Mr. Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity in an interview with OLALEKAN ADETAYO addressed some pressing issues surrounding the President Buhari led administration as it affects the nation and its citizens.
Read excerpts below:
This government promised Nigerians a better life but in the last one year, all what they have experienced is suffering. Was the change mantra about a change for the worse or for the better?
It is mendacious to say that in the last one year, what Nigerians have been experiencing is suffering. It is not true. That can only be a private opinion. Whoever holds that opinion has a right to it but to say that all Nigerians have experienced in the last one year is suffering is not true.
There is a lot of hope in the land. When this government took over about a year ago, there was despondency in the land. One did not even know whether Nigeria was going to continue to exist as one country or not. But now, that is no longer the situation. In terms of security, anti-corruption fight and even the economy, there is a lot of hope.
Nigeria is like a plane taking off with its nose in the air. As long as the nose of the plane is in the air, you know that it is gaining altitude. Before this government came, the nose of the plane was down and one did not know whether it would land safely or crash-land. There is a lot of hope in the country now, so I will not agree that there has been suffering in the past one year, it is not true.
As this government clocks one year in office, can you mention one thing that the people have enjoyed so far?
Not just one thing but several things but I will tell you about the security situation. This time last year, we did not know whether Boko Haram would advance into the core South and core West. It seemed it would because Boko Haram was not just confined to the North East then; it was in the North West and North Central. The sect was active in Abuja, it was active in Kogi and the next thing was that it was going to make a foray into the South West and go into the South South and we know what would have happened to the country if that had happened. So if you compare the security situation this time last year with the situation now, you will know that Nigerians have a lot of reasons to be thankful to God.
Do you agree with Nigerians who blame this government for a lot of the economic woes the country faces today? For instance, one, there was a long delay in appointing ministers and in preparing the budget and when it did send the budget to the lawmakers, it was padded. Who do you blame for all these?
Anybody who blames this government for the nation’s economic woes does not understand the issues. A government does not run down the economy in 12 months. This government came on board to meet an economy which the President said had been vandalised.
What this government has been doing in the last one year is coping with the consequences of the rot that the previous government left behind. It is not only about the previous government, but an accumulation of what was done by the many governments in the 16 years of the Peoples Democratic Party in power.
Do not forget that these were years that oil sold for an average of $100 per barrel and there was a time it hit $140 per barrel. How come we did not save? How come we have no reserve? How come infrastructure is at the stage it is? Anybody who says this government caused it does not just understand and I would want to pity such a person.
How will you react to the insinuations that the President’s decision was part of the plan to Islamise Nigeria?
I think it is the highest level of paranoia for anybody to believe that Nigeria can either be Islamised or Christianised. It is not possible. I think we should get out of that mindset of thinking that the country can be Islamised or Christianised, it will never happen. We should occupy our minds and ourselves with more productive things than to think somebody is going to impose a state religion on Nigeria.
Why is the President shutting down the clamour for self-determination by the people of Biafra?
The issue is that even among those who live in that geographical area that used to be called Biafra, is there a consensus that they want self-determination? Among those who are there, there is no consensus. Those young people got together because they never experienced war, they never knew the trauma of the civil war in which more than two million Nigerians died. They are the ones beating the drums of self-determination.
If you do a referendum in that geopolitical part of the country, I am sure that a larger number will prefer to stay within the Nigerian federation. Why did we fight that 30-month grueling civil war to keep Nigeria one if at the end of the day, people will just stand up and say ‘we are dismembering the country’? I am sure that generation that fought the war, that generation is still around, will never be part of that kind of quest.
The President has shown his willingness to negotiate with the Boko Haram sect if genuine leaders come forward but failed to show the same kind of willingness in the case of the group called the Indigenous People of Biafra. Is he not being sectional in his approach?
What Boko Haram is doing is insurgency. I doubt if IPOB has got to the level of insurgency nor will it get there because I believe that not too many people are going to follow that group into insurgency. I believe it will never happen. The leaders of thought in that part of the country are not with them, at least from all that we can see. So what is there to negotiate? For instance, what is IPOB asking for? They say they are being marginalised, when did they realise that they are being marginalised? Is it about 12 months ago when power changed hands? If the former President Goodluck Jonathan government had continued, would there have been that agitation? Were they not saying he is Ebele Azikwe and he is their brother and that his administration was an administration of the South East? For me, there is nothing to negotiate.
Many Nigerians have also expressed concern over the President’s style of speaking to them through foreign media organisations whenever he is abroad. How will you react to this?
The same people accept that the world has become a global village but when it comes to the President speaking, they will say he is speaking from abroad. If the world is indeed a global village, does it matter where you say anything?
Let me explain something to you. Before we travel, there is what we call a trip planning meeting. In the meeting, we organise what happens daily and hourly. For us in the media team, we have appealed to the President that anytime we are traveling, we want a slot for the media and the President has graciously agreed.
That is why whenever we travel, that slot comes and the President talks to the media, including Nigerian media. The Nigerian Television Authority and any other station that travels with us will be there and other Nigerian journalists will be there. Usually, you will see such news items on NTA and other stations whose correspondents travel with us. So why then do they say he speaks through foreign media? It is not foreign media. Even if he talks on foreign soil because that is where we can have the time, as long as what he has said got to Nigeria and it is consumed by Nigerians, there is nothing wrong in that.
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