President Tinubu, last week, appeared to have done a double take on the ongoing nationwide (or is it?) protests when he did a broadcast on August 4 and gave out a video clip Aug. 7. He seemed to have behaved like someone who ran into a long time friend and, failing to recognize him at first, walked on. Somehow, something in his subconscious said, “Haba! You’ve just passed your best friend!” He turned and walked back to the spot where the friend was still standing, too surprised to walk on too.
If you noticed, I have used the words “appeared” and ” seemed” to describe the president response(s) to the hunger protests, now in their second (but weakened) week. Firstly, in his Sunday, August 4, TV and radio broadcast, Tinubu did his damnedest best to sound like the commander in chief that he is: fully in charge, confident and daring, tough and fire spitting. A hit-me-I hit-you commander. He began by saying he understood the pain Nigerians have been put through by his stomach churning economic reform regimen but he was not relenting. The reforms must proceed a pace, painful as they are. However, in the video clip that came out Aug. 7, the president appeared remorseful for his hard hitting policies, saying he regretted the “time lag” between when he took those decisions and when the expected results should have begun to show.
Well, I’ve since discovered that the narrative didn’t actually run that way. In truth, there was no second Tinubu show and so no double take. What we were told was a new video clip was, in fact, a file copy, first released in October 2023. The president’s Special Adviser on information and strategy, Bayo Onanuga, brought it to our notice. He said there had been nothing from the president about the protests other than the Aug. 4 broadcast. If so, why was the video reposted on the president’s X handle by his special adviser on new media, Mr. Ortega Ogra, that early morning of Wednesday? Was it authorized by Mr. President? Onanuga, while denying the clip was new, said, “A trending video of President Tinubu which came out on Wednesday is not a new video. It’s a clip from (a) broadcast he made last year. President Tinubu has not made any other public statement since his last broadcast on Sunday.” Remember, this isn’t the first time the president’s media crop is at crosscurrent. Last May Onanuga again ‘corrected’ a press statement put out by a colleague about the president’s “dismissal” of the director general of the Bureau of Public Enterprises. He said the official was “relieved” of his post, not dismissed.
I suspect this disagreement over semantics hides an ominously deep personality clash in the president’s media team. The team is made up of, I believe, Onanuga, Ajuri Ngelale, the president’s senior special adviser on media and public affairs and Ogra. Onanuga is a seasoned print media journalist and the most senior and experienced of the lot. When Tinubu brought him into his team, many thought he would be made the minister of information. But the new president thought otherwise. It surprised not a few that Onanuga accepted the adviser job. On the team, clearly he has been eclipsed by the much younger Ajuri Ngelale (38), who is a politician unlike Onanuga. He was taken from the departing President Muhammadu Buhari administration in which he held the position of special presidential envoy on climate action (SPEC). He announces the president’s appointments and sackings, where he will be visiting, when and for how long. It’s only to be expected this dominant role will be resented by some people. This is not good for Tinubu. What he needs now during these heady days is not a media team hamstrung by infighting but one that is close knit, fast thinking, and quick acting too. What we have is a veritable Tower of Babel.
