FOR those who may not know, Mallam Garba Shehu is the Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) to President Muhammadu Buhari. I believe that our president does not need any publicity as his activities are supposed to speak volumes for him devoid of propagandistic garrulity by his overzealous, insensitive and abrasive information managers—excluding level-headed Femi Adesina, a man of profuse humility in the same superlative cerebral class and gentility with the Segun Ayobolus and Simon Kolawoles of this world.
Can we compare the era of consummate columnist, Chief Duro Onabule, who brought illuminative panache and gentlemanliness to his office as General Ibrahim Babangida’s spokesperson and the currency of exponential tirades on Buhari’s opponents by Shehu?
I cannot recollect the late Tunji Oseni using foul language on anyone when he occupied this same position during the presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. I stand to be corrected. Despite my serial criticisms of his principal as the editor of The Post Express, on two occasions he invited me to Aso Rock alongside a few select national editors for a critical meeting with ex-President Obasanjo on burning national challenges vis-à-vis media perspectives. That did not stop my subsequent descent on Baba. At another time, Mr. Oseni, my mentor, “summoned” me to a special edition of “Media Chat” with the president at his Ota farm residence. These references are to buttress what the disposition of a professional presidential spokesperson should be—not a counterproductive and an adversarial inclination.
Finally on the referential note, Dr. Reuben Abati, with all his intellectual rascality and snobbishness—informed largely by quintessential erudition—never insulted anyone in his official communication during his time as the SSA (Media) to former President Goodluck Jonathan. Again, I welcome any contradiction on this assertion.
Last weekend, Saturday Sun published an interview the former governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido, had with our Assistant Editor (Politics), Ismail Omipidan. In the report, Lamido, like most well-meaning Nigerians, faulted the anti-corruption crusade of President Buhari, among other major issues. Rather than address the posers raised by Lamido, Shehu, in his characteristic unprofessionalism and crudity, declared last week that Lamido, an elderly statesman—by all profound yardsticks forgetting politics for a while—was, reflectively, by being a member of the flourishing opposition, “intellectually and morally bankrupt” for having the temerity to pontificate on corruption when he is standing trial for corruption! If this bovine insolence had come from a buffoon, I would have ignored it. Perhaps, Shehu does not know that whenever he talks, it is as good as the president talking. No matter the circumstance, it is grossly irresponsible and reckless to use such acerbic phrases generally, let alone on a personage like Lamido, a man who transformed Jigawa State from the ruination and rusticity of “internet ex-Gov.” Samiu Turaki. Even President Buhari and most eminent Nigerians know the sterling contributions of Lamido to Nigeria’s democratic evolution through the evolution and metamorphosis of G-8, which culminated in the PDP.
If moronic moppets had not hijacked the PDP, it would still have been in power. But for obstreperous internal wrangling, jettisoning of agreements, witch-hunt of vocal members through the instrumentality of the EFCC and suppression of ambitious members’ inalienable quest for elective national positions—which ultimately resulted in sabotage and a fiesta of protest votes nationwide, the clueless, dumb and shallow APC would never have smelt the gate, not the corridors, of power!
As a media aide to the president, you do not beg the question by calling names like a constipated and hare-brained brat. It is not news that Lamido is facing trial for ALLEGEDLY diverting state funds to the accounts of two of his children. No judgment has been given on the matter as the 2015 politically-motivated inquisition continues. So, for any numbskull to hastily conclude, like bunkum, that Lamido was “morally bankrupt” is indicative of the fatalistic descent we have sunk as a nation. Only a scoundrel of questionable intellect can make such an indecorous allusion and the asinine insinuation that border on vicious mischief, utter disrespect and blissful ignorance, if not sub-judicial juvenility!
If the reaffirmation by Lamido, in his reaction to Shehu’s scathing comments, that Shehu has been struggling to get “accepted” by the president and members of his kitchen cabinet who seem not to consider/trust him as one of them for inexplicable reasons is acknowledged, it becomes easy to rationalize Shehu’s combative diatribe.
In the circumstance, it appears the only way for him to get round the dilemma is to traduce oppositional forces in the weird and erroneous thinking that such boyish vituperations will endear him to the innermost power bloc. Shehu does not know that he is cutting his nose to spite his face in his interminable farcical reactions. Shehu needs to know urgently that President Buhari is the president of Nigeria and not the president of the APC. Shehu should also understand that his principal is the father of the nation. This comprehension will help him to avoid scurrility in his public communication henceforth.
Deployment of intemperate language undermines the President and The Presidency. Vicious upbraiding of opponents, imaginary enemies of President Buhari and dispassionate critics of his administration drags the office to gutter stagnancy, not just the mud! Shehu should equally realize that invectives are the dysfunctional weapons of baboons and other mediocrities that thrive in uncouthness catalyzed by incivility.
Taking a kaleidoscopic view of corruption in Nigeria today, we have more corrupt men in the APC than all the other parties put together. All you get from the like of the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, is self-righteousness of this government and horrendous exoneration of all its indicted officials. What of the selective and theatrical prosecution of corruption cases that exculpates APC members and criminalizes non-APC faithful. Oppositional calumniation merely digs the grave for the inevitable and catastrophic self-implosion of the ruling party and its chieftains. It is only a question of time.
By now, anyone who still thinks that this government is serious about its purported anti-corruption crusade must be living in the moon! The clownish anti-corruption battle will soon end in 2019 if only Nigerians can “shine” their eyes and the ragtag opposition parties (or is it party?) get their act together.
Shehu should underscore the fact that he is not one of those charlatans they make SA (Media) or chief press secretaries to governors who unsurprisingly behave like jaundiced attack dogs sent out on kamikaze confrontations with anyone—including their benefactors’ predecessors—who disagrees with their mercurial bosses, particularly in the South East, which is why the Yoruba say that we use the leg to wake up our elders! Igbo do not know king because of our convoluted egalitarianism!
Overall, there is a high level of expectation of acceptable behavioural pattern associated with Shehu’s present assignment. Lampooning elder statesmen is antithetical to good conduct, upbringing and your immediate constituency: the media. Shehu should cultivate the noble habit of engaging critics of this government in robust intellectual debates and not demonizing them and exchanging tantrums.
Shehu should not be in the vanguard of the increasingly systemic alienation of those who facilitated the emergence and success of President Buhari in the 2015 general election.
If I had my way, Garba Shehu should be redeployed to Ekiti State to serve as SSA (Media) to Governor Ayo Fayose. Both of them are birds of a feather! They do not have the holistic (not educational or occupational) capacity, competency, maturity and candour to occupy the public offices they are saddled with.
Let me propose two names as assistants to Adesina who should pronto take over from Shehu: Mukhtar Sirajo (Kaduna State) and Lawrence Ojabo (Benue State).
Until now, I used to think that the Hausa were the most respectful of elders among Nigeria’s ethnic groups. Alas, I did not reckon with the exemplified tribe of official clowns who satiate in acrimonious rudeness!
If, indeed, as Lamido observed, Shehu has a modicum of respect for moral etiquette and integrity, he should not associate with the APC-led government. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.
The PDP never left Nigerians in unparalleled pauperization, dehumanized and unprecedentedly despondent. Lambasting Lamido and other senior citizens is unmitigated stupefaction that hallmarks vacuity.
As the PDP incontrovertibly noted recently, Shehu does not have the temperament, comportment and maturity to function optimally as a presidential spokesperson. I concur unreservedly!