* ‘ThisDay took hasty position against Form purchase for President’

* ‘No plans by Buhari to reverse sack of ex-DG DSS’

By Bashir Adefaka

Chief Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, was engaged in a 15-minute interview by The DEFENDER during which he spoke on issues bothering on attitude of media as regards slanting of news negatively against the Muhammadu Buhari-led Government.  He however exonerated the mainstream media from publication of fake news but urged the practitioners against negatively twisting news against the President. his government and aides as, according to him, when Nigeria collapses no journalist will have the peace of mind to practice journalism. He spoke on other issues.  Excerpts:

Let me start with your professional constituency.  There is this allegation that the incessant publications by mainstream media of hate speech and fake news is deliberate declaration of war against President Buhari’s government.  Why despite their own being in the government would you say these are happening from media to government?

I will like to divide the media into the mainstream, which is traditional, and the digital particularly the social media and the online media.  I wouldn’t accuse the mainstream media much of publishing fake news.  Rather, they slant news.  They slant things against the government, slant things against the President, slant things against even we his spokesmen.  And when I say they slant, I mean they slant news from negative perspectives to paint the government in bad light.  But I won’t accuse them of fake news outrightly.  That is the traditional media.  But of course, the social media; Oooh! That is the world headquarters of fake news.  They just sit down and concoct anything, manufacture anything and publish it as if it is true.

So, the traditional media cannot be accused much of publishing fake news but rather, they slant news against government.

Slant and twist of news, are they the same in the context of what we are talking about here?

Yes, but because a story can always be taken from different perspectives.  As an image maker, when you issue your statement, or when your principal speaks, you don’t have control over the perspective from which the media takes it.  But when the media relishes on taking stories from negative perspectives against government, then, that becomes a bad thing to happen.

We

should realise that this, in the first place, is our country and what will it profit any media for doing that.  So, if they continue to slant stories to make the government look bad, they should think about that.

But somebody would say it is a payback for you, considering the fact that apart from former Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of a leading newspaper in the country, you were before then also a main Editor of the newspaper and that you once played such role of slanting stories against government as apostle of “bomb journalism”.  What about that?

Not really, because the library is there.  You will always read my works, either as sitting editor or editor-in-chief.  In fact, I was editor-in-chief during the last election.  If you take the paper (SUN) on which I presided as editor-in-chief, you won’t see from news treatment that this is what or who this paper is supporting.

The only incline you can see about my position is from my column and that is my opinion; facts are sacred.  Yes.  But when it comes to news treatment you wouldn’t see which or who the paper is supporting.

In fact, I used to tell them, the other editors, the news editors; you should make sure that our stories are balanced or that we cover all interests and all perspectives.  It was only my opinion articles that you knew that I was a Buhari’s supporter.

And if a journalist writes opinion to take side, has he not breached any ethics of the profession?

No, no, no. I have the right to my opinion.

But some of us practicing journalism, much as we also try to balance or cover the ground left uncovered by other colleagues by way of putting things right, when we now go to social media to express our personal opinions about what we feel about the government, we are tagged. Why should that be?  I mean if the press freedom means journalists should not be gagged by either government or any other body, why should journalists gag journalists in breach of right to their opinions?

Well, social media is a free for all.  So, people take liberty from the fact that there is some anonymity to it.  You are not even sure of the name that they are using as to whether they are correct names.  Therefore, they can say anything.  They can use whatever language, however uncouth that language is.

So, it is a free for all and we should not let that bother us.  I have got to a point that such people’s posts on social media do not bother me again.

When you described the social media as world headquarters of fake news and yet you put it with digital which also has the online media (journalism) in it, it is important to therefore revisit that.  I mean, online media has become the third sector of mainstream or traditional media profession after broadcasting and print media.  Are you also referring to it in that light of free for all?

Social media is a variant of what we call digital media.  That online is digital made actually and you have professional media playing at the digital end.  But the social media variant is the one in which everybody partakes, whether trained or not, whether journalist or not, citizen journalism.

Yeah, that is the one that has the ‘ogb’ole’, ‘ogb’ole’ (the hardworking and the lazy ones), everybody is a journalist and files expression through it. But the people who use digital media for professionalism are doing well and we all know them.

Now back to the issue of mainstream media slanting or twisting stories negatively against government, the President and you his spokesmen, how does this rub on your person as former President Nigeria Guide of Editors, former editor-in-chief and currently as Special Adviser to Africa’s most popular President on Media and Publicity; is there anything going on that we on the downside do not know?

Well, I still see myself as a media person, really, a media person currently engaged in managing media image of a President, currently engaged in promoting a President through the media.  That is what I see myself as.  I am still a media person essentially.

Are you telling me that you will still return to the newsroom after seeing it all at the highest media office of the Presidency of a great nation like Nigeria?

By the grace of God, when I finish in government, I would like to return to the media.

Moving forward, in deciding on aiding seeking a re-election of the President, a group, NCAN purchased the Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms for President Buhari, which has generated controversy within opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) calling it a bribe and a major newspaper, ThisDay saying it contravenes the law and calling on the President to reject it.  What is the disposition of Presidency to this?

I think that has been set straight by legal minds particularly Mr. Festus Keyamo (SAN), who is the spokesman to the campaign organisation of the President.

The law talks about candidate, not aspirant and there is a difference between the two.  The President is still an aspirant not candidate yet.  What that says is that no individual can donate more than a million naira to a candidate.

So, we don’t have a candidate yet.  President is just aspiring to be a candidate.  Therefore, that law does not affect him for now.  I think that paper that took a position took a very hasty position not founded in law.

You would observe that in 48 hours the Punch particularly has been slammed for publishing improbable reports against either the President as supporting violent herdsmen killing Nigerians or against his Chief of Staff of having collected a bribe.  How do we lay this incessant slanting or twist of stories to rest?

What I would just say is that, every newspaper has the right to position where it wants to position. But what they must bear in mind is national interest, harmony in society, equilibrium in good society.  If you position in place that will eventually throw the country into a tailspin, what do you get at the end of the day?  If there is chaos in the society, even you will not be able to practice your journalism profession or do your business.

Therefore, any newspaper that is positioned anywhere must have larger interest, that is national interest, interest of the public at the back of its mind.

Which reminds me of statement credited to the President at the Nigerian Bar Association conference where he was quoted to have said national interest and national security supersedes individual rights and rule of law.  That statement, much as legal luminaries like Itse Sagay and Femi Falana have clarified, still is being mentioned on the lips of some lawyers and their media counterparts.  Did the President make the statement by mistake?

Mistake? No!  The President’s words are out there.  So, that is the President’s position.  But you would remember that when German Chancellor Angela Merkel came a week after, he (Buhari) said Nigeria will always abide by the rule of law.

It is not in contest that the President is going to respect the rule of law.  So, that one is not negotiable.

But which one will be in contest?

What the President is saying is that there are some things that national interest will override and that is the position.

Well, I think it will only be fair for me to mention here that even the statement is not the word of the President but that of the Supreme Court …?

(Cuts in) Yes.  There is a ruling in the Asari Dokubo case which says so that national interest and national security supersedes individual rights and the rule of law.  Yes, you are right.

Now, I must say it is on record that people that are fighting for 2019 today started on May 30, 2015.  At that time you told me in the Presidential Villa that the President was basically concerned with governance and that when it was time for 2019 two things would determine whether he would seek re-election or not, and you mentioned his performance and health.  Now that the President has declared his intention to recontest, would you say those conditions have been met?

I believe so.  In terms of his health, we are not God, we cannot play God but we are thankful to God for restoring our President to good health.  He is fit, well and able.

I tell you the President is such a serious minded person that if he knew in his mind and in his own that he could not be able to go for second term, he would not have indicated interest to seek re-election.  That is the issue of health.

Then in the area of performance, of course, there are many things for the advantage of the President in terms of infrastructure, in terms of economy, in terms of social development, in all sorts of different areas in the country.  So all those things qualify him to seek re-election and Nigerians know it.

When you say the President has performed, you would also hear some people saying they have not seen what he has done going to four years…?

(Cuts in) That is some people.  Yes, some people pretend that they don’t see those things the President has done and is still doing but, however much they pretend, Nigerians know it.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan used to say he was the most criticised President but now, with what has happened to President Muhammadu Buhari by the vocal critics, I can say that Jonathan was not correct and Buhari is actually the most criticised President Nigeria has ever had, despite probable evidence of his claims to performance.  However, is it true that the President is planning to reverse the then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo’s sack of DG DSS Mallam Lawal Daura?

I don’t talk about speculations and I don’t talk about unfounded speculations.

So nothing like that happened?

You know that I don’t speak for myself but that I speak for the President.  The President has not communicated anything in that direction to me.  So, as far as I am concerned, it is still a speculation.

Finally, and I mean finally, what exactly occurred to the Presidency about the recent National Assembly DSS siege that some people said was President Buhari and APC’s attempt to gag the legislature? Nigerians want the real people like you in the Media Office of the President to speak on it.  What actually happened?

It is still unravelling.  There is an investigation.  (Report of) that that investigation is yet to come.  When it comes, I am sure there will be more light on that matter.  But I won’t say there is anybody that knows everything yet except only the principal actors.  It is only the principal actors who know.  Maybe I will be able to say later what actually happened on the National Assembly DSS siege.

I will not like to probe you beyond here being that it bothers on national security and myself as a committed person to ensuring national security.  So, it is pleasure for having me at this time.

Thank you Bashir (laughters).