(Exclusive excerpt from Femi Adesina’s new book: ‘WORKING WITH BUHARI’)
The idea for this chapter came from lawyer and activist, Festus Keyamo, SAN, who was Minister of State under Buhari, first in the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, and later in Labour and Employment.
We ran into each other as we were on the line to board a flight from Abuja to Lagos on September 9, 2021. Right on that queue, I was editing a speech the President was to deliver at an event. The final copy of the speeches always went through the S.A. Media.
When the minister, who also does media and publicity work for the APC and its candidates, saw that I was working even in transit, he said: “When you finish this assignment, you must write on Managing Buhari, how difficult or easy it has been.”
We laughed, but I made a mental note of the comment. And here we are.
After we finished the eight years, and I had returned home, I got phone calls in many hundreds over the succeeding months, and each caller would congratulate me on the safe landing of the government, and that I had carried a huge burden and offloaded safely.
For me, serving Buhari was not as difficult as people thought. The only difficulty was the Babel of voices, which lasted for all of eight years. It was a war of tongues against the administration, which had the potential of limiting what the President could do, due to distractions. But the man had learnt to ignore such voices. He remained focused on what he was doing for the country.
The Babel of voices came from many sources. The Wailing Wailers, spawned by result of the 2015 and 2019 elections, the opposition PDP, Buharists who had crossed the carpet along the line, and the church, instigated against the government by some preachers with narrow minds. Even Christians serving in the administration, like the Vice President, a pastor, the SGF, a top official in the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship, myself, and other Christians, were portrayed as collaborators with Fulani and Muslim jihadists. Very sad. Otherwise, managing Brand Buhari was not a burden. It was even relatively easy. How and why?
President Buhari was as straight as an arrow, clean as a whistle, and there were no dark corners in his life. There were no secret accounts, local or foreign, to be exhumed, there were no secret houses, old or new. So you had no cause to start covering up or explaining away anything.
The President always said what he meant and meant what he said. You did not need to start explaining and twisting. In fact, if you engage in any obfuscation on his behalf, do not be surprised if the man himself comes out to say he never said what you portrayed. He is that straight.
That was why all attempts to brand his image maker as liars failed. They tried to turn Lai into Lie. And each time I asked them to mention at least three lies told the country by the Minister of Information, they would start looking like fools. They tried the same label on me and Garba Shehu, it never stuck. In eight years, I cannot recall one lie I told Nigerians. There was no need to. As a Christian, I would not do it, and the President himself would not expect it. So, it was very easy to manage him. If we made mistakes, we owned up. And where we made strides, we trumpeted such.
Other things which the President had going for him, which made my job easy were his integrity, accountability, incorruptibility, straightforwardness, discipline, modesty, forthrightness, and not talking tongue in cheek.
Remember his first and only media chat in December 2015. The President just answered all the questions as they were, even to his own disquietude, judging by the flak that followed.
He was a very reticent man. Two events stand out in my memory, when I approached him on major developments in the country. The Islamic movement of Nigeria, known as the followers of Sheik El-Zak Zakky, had had a confrontation with the convoy of Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, then Chief of Army Staff. They reportedly were on a procession in Zaria, their hotbed, and refused to vacate the road for the Army Chief. At a time when security was a sore point in the country, it was considered imprudent. Law and order broke down, there were shootings, and in such encounter, you know which side would suffer most. There was a hullabaloo over the development, with the Shiites making different claims. I went to meet the President, asking what position we should take.
He put two fingers to his lips, indicating quietness. Then he said: “There is no government in this country that these people have not confronted and taken for granted. Maybe only Abacha, because that one was tough, and would not take nonsense. Let the military sort them out once and for all now.”
So, we did not speak. They called the President’s spokesmen all sorts of names, but we refused to join issues. We were not speaking for ourselves, and there was no word on the issue, at least, not at that point.
There was another December that Southern Kaduna exploded in another orgy of killings. It was so very bad. I met the President, and he said the matter had been there since around 1980, and until the people themselves worked for peace, nobody could enforce or legislate peace for them.
While the carnage lasted, he continued meeting with Governor Nasir El-Rufai of the state, and the security forces, to restore peace. But not a word at that point in time. Action speaks louder than words.
Some Nigerians took President Buhari’s reticence as insensitivity, but he always had reasons for anything he decided to keep quiet about. We continued to speak up for him, with the President himself speaking directly at strategic periods.
When Coronavirus came into the country in February 2020, and a lockdown became necessary the following month, the President had three national broadcasts within one month. He also set up many committees to tackle the emergency from different ends. Nigerians were kept duly informed.
I was on a live radio interview programme during the season, when an angry fellow phoned, and started spewing: “The President must speak to us at this time of health emergency. He cannot just keep quiet, sending only his spokesmen to speak to the country.”
I told the fellow that the President had made three broadcasts within a month, asking what he wanted again. “He must speak to us, he must speak to us,” he kept ranting. Truly, head or tail, you never win with some Nigerians.
At a point, I felt that beyond press statements, parley with pressmen, appearances on radio and television, I needed to start writing a weekly article. I created “From the Inside”, in which I wrote on germane issues from the Presidential Villa. It featured on digital media every Friday, but both social and traditional media were gracious enough to publish, week after week. Some others twisted it to serve negative purposes, but I kept writing till the administration ended.