Connect with us

Aso Rock Watch

ASO ROCK WATCH: Is Buhari leaving Nigeria better than he met it? One other talking point

Published

on

Buhari

The Presidency, last week, declared that President Muhammadu Buhari would definitely leave Nigeria much better than what he met on May 29, 2015.

One other story caught our attention within the week under review.

1. Is Buhari leaving Nigeria better than he met it?

On April 10, the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, while featuring on Channels television programme, Politics Today, claimed that no matter what people say, Buhari will leave power much better, especially security-wise, than what he met in 2015.

“Buhari is leaving the country far better and I said it from the beginning in 2015. We knew where Nigeria was, 17 local governments in this country were under the control of the insurgents,” Adesina said.

Adesina’s declaration stirs the argument on whether Nigeria’s situation had improved under Buhari’s watch. As a spokesperson for the president, his stand is a call to duty.

Sadly, the realities of everyday living in the country hardly support Adesina’s claim to better conditions across almost every aspect of life.

Ethnic-related killings, many argue, have continued unabated, while the country has sank deeper in other areas of human development index, and highly divided along religious lines.

While Adesina is entitled to perform his good image-making duty, he cannot deny that the pulse of the nation beats abnormally under the administration of his principal.

Read also:ASO ROCK WATCH: Praising Nigeria’s brand of democracy. Two other talking points

2. Daunting task of Buhari’s salesman

Presidential spokesman, Adesina, on April 14, affirmed that the kind of national assignment he engaged in for nearly eight years required him to be strictly responsible to his principal, Buhari, and give no ear to critics.

“The reason? When you are on this kind of national assignment, it’s your boss you are strictly responsible to, and not other extraneous tendencies. You hold your office at his pleasure. Once he’s satisfied with you forget the noise of the market,” he stated in his article titled: ‘The Final Gallop Home’
“So, that is why when the mob, whom I gave the epithet Wailing Wailers, come after me, calling me all kinds of names, it never bothers me. I have the confidence of my master, and that is all that matters.”

Adesina’s statement confirms the harsh realities of being an image-maker, and even the tougher task of managing a man who is largely reticent and withdrawn.

While Adesina glories in the performance of his principal, it must be said that he can hardly be spared the knocks that have been visited on the President.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now