastructure, it hasn’t succeeded in the fight against insecurity, and corruption. What’s your take on that?
Answer: The facts don’t support such position. The anti-graft agencies have information that would help, and they unfold them from time to time. The security situation, though hydra-headed, is also an ongoing war that Nigeria will win.
Question: What accounts for the widespread secessionist agitations under this government; it has never been this bad?
Answer: It is those sponsoring and encouraging the agitations that can answer the question. But what I can confidently say is that Nigeria had always been divided. We had never trusted one another implicitly as a people, since we became a country.
Question: The devaluation of the naira has been unprecedented, obviously. That says a lot about the monetary policy of this government. How do you justify that?
Answer: I am not an expert in this area. Those who run our fiscal and monetary policies can speak better.
Question: You must be used to all the fireworks that come with this job. What do you love most about being Buhari’s spokesman and what worries you the most?
Answer: I love the President, came to serve him and my country, and I’ll say no regrets. I wouldn’t have done it for anybody else, but I’m glad I did it for President Buhari.
Of course, I’m worried about the unwarranted hatred shown him from certain quarters, but I’m also glad that those who love him far outnumber those who don’t. The 2019 election also proved that.
Question: Finally, sir, how do you want to be remembered after 2023?
Answer: He came, and did his best for his principal, and for his country.
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