There are many questions Nigerians are craving
answers to concerning the Buhari administration.
For instance, why hasn’t the government
appointed Ministers six weeks after it was
inaugurated? Why would President Muhammadu
Buhari, as the leader of All Progressives
Congress, APC, not intervene in the free- for- all
at the National Assembly? Is he disappointing the
South-West zone which massively voted for him
at the polls?
Is the President anti-Igbo by leaving them out in
the appointment of Service Chiefs? Will he probe
past government officials? Is he corrupt himself?
Why is he going to the United States of America,
USA, when there is terrorism war raging in his
backyard? From his office at the State House in
the Presidential Villa, to a hotel room in Wuse 2,
Abuja, I was able to finally, after two weeks, get
hold of the workaholic Mr. Femi Adesina, Special
Adviser to President Mohammadu Buhari on
Media and Publicity and a staunch believer in
the President’s cause, to provide answers to
these questions during an interview on Thursday
night. Excerpts:
It has been more than 30 days since the new
administration was inaugurated. How do you
assess it?
Well, I think that is a little bit unfair because you
know how I will assess the administration since I
work with the President. But then to be fair and
impartial, I will say, yes, the President is on the
right course, maybe because there are also some
facts that are previously unknown, but I just know
that the President is laying a foundation for a new
Nigeria. If he can continue on the wind of change
that he rode on to office and continue building on
the same foundation, definitely change will come.
But he is laying a completely new foundation and,
when that foundation is fully laid and the country
continues, you will see that change is truly here.
When you were announced to be the Special
Adviser, how did you feel? Did you see it coming
or you never expected it?
I was announced May 31, but if you remember, on
May 20, ThisDay had speculated the story. The
moment ThisDay speculated it, anything could
happen. So, it was just a question of, will it
happen or not? Since ThisDay speculated it, we
knew anything could happen, but, before then,
no. It could have gone either way anyway.
How does it feel settling down to work with
President Muhammadu Buhari in this capacity?
It is a rare opportunity. Out of 170 million people
you have been called to work for your country, it
is a rare opportunity, and I will say it feels good. I
have left positions that are eminent. I have been
the Editor-in-Chief of a national newspaper,
President, Nigerian Guild of Editors. I was
satisfied in those positions, but then, coming to
serve your country can’t be compared with
anything. So that is why I left those positions to
come and serve because I believe in the
President. If it was another administration led by
someone that I don’t believe in, I wouldn’t come,
but I came because I had always believed in
President Buhari.
Were you prepared for this assignment
irrespective of the fact that you have occupied
other positions?
If you had spent 29 years in journalism like I have
done, then you are prepared for a lot of things
including this assignment. If that is the question,
yes, I have a background that prepared me for
this assignment. But if your question means did I
think it was going to come, I will say no, I didn’t
think it was going to come. My mind didn’t go to
it and I have always supported President Buhari
since he was a military Head of State. I had
admired him. In fact, the day he was overthrown
was one of the worst days of my life. I felt very
sad for Nigeria; very sad for him and his family,
very sad about everything. I didn’t think that
government should have been toppled. If that
government had lasted, Nigeria wouldn’t have
been where it is today. So, when he attempted to
come through the ballot box since 2003, I had
always supported him and, even when it seemed
like he stood no chance, I still believed he was
the best candidate. In 2011, I had always said we
needed a correlation in order to get PDP out. So
when that correlation came through the
emergence of All Progressives Congress, APC, I
felt there was a good chance in 2015 and it has
happened. But to think that I was going to work
for him, no, it didn’t cross my mind.
What are the attributes that really drew you to the
President?
The first one is his simplicity. I just love his
simplicity. He is a very simple man. Then I like
the fact that he is very straight forward. I like
people who know where they stand with anybody.
It is either yes or no. When he says yes, it is yes;
when he says no, it is no. Then, of course,
integrity, to me, counts a lot. The fact that every
man can testify that he is a man of integrity gets
me because I love integrity and then transparency
and accountability. A country like Nigeria where
anything goes and then you see a man that has
chosen to be transparent and accountable. Look
at all the positions he has held in this country,
yet he remains a simple man. I love that kind of
person. Why can’t I support him? Why can’t I
point Nigeria to that kind of person? He is good
for our county? So that is why I did it.
But many Nigerians don’t really share these
ideas. Some will be quick to dismiss all these,
saying that beyond the facade, you may discover
many others things when you dig deep.
Well, if they say that, they have a right to their
own opinion but then we want to see the
evidence to justify that. You don’t need to look
far. Just look at the positions the President has
held: governor of North-Eastern State, which is
now six states: Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Gombe,
Adamawa and Taraba. Then he went on to
become the Minister of Petroleum Resources and
held that position for three and a half years. Can
you hold such position and not have oil blocks? If
anybody thinks President Buhari has an oil block,
let him show it to us? After that, he became
Head of State and he was there for 20 months;
after that, he was Chairman, Petroleum Trust
Fund, PTF, and we know all the achievements he
made in that position and then today President.
Not many Nigerians have this kind of pedigree
and who are not going to be stinkingly rich. I am
not saying President Buhari is a poor man, but
then I don’t think he is stinkingly rich when he
held all those positions. He should be stinkingly
rich and it is only a very rare Nigerian that will
not be stinkingly rich after holding those
positions.
You said when he was toppled you were truly
sad. Now he has another opportunity! What do
you crave for? Or do you say he has changed
from who he used to be and perhaps may not
realize those things that he would have truly
accomplished if his government then had
continued?
Whether he has changed, yes, I would say he has
changed in some areas and, in some areas, he
remains the same. You know that age tempers a
man. Age has tempered him but for good.
Remember, after he was inaugurated, some
officials of the former administration were about
travelling out and the security officials and
agencies were stopping them and, you will recall
that a statement was issued that they shouldn’t
be stopped. That shows you that the man is
really temperate now rather the old Buhari. The
military man would have packed all of them
immediately he was inaugurated and they would
be heading for jail and then you would be sifting
the weeds from the shaft there after. So, that
already shows that he is a different man, a more
mature person, a more reflective person, a more
contemplative person and that can only come
with age. Again, you would see what played out
in the National Assembly. You know he is a man
who wants to respect the Constitution. That
shows he is already different from the soldier that
ruled this country. If he was a person that didn’t
want to respect the Constitution, he would have
interfered in the selection or the election of the
leadership of the two chambers, but he left them
and said anybody that emerged, he will work
with. What he didn’t know is that not everybody
was going to respect the rules and we saw what
played out. In terms of whether he is a changed
man, yes, he is a changed man. He is a true
democrat now. There are so many things that
have come up in just six weeks of the
administration that show you that this is a man
that respects the Constitution and will continue to
respect it. So, he is a changed man in those
areas, but then there are some areas like
accountability, transparency, integrity; of course
you know that he will never change in those areas
and that is the reason he was elected. Imagine a
man who was a military leader 30 years earlier
getting elected just on the basis of integrity,
transparency and accountability; you know that
kind of man will never change that.
Some persons argue that if this man doesn’t
exercise his authority, things might still go wrong
because a leader is a leader. Being the President
of Nigeria, he is the leader of the party in all
ramifications. There is a proverb in my place that
an elder doesn’t sit idly while the goat dies in
tethers. He can’t be sitting while things are going
wrong.
If you also permit me to quote another proverb or
a saying that a tiger doesn’t proclaim its tigress.
A tiger doesn’t need to come out and say ‘I am a
tiger’. When he does that, go and check properly,
he can be a cat, but when you see a tiger, you
know it is a tiger. So, he doesn’t need to ride
over everybody before they know that he is a
leader and indeed he is a leader. He has the
traits, the characteristics and all the potentials.
He has everything it takes to be a leader. He
doesn’t need to throw his weight around before
everyone knows he is a leader.
Let me take you back a little to the issue of
allowing the last government officials to travel.
Does that mean that he has hands on probity,
assuming there was something to probe?
He has said it that money in billions of dollars will
be recovered. But you know the world is too small
a place for anybody to hide if you are running
from justice. The world is too small a place to
hide. You will be fished out. So, there is no need
that you say they should not be heading for jail if
eventually the law goes after them. Very few
countries can they hide in and how long will they
hide? So, it doesn’t mean that anybody that has
ill gotten wealth will not regurgitate it. They will.
Remember when he went to Germany for the G7
summit, he met with President Obama and
Obama told him to just give us information on
where the loot is hidden and we will help you
recover it and the government has been working
on that. So, that shows that looters will never go
free.
Is he going backwards? I mean where is he going
to start to probe?
He can’t afford to go too deep into the past or
else it will be destructive for his administration.
There are some things you can’t close your eyes
to while you don’t want to shine the torchlight
into the dark recesses of our past; immediate
past where things are evident. The Yoruba have
a saying that the corpse we buried, the leg is
sticking out and, if you bury a corpse and the leg
is sticking out, you can’t pretend. When there are
trails all over of the monies in billions and
trillions, then a responsible government can’t
close its eyes to that.
Let’s look at insecurity. In the last two weeks,
the bombings have increased. People have
expressed fear that the government’s efforts in
the past one month and two weeks haven’t really
paid off because I know that the President,
immediately he was sworn-in, travelled to places
and there was this assurance. But then it does
appear much hasn’t been done in that direction?
Let me draw an analogy. One day, the world woke
up to hear that Osama bin Laden had been killed
by the US Navy Seals. But did you know how long
it took to plan that operation? It took 24 months
of painstaking planning. Drills, simulations, all
that happened until they got him. I am not
saying it is going to take 24 months before this
government breaks the back of Boko Haram. I am
just telling you that planning needs to be carefully
done and that is what is being done. In his very
first week in office, he went to Niger, Chad and
why did he go? Because of this Boko Haram thing
and one major reason he went to G7 is because
of the Boko Haram issue because the leaders of
G7 said ‘come and let us know what we can do
to help’. After that, the leaders of Chad, Niger,
Benin Republic, Defence Minister of Cameroon
also came here under the Lake Chad Basin
Commission. They are planning. Before the end of
this month, after he comes back from America, he
is going to Cameroon and why is he going there?
Still on Boko Haram and you know there is a
multinational task force they are contributing to
and Nigeria has released 21 million dollars for the
joint task force. That is money Nigeria can use in
other areas but it has invested 21 million dollars
in that joint task force. That shows seriousness
and I think July 21 has been picked as a date
for that force to swing into action. Nobody can
fairly accuse this government of not doing
anything about Boko Haram. It is doing a lot and,
eventually, we will see the end of insurgency.
Let’s also look at the appointments so far made
by the Buhari government. The government has
been accused of lopsiding the appointments. It
has been people from the North. That’s the
impression out there.
Those people from the North, are they Nigerians?
So, if they are Nigerians, they have the right to be
appointed and then I am sure there could be up
to 500 appointments still ahead. Federal Boards
that just got dissolved alone had 601
appointments. They are going to be filled. The
cabinet is going to be constituted. Other persons
and aides are going to be appointed. As at the
time they began to talk, only nine appointments
had been made and they said eight northerners
and one southerner. They forget that some of
those appointments are statutory, the next in
rank. They just have to be the ones that will take
those positions and some of those again are
security chiefs. Security is an area where you take
the very best. It is not something you subject to
emotional considerations or other primordial
sentiments. Take the very best who can deliver
particularly at a critical time like this. So those
who have started counting, I think it is
premature. There about 500 appointments left to
be made and, when those appointments are
made, that is when they can begin to analysis.
Doing it after nine appointments, I think that is
hasty and fault-line in our country. Nigerians are
too suspicious of leadership, other ethnic groups,
too suspicious of many things. If we are less
suspicious, then this wouldn’t have come up yet.
There are still these feelings from the members of
the public that President Buhari and his political
allies in the South-West, people like Asiwaju Bola
Tinubu, have fallen apart; that, in fact, the
President has disappointed the South-West that
massively voted for him at the polls. How do you
address this sentiment?
I am glad that you used the word “these feelings”
which is different from reality. Just a couple of
days ago, Bola Tinubu himself came out to say
there was no rift between him and the President. I
think things that are unfolding are part of our
political experience, political development. You
will see that in the next dispensation, most of the
things that happened now will not happen
because the actors would have learnt. If the
President in the next dispensation wants to leave
the leadership of the chambers of National
Assembly to elect their own leaders as President
Buhari has done, the party will need to play its
own part. Everybody involved will play his or her
own part so that what has happened now will not
happen again. It is part of the learning curve, but
for anybody to say the West is disappointed, it is
not true. A lot of people who voted for President
Buhari in the West have been loyal to him. Even
those who didn’t vote for him are beginning to
see that he is a leader worthy of their support
and they are giving their support.
Do you really believe in the Presidency of Mr.
Buhari to radically move this country away from
what it used to be, judging from the fact that he
is an old man now? Won’t his age really affect
him?
You have heard the saying that old wines are
tastier. Buhari is like a wine that gets better with
age. I said this earlier and, I repeat again, he gets
better with age; sound, sober, contemplative, not
rash. You see what is happening now, Boards
have been dissolved. There are terminations and
new appointments. You know he could have done
that in the very first week and then he could have
made mistakes, but this is the sixth week and he
is doing all those things and I think, at the end of
it, all Nigerians will be glad that they elected him.
I don’t foresee failure; no, it will not happen, but
it will demand that Nigerians will give him
support and work with him but I believe in the
change that was promised to this country.
Just before current appointments, you were a
practising journalist and, ordinarily, you would
have been worried that this government, after
six weeks, hasn’t appointed even the Chief of
Staff. We are talking about the time it has taken,
yet no Chief of Staff, let alone Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, SGF, and then
Ministers. But I remember, before now, they
repeatedly said they will hit the ground running
after inauguration. What has happened?
One thing is clear, it is constitutional to have a
cabinet because the Constitution says there must
be a Federal Executive Council and Ministers
must be appointed from at least one state each. I
said earlier that the President respects the
Constitution. So, that shows you that he is going
to constitute a cabinet. Now, you can’t compare
one administration with another.
Obasanjo appointed his Ministers in July.
Yar’Adua also in July, but that is not a reason for
any other government not to appoint earlier than
July or even later than July. Each government
responds to the situation and circumstances in
which it finds itself. What this administration met
on ground is an Augean stable and it needs to be
cleaned up. I can tell you that Nigeria was left in
a mess by the last administration and it needs
some clean up and, without a clean up, you
continue to build on a wobbly foundation and, one
day, that structure will come down. So, why don’t
you then take your time to lay a fresh foundation
and build up on that foundation that is what
President Buhari is doing.
The cabinet has not come but it will come and,
when it comes, it will be building on a freshly laid
foundation. You see that in the past few weeks,
he has been taking briefings from Permanent
Secretaries in different ministries. When the
Permanent Secretaries conclude their own, chief
executives of parastatals and agencies will also
come to brief, so that we have a complete picture
of what is happening in government and then,
after that, anything can happen. When the
Ministers themselves come, they will be glad that
they are coming into a system that is cleaned up
for them. If they had come immediately, this
house cleaning won’t have been done because
they would have occupied space and continued in
the old fashion. So, let Nigerians, who trusted this
President and gave him their mandate, continue
to trust him that he is working for them and he is
doing the best for them.
Some people in the South-East aren’t happy at
the appointments of Service Chiefs because they
feel that none of their sons was there. If we are
talking of engaging the best hands, couldn’t you
have found some of the best hands in the South-
East?
Mark the word of Mr. President, all the Service
Chiefs he appointed he never met anyone of them
except the Chief of Army Staff that he met
casually in Chad. He was the Commander of the
Multinational Joint Task Force. So, all of them
got appointed based on their service records.
Now, are we going to say that we will subject
efficiency to ethnic and regional balances? I am
not saying that it is not constitutional. There is
federal character in our Constitution, but there
are some areas where you can’t sacrifice
efficiency for ethnic or regional balancing. Get the
very best that can do the job particularly at a
time of crisis like we have in security. So, I don’t
think it would have been proper shopping for
people to fill positions as critical as Service
Chiefs if they aren’t the very best we can get.
The President is going to the U.S. Let me say it
is the mother of all visits. What should Nigerians
expect from that trip?
Three key things are going to be on the table in
America. They are more than three but these
three will be key. First is the fight against
insecurity. Nigeria is going to be asking for
America’s assistance in terms of intelligence and
in terms of equipment. If this succeeds and we
get all that we want of course, we know it is
going to make an impact on the war against
insurgency; so that would be a key achievement
of that trip. Again, something that would be on
the table in America is the anti-corruption war. If
we have money outside in billions of dollars, you
know what that means in Naira. That is more
than an annual budget.
If we recover that money, it is to the benefit of
our country. Then the third thing will be the
Nigerian economy. America used to buy 30
percent of Nigeria’s oil. Now, it is less than five
percent because they discovered Shale oil and
gas. So, in what way can America boost our
economy? This will be a major thing and, at the
end of it all, this will be to the benefit of
Nigerians and, of course, a visit to America, like
you said, is the mother of all visits and the fact
that the American President has invited our
President shows that they believe in what is
happening in Nigeria. Don’t forget that the same
Obama came to neighbouring Ghana and never
came to Nigeria. The fact that he invited the
Nigerian President shows that the acceptability
rate of Nigeria has gone up in the international
community.
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