* ‘Critics want us to lie, about situation of things, it will never happen’

By Kemi Kasumu

Mr. Femi Adesina is one public officer that has learned about attitude of Nigerians towards their muchmouthed desire for better Nigeria, where majority of the people want better Nigeria but fail to follow their positive desire with positive attitude.  They prefer, by their utterances and actions, the yesterday of the country to be better than its today.  This probably informs why Adesina, Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, chose to be on the safer side –  #StandWithBuhari – and has consistently, therefore, continued to “hold fast against mischief makers”, who want him to rock the boat of government as only condition by which they would take him as sustaining his known integrity as media chief that he is.  In this interview, the former Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of Sun Newspapers Limited and President Nigerian Guild of Editors, who spoke on how he and President Buhari came into the consciousness of each other, said those who say he and his colleagues in the President Media Office do not tell Nigerians the truth only want to hear the worst about the government, Buhari and Nigeria but that it will never happen. Excerpts:

The President I am serving does not want me to twist information for him.  He wants you to just tell Nigerians the way things are.  That is what we would continue to do and there is nothing anybody will say that will push us out of that.  Some people have just made up their minds that, “This is what he must say, this is what he must tell us” and they want you to say it.  But (laughters), it will never happen.

Do I start on the note that it was about the first time that any Nigerian President would appreciate his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity like President Muhammadu Buhari did thanking you for “holding out against mischief makers” at a time hate speeches and fake news spread about him by the same people, for whose reason he ran into the health challenges, who, in actual fact, should support his quick recovery with prayers. Talking more seriously, why would you think that such statement could come from the President to you?

Well, it shows you that the man has an appreciative heart; and that is just President Buhari for you.  He has an appreciative heart that whatever you do for him, he appreciates.  He never forgets those who have done him good.  How did I come to work for him? Because since 2003 when he began to run, I had always supported him and as a journalist I had always written to support him.  Whenever he read my articles he would phone me and we would discuss.

We didn’t meet one-to-one for many years.  I think the first time I met him was 2009.  Professor Tam David-West had written a book on him, which was being launched in Lagos and I was the Master of Ceremony (MC) at that event.  That was the first time we met one-to-one.  And then when my mother passed on in 2013 and we were having a commendation service for her in Lagos and I sent him an invitation and he came.  All the way from Kaduna he came!

So, the President never forgets people who have shown him loyalty.  Loyalty is two ways; when you show loyalty to a man, that man should always be loyal to you.  And that is President Buhari for you.

You said you had always supported and written to support President Buhari since 2003.  Is that not a sharp contrast from the saying by some other journalists making it look like sin to see any positive thing about the man in government?

No, that is not right.  Then they don’t know that there is a difference between news and opinion.  In my support for President Buhari during that period, it had always been in my own opinion articles.  A journalist has the right to take a position in opinion articles.  But when you are treating news, you must be neutral.  And if you go back and check my time as Editor of the SUN, looking at the treatment of news you will never say this paper is supporting anybody, you will know it is news because, in news, you must be neutral.  But in opinion, you must be able to take a position.

So, my support for him was in my personal column, which is an opinion.

But does neutrality in this case mean that if I see anything positive or negative about a government or person in government, I don’t have to report it so that people will not accuse me of imbalance?

Balancing is what is called the news.

But in trying to balance reporting the actions each party took in an event, the other group, disliking that his bad action be exposed, takes you to be biased.  They don’t see your exposition of exact happening as balance but they see you as taking side.  Isn’t that a big challenge in journalism?

(Cuts in) No.  As long as you are true to yourself that what you have done is in best traditional journalism; you have done a story that is not one sided and that you have balanced it, then go ahead and do it.

Moving forward, you also talked about how it is characteristic of President Buhari to appreciate his loyalists particularly anybody who has done him any good. Is that confirmation of the saying that he gave some of his top government appointments to his loyalists or associates from ANPP, CPC days?

When you are going to give appointments, you start from the known before going to the unknown.  When Obama came, first term, as President of the United States of America, who were the people he appointed?  His college mates, his friends, those he had known for sometimes.  Those were the people that were predominant in his administration.  So, in appointment you start from the known to the unknown.

But when you have the known behaving the other way against expectation of the appointing authority, what then happens to our perception about the appointment of the known like it happened in the Babachir’s case?

There are some things that are prerogative of the leader; the decision is his own.  When somebody is appointed and he turns out to behave contrary to expectation, it is the prerogative of the President to then act and decide what will happen and we leave our President to decide that.

But some people still believe, despite the sack of Babachir for instance, that the President has refused to act on the matter.  What about that?

The prerogative is his own; let us leave him to exercise that prerogative.

Now talking about the abduction of Dapchi school girls in Yobe, already we have some people politicising the sad development saying all manner of things including jubilation that they now have campaign tool to counter what APC or Buhari says about Chibok girls…?

(Cuts in) If anybody jubilates over that (Dapchi schoolgirls abduction), that person is an enemy of humanity and he is also an enemy of Nigeria.  If you jubilate over the abduction of school girls, you hate humanity, you hate your country.  To anybody that is jubilating over that, that is my message for him or her.

Six months into the administration of your government, you told me in your office at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja that those who were calling President Buhari a failure since under three months in office were unfair.  You said pointblank that the President has a mandate of four years and that his performance will speak to determine for whether he would go for second term or not.  This is the time to assess the President’s performance.  What is the update from you, Sir?

First and foremost, what I would like to say is that, going for another term is the personal decision of Mr. President.  He has not made that decision but when he makes it, just as he said at the last meeting, he will address Nigerians.

But then, the second part of the question; is there enough to show for him to seek a second term?  I say more than enough all the fronts: political, economy, social, security, everything! On all the fronts there is more than enough.  Let’s take it one by one.

He promised security that he would secure the country, which he has done and he is doing.

(Cuts in) But easily some people would say, “Oh, but some girls were recently abducted in Dapchi. What about that”?

That was a freak occurrence.  It was a freak occurrence, calamitous, very sad, but it is not what you would use to determine whether the country is more secure or safer than it has ever been.  Those who live in the North East would easily tell you.  Roads that had been closed for years are now open.  Emirs that had fled their palaces are now back in their palaces.  Places where NYSC orientation was not holding are now holding NYSC orientation.  Markets that had been deserted, people are back there.  Farms that had been abandoned, people are back there.  Of course, the region is a lot safer now.

Does it mean that the insurgency is completely over? No it is not.  There are still remnants of the insurgents, who launch occasional attacks, and that was what happened in Dapchi.  But in terms of security the country, yes, the President has done quite well.  The job is not fully done but he has done well.

Then the second promise he made was to fight corruption.  If you are honest, despite even the recent report of Transparency International, if you are honest, you would know that at no time had corruption been fought vigorously than this in Nigeria.  Do you know how many people are answering questions before our courts?  Do you know how many people have decided to enter into plea bargain?  The corruption war is well and alive and we are making progress.

Despite the views that the way the corruption fight is going is one sided?

They say so that it is one sided and I asked them, “All the former military chiefs who are answering questions before the courts now, are they PDP members?”  That is one big question they were asked but they were unable to answer.

It is that anybody that runs foul of the law must face the law.  And the corruption war is well, alive and it is on course.

Then the third promise was to revive the economy.  As I speak, National Bureau of Statistics has said that inflation has dropped consistently in the past 12 months.  As at this time last year, our foreign reserve was $24 billion.  As we speak now, it is $42.8 billion.  If it was not a prudent government, how would that happen?

In six years of the previous government when oil price sold at $112, $113 per barrel, foreign reserve did not go up.  How come under this government that took off on oil price that dropped as low as $29 but now between $45, $50, foreign reserve has gone up?

Also, all the stock market is growing.  It is on record that Nigerian stock market is number four best in the world and it has never been as active as it is now in the history of Nigeria.

And then foreign investments are coming into the country, heavily, like they have ever been before.  In the Ease of Doing Business, Nigeria has moved up 24 points.

So, there is a lot that this government has done for Nigeria in different phases.  So, if it is re-election based on achievements, the government has a lot to show for it.  But then, like I said earlier, it is the President that will determine whether he is running or not.

Even at all of these that you have listed of the government’s achievements under President Buhari, some people still claim they have seen nothing that he has done and it is on the basis of that they are calling for vote against him in 2019.  But why would you think that somebody would live in a house and he wants the house to collapse on his head like many Nigerians are doing now?

It baffles me why some Nigerians want to pull down the country.  You see government pulling up and you see those people pulling down.  I think they are people who have not got out of primordial sentiments and loyalties.  They are people who will say, “Because the President is not from my area, he doesn’t speak my language, he is not of my religion, so there is nothing he can do.”

Some are in pre-2015 election mood; you know that the 2015 election was a very keenly contested.  In fact Nigeria was polarized along different lines; religion, ethnicity, language, everything, all our frontlines reflected in 2015.  Therefore, after the election, some people have still not accepted that the election had been won and lost.  So, they are resolutely opposed to the government that had emerged.

But there could be natural consequences for all of these.  What is your advice?

It is a democracy and in a democracy, people have rights to their opinions.

But we read and hear that this same democracy works for the society where we copied it from.  Why is it not working for us in Nigeria?

We will get to learn.  Let me just believe that we are learning.  Our democracy is how old? Nine years.  We will eventually learn and realise that this is our country and what we make of it is what it will be.

Finally, you replied Dr. Reuben Abati at a point when he wrote about demons in the Villa.  How come President Buhari who emerged on platform of personal integrity and popularity suddenly became who some people talk all of the ill things against?  Recall the allegation of nepotism and so on and so forth.  Is it not the Abati’s tale of demons in the Villa now coming to open and does it not mean that you are already feeling the heat written about by Abati especially when even your colleagues in the Press would criticize you that you don’t tell the truth about your government?

Not all. You know there are some people who just want to believe the worst about the next man.  So, if that is their predilection and the frame of mind they have, there is nothing you can do about it.  But the thing is, we would continue to do what we are doing, we would continue to do what is fair, just and right.  We would continue to tell Nigerians the truth.  We would not deliberately lie to Nigerians.  We have never lied to them and we would never do that.

The President I am serving does not want me to twist information for him.  He wants you to just tell Nigerians the way things are.  That is what we would continue to do and there is nothing anybody will say that will push us out of that.  Some people have just made up their minds that, “This is what he must say, this is what he must tell us” and they want you to say it.  But (laughters), it will never happen.