If APC knows what serves their interest, they should use Buhari’s strength to campaign —Femi Adesina

Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, has managed to become one of the most controversial figures in the current administration in terms of what people say about him. In this interview by LEON USIGBE, he offers his perspectives as the presidential spokesman.

Describe for me the last seven years plus, would you say you have had a fulfilling time? Would you say there have been challenges? 

Yes, every era or every epoch in one’s life will have challenges, will have successes, will have its high points, have its low points and all that. So, if I just say, the last seven years, have all been rosy, that would not be quite right. God has not designed the world like that. If you look at the sky, you’d see bright parts, you’d see dark parts and all that. So, that is how the world is, that is how life is. But what I will say by and large, I am glad that I got the opportunity to serve President Buhari and I have no regrets coming to serve him. Because, make no mistake about it, the reason I came into government was because it was President Buhari. If it was somebody else, I didn’t think I want to serve in government. I never planned it. But because it was President Buhari, who I had always liked, who I had always admired, when the opportunity came, I took it. So, the past seven years and some three four months, I would say have been quite good. I’ve had my own sacrifices made but they are sacrifices for nation, for God and country. So, I’m glad that I came to serve.

Are there specific instances of these sacrifices that you talk about?

A lot. I have virtually lived like a semi bachelor in this Abuja because my family is still in Lagos. When some people visit me and they see me in the kitchen warming my food, they laugh. They say ‘see SA to the president cooking his own food.’ I say yes, SA eats now. So, he should be able to cook his food. So, it’s one of the sacrifices I’ve made, living apart from my family this about seven and a half years. Then, remuneration too. A lot of people don’t know this. I see where they are abusing me on social media, they say he is earning fat salary. If only they will investigate, they will know that what you earn in government doesn’t actually take you home. The take home pay doesn’t take you home. I came to this work from a position of Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of Sun newspapers and you know Sun newspapers is one of the best paying newspapers in town. My salary in government is 1/3 of what I was earning before I came and that is what it still is. So, it’s a sacrifice but I did it happily. Let me add, at a point during this job, and I am doing this as a tribute to my publisher, Orji Uzor Kalu, he called me one day, asked what I was being paid. When I told him, he screamed. Then he said, ‘I’m going to tell The Sun to pay you a million (naira) a month.

Even while you are here?

Yes.

Have you been receiving it?

No.

Why?

Because I declined. He said how can they be paying you this kind of salary. He said I’m going to instruct The Sun to pay you a million a month. I thanked him. I said, ‘please let me discuss it with my wife. I then discussed it and then, we decided no, it may not be fair to be drawing salary. Though I am on leave of absence from the place, but then, it may not be quite proper to be drawing that salary every month. So, that’s why I didn’t take it. But I want to thank him very much for even the initiative.

Okay, after here, what do you hope to do?  What’s your next plan?

Back to The Sun, most likely back to The Sun. At least I want to do agric. I want to be a farmer, but you can do it along with journalism. So, two things I like to do is back to journalism and also be a farmer.

Since you’ve been here, have you been able to keep up with friends? Were you able to maintain the kind of relationship you had with friends in the past? Are there people that may think ‘ah, when he got into office, he forgot us?

I wouldn’t think there are people like that. One thing about me, before office as SA media, in office as SA media, I have remained the same. I didn’t change my numbers. The two lines I had before I came into government are still the lines I use till tomorrow. Even when during EndSARS, they published those lines on social media, and people bombarded me, they began to disturb me and all that, I didn’t change the lines. They are still the lines I use today. So, anybody that knew me in the past and was in contact with me can still be in contact with me today. Let me tell you a story. One woman who knows me very well said she was on the queue at a bank in Lagos, and somebody was on that queue and was bad-mouthing me. You know, that happens. He was bad-mouthing me and said ‘I used to know him, but if you call him, he doesn’t pick calls again.’ The woman said ‘I did like a market woman on that queue. I confronted him. I said, you are a liar, you don’t know this man.’ She said she shouted on him and abused him and picked her phone and called me and I picked. So, all the people in the queue knew that he was lying. So, that has been me and that will be me.

So, how do you personally rate your performance as the president’s spokesman?

That will not the proper. It’s you…in fact, if I can be a journalists now and you the person being interviewed, it’s you that will say how do you rate my performance?

What would you say you have done differently to enhance your performance in office? 

No, I’ll just say I have come and I have served my principal as best as I can. I think I have served him as best as I can. What is my job? My job is to inform the nation about what he’s doing. My job is to defend him when it needs to be done. My job is to amplify the good things he has done for the country. So, I think, by and large, I have done what is expected of me to the best of my ability. But only two different kinds of people can assess me, one, my principal, and then to the general public. I will not be able to assess myself.

Well, have there been instances where the President will say, ‘Femi, what you did just now or said, I don’t like it.’ Or has he called you to say, ‘I like that what you just said?’

‘I don’t like it,’ not once. Not once. It hasn’t happened in seven years, three, four months. It hasn’t happened. Yes, ‘I like this,’ so many times, many times. There was one day he just met me, we ran into each other and said, ‘Thank you for prompt response, thank you for prompt response all the time.’ So, that shows he appreciates what we’re doing for him.

You said if not for Buhari you would not have been in government. But I’m just wondering whether as we go into this electioneering campaign, whether you think there’s any role that you can play?

No, no, no, no.

Even for the APC as the president’s party?

No. No. The role I’ll play is just to accompany the president whenever he joins the campaign trail. Wherever the president identifies with the campaign, of course, I’ll be there with him. That’s the role I’ll play. I’ll not play any role independent of the president in the campaign.

What do you think the APC should use from the President’s performance as their selling points?

It will be the prerogative of the APC but if they know what serves their interests, they should use the strengths of President Buhari. And what are the strengths? A man of integrity, a man of transparency and accountability; a man who has done well in infrastructure, infrastructure, particularly, and a man who, despite all attempts to seem to sully his image, because of the security challenges, he has done the best. He has done the best in the area of security. Our armed forces have never been equipped as this in this country. He has equipped the Army, equipped the Navy, equipped the Air Force. Never in the history of Nigeria has it been so. He has given them all the encouragement.  If the security challenges are not over, it is not because the President has not done what he should. He has done everything. And like he said during the budget presentation, before he leaves May next year, those security challenges would almost be totally over, if not over completely.

So, you also said that you’re going back to the media. But if the APC wins the election and they offer you a position, I mean, what can they use to convince you to accept any position in their government?

Well, as me, human being, finite, I can only see a bit into the future. It’s only God that is infinite. But as for me, I think I have done what I should in government. If you ask me, would you like to still take another position? There are over 200 million Nigerians and I’ve had the opportunity to serve for about eight years. I wouldn’t say God has not been kind to me.

Whether you like it or not, a lot of people didn’t like the role you have played or the way you have played the role, maybe how you speak. What would you like to say to them?

Yes, you know, what I’ve noticed about some people is that they like to give blows but they don’t like to take. You remember that song by Peter Tosh, ‘If you live in a glass house, don’t throw stones,’ and if you can’t take blows, brother, don’t throw blows. Some people like to throw blows but they don’t want to take. But one good thing about myself is that once in a while I give jabs. Once in a while, it’s not every time. I overlook a lot of things, but when people come after me like that, I can give them some elbow. So, if those are the people who are not happy, I have no apologies. No apologies. But then, if there are people I genuinely wronged, I can’t think of any, but if it happens that I genuinely wronged some people, it’s just human, it’s just human. And I think that a saying goes thus: To err is human but to forgive, divine. And so, if I erred, well, I will say forgive. But you do you know that a lot of people owe me apologies? They owe me apologies including our colleagues in the media. I see it and I watch them on television, on talk shows and they say all sorts of rubbish, unfounded. I see articles against me. It got to a point I stopped reading them. If I see anything against me now, I don’t read again. So, my own is to tell those who write columns and all that, that if you write about Femi Adesina and it is malicious, you’re just wasting time and space. He will not even read it.

Finally, have you had to tell lies in defense of the president?

Not a single time, not once, not once. In fact, the interesting thing about the President is that if you tell a lie on his behalf, he is the one who will come out one day and say it was a lie. He doesn’t want you to tell lies on his behalf. He’s a straight arrow; he’s as straight as an arrow. So, you don’t need to tell lies on his behalf. Remember when he was on medical vacation, people wanted me to say things they wanted to hear. But I stubbornly refused. I said only the things I knew. Only the things I knew to be true. They wanted me to say certain things but I refused. So, in defending or managing the image of President Buhari, there was absolutely no need to lie. There was no need at all. So, I didn’t have to tell lies. If anybody says I’ve lied, let them point out 1, 2, 3 instances. It was like one day I challenged somebody; he was on a radio program. He said Lai Mohammed was always lying, I said, tell me three lies Lai Mohammed has told Nigerians. He started looking like a fool. So, they just think that when you’re in certain positions that you must lie. You don’t have to. It depends on who your principal is. President Buhari does not require you to lie on his behalf and I have not had to lie to you. Thank you.

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