Mr. Femi Adesina is the Special Adviser Media & Publicity to President Mohammadu Buhari. He is one man who has meritoriously served humanity in many spheres and loved by many given his principles as pastor, administrator and a veteran journalist. In this interview with our Publisher in his office, he talked about several issues especially killings, defections, integrity of his principal and many more. He was firm in his assertion that some critical factors fueling the unending massacre in the country are criminality, animosity and political mystery. He however made it clear that it is the duty of government to tame criminality and government must end criminality because it has all the apparatus to fight crime. Excerpts.
Congratulations to you once more for the third anniversary of the administration which also is the third year of your being in this office as a presidential spokesperson, one of the first appointees of Mr. President. Are you enjoying your job?
Let me start from the word you used “job”. I don’t see what I am doing as a job. I prefer to use the word national assignment. If it was a job, I didn’t need a job as at the time it came. I wouldn’t have taken it but it was an assignment for me to do for a man that I believe in and that was why I took it. So am I enjoying the assignment? Yes because I continue to work for a man I love, a man I respect, a man I admire. If it was for somebody else may be, I would have said no or maybe not. But because of my principle I am enjoying the assignment.
Are you under any kind of pressure because of what you believe to defend the president at all times?
No, because I am here out of conviction. I am here because I believe in the person of Muhammadu Buhari. So I am never under pressure to defend him because I think I know this man fairly. I know what he can do and I know what he cannot do and there are certain things he stands for that resonates with me. There are certain things he stands for that are the things I also want to replicate in my own life. Therefore there is no pressure at all.
I want you to respond to us by way of explaining more to this question because some of those people that know you personally feel that Femi would have written against certain policies of this government if he was still on other side, so how do you juxtapose this with what you just told us as not being under any kind of pressure?
If I was outside this government, because he is Muhammad Buhari does not mean I will not have been supporting him. In fact that was what I even preferred until I was offered this position of Special Adviser Media & Publicity. I had thought I would stay in the media and give support to the administration until I was invited to come and serve. So if I was outside I would still have given optimum support to the Buhari administration. Yes if there were things to point out I will point them out but I will not do destructive criticism. I will do constructive assessment because he is a man I admire. In his administration I will wish him to succeed so I will give it optimum support if I was outside.
Some of the critics of this administration are saying that apart from the fight against corruption they cannot see any other thing ascribable to the president . But from your own point of view, tell us just in bullet point what you consider the achievements of your principal in the last three years.
If some people decide to be willfully blind and willfully deaf, if you put something in front of their eyes they will say they did not see and if you noise it into their ears loud they will say they didn’t hear. Willful blindness, willful deafness, this is the greatest form of blindness and deafness you can think of, but for those who are not blind you can see achievements in security, you can see achievement in the economy. Just recently, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) came out with the latest report. Inflation has dropped for 70 months consistently. It has never happened before in Nigeria. The economy is moving up for the first time in almost 60 years. Nigerian economy is on the road to diversification, rice importation has dropped by 90% , it used to be lip service to economic diversification now it’s becoming reality. So in terms of economy, in terms of security, in terms of anti-corruption, in so many areas this government has succeeded. It’s succeeding and it will continue to succeed but those who will refuse to see there is nothing you can tell them. There is a saying that “those who believe no evidence is necessary, but for those who don’t believe no evidence is possible”. For those who believe they know that this government has done a lot for Nigeria and will still do a more.
Are you not worried that the president is losing a lot of followership within the party and outside the party, especially with the current defections in the national assembly?
Yes in politics you should lose followers and also gain more members day by day but what is important is you should not lose more than you gain because it is inevitable some people will leave. Some people have left now but a lot more people are coming. A lot more people are joining the party, lot more people are believing in the government, they are believing in the president and they are still ready to vote him in. So it’s inevitable some people will leave and they have left but a lot more will come in.
There are so many killings in the land and we are not in any war in Nigeria. How does the president manage to sleep with situation?
The president is the one vested with the constitution to guarantee the protection of lives and property, but when you have the situation we have in Nigeria that you have killings that are a conglomeration of many factors: one you have criminality, two animosity leading to clashes between farmers and herdsmen and three you have political mystery, then it goes beyond just a man or government to solving those problems. Unless people who are insular to one another agree to live together, how much can a government do if you have hatred and animosity towards one another? How much can a government do but in terms of criminality? Government must end criminality because it has all the apparatus to fight criminality. Then political mystery. Government too must fish out those who are behind those mischiefs leading to loss of lives because the truth is that a good number of those killings are also political adventure.
You and the Vice President have been criticized for not speaking out concerning killing of Christians in plateau, Benue, Taraba by suspected herdsmen. What do you have to say concerning this?
People do believe that Christians are being targeted in Nigeria. I don’t believe so. It is on record that Boko haram has killed about 20,000 people or more. If you take a critical census of the dead, I am sure that Muslims are three quarter among those that have been killed by Boko Haram. Now in Zamfara people have been killed in many hundreds. Are they are Christians? The answer is no. In Bimingwari many hundreds have been killed. Are they Christians? No. So when some people just sit down and say Christians have been killed they don’t have their fact. Every killing is regrettable but for anybody to say Christians are being targeted I don’t agree. In fact people who claim that Christians are the target of the killings are the enemies of the country and they are the ones that are adding to the problems of Nigeria. I don’t believe there is a specific targeting of Christians. Christians are killed. Muslims are killed. Every killing is bad.
Mr. president have just indicated interest to seek reelection come 2019, do you think the President have earned reelection for himself judging by his performance . Why should Nigerians give him another opportunity?
It is the electorate that will ultimately decide. Every election for an incumbent is like a referendum. That election would be a manifestation of whether the people think he has performed. But I believe that this president has every right to be re-elected because in terms of confidence, the larger majority of Nigerians have confidence in President Buhari. In terms of image, he has carved a very good image for Nigeria in the outside world. In terms of working for the people , did you ever hear 1.3trillion naira been spent on infrastructure in Nigeria in one year in another year 1.4trillion naira in two years, about 2.7trilion spent on infrastructure?. Then you are beginning to see it in roads, rails, airport everywhere. I think President Buhari deserve to be re elected .
Beyond performance in officemost people also are saying given his age Mr. President take the Mandela option. Do you think from your own vintage position that it is a good thing if the president decide to anoint somebody who he thinks will do the things he ought to have done if he was a younger person?
Our constitution does not prescribe an upper limit for who a president will be. What it has is a lower limit as long as there is no upper limit and a man is fit physically, he is fit mentally, he is fit spiritually, then that man can always run for any office. It is the right of the people to vote that man. President Buhari is not a rigorous person. If he thought he wasn’t fit to be president he wouldn’t be running for President.
Let’s assume that you have 180 million Nigerians in a field and you are given a microphone to pitch President Buhari for ten minutes, what are you going to tell them?
I will tell them that this is a man who loves the country and that love has been manifested in the work he is doing for the country. He is making sure that Nigeria’s money is spent for Nigerians, the fight against corruption is about Nigeria and its people. The fight against corruption is so that funds can be freed for development. If those funds end up in private pockets, development will suffer. So the fight against corruption is about the people, securing the country . It’s about reviving the economy; it’s about the people. This is a man who cares for the People. Therefore the people should reciprocate that man by putting their trust and confidence in him and I will tell you a lot of people still repose trust and confidence in President Buhari irrespective of what anybody say.
Why is it that for three years the president has not consider it expedient to rejig its cabinet especially the Service Chiefs?. The National Assembly and other interested stakeholders have been clamoring for the removal of the Service Chiefs given the state of killings in the country and there are also criticisms of non-performance within the ministries . So why do you think the present has remained silent as if nothing is wrong?
The President is the one who put that team together. He is therefore the one who can assess them. Those who are talking from outside can only give their opinion they can’t have their say. The President is the captain of the team. He is the one who will have his way. He is the one who knows what mandate he gave each Minister; what timeline, what deliverables. And if he is satisfied by what those Ministers are doing he is the one who appointed them, so those who are calling for their sack can have their say but the President will have his way. He is the one who can assess those that he has appointed.
Are you still Femi Adesina, pastor, jolly good fellow, fair commentator on social issues because people who know you say the present assignment has changed you.
Unless they are saying that this is another person. This is the Femi Adesina I know and this will always be the Femi Adeshina that I know and I deeply know. I have held positions in the past those positions didn’t change me. This one I am holding will not change me. The ones I will hold in the future will not change me.
Finally sir do you have millions of dollars in your foreign account because last year your name came up with some other people that you have siphoned a lot of dollars into foreign accounts.
Each time people call me and say I have seen that they say you have $1.9billlion in Minnesota, I say yes I am making a budget now to know how to start spending it. I think that is the handiwork of wicked people, people who do hate speech, people who do fake news. They just come up with thousands of things but it doesn’t bother me, I don’t have a foreign account not to talk of having money in it . Do you have money in a foreign bank when you don’t even have a foreign account? So anybody who believes that will really believe anything .
Is there anything you want to put out to Nigerians?
What I will say is that people should not cast way their confidence in President Buhari. The President Buhari you knew is still the President Buhari you know today, a man who loves the country, who wants to serve to the best of his ability. He is doing his best. He will still do a lot better and I am sure it’s in the interest of our country that we allow President Buhari to do what he has in mind for Nigeria. And at a personal level those who know me I will just tell them once again it’s the same Femi Adesina you know and he will continue to be the same Femi Adesina by the grace of God. When I finish this assignment I will still love to return to the media. I just came to serve Nigeria. It’s not a crime to serve one’s country. A lot of people want to pull you down when you are in public office. They want to drag you through the mud but I promised that will not happen by the grace of God.