Femi Adesina is the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media & Publicity. He is a very spartan man as his principal. Humble, Strict and very Intelligent. The newsroom guru, who has spent more than 3 decades in newspaper industry, was a former Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of The Sun Newspapers, in Lagos. Adesina is the immediate past President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors. He was the first Guild’s President to build a secretariat for the body in Lagos. His tenure as MD of The Sun Newspapers also saw the newspapers picking up and leading in the market as one of the best and well-read newspapers in the murky Nigerian media industry. His appointment as the Special Adviser to President Buhari came strictly on merit and years of experience as a media guru. He was one of the first Nigerians the President announced their appointment two weeks after taking over power in May, 2015.
On Monday, December 19, 2016, Gbenga Asabe stormed Abuja the capital city of Nigeria, to interview the presidential spokesman about his job, lifestyle in Aso Rock and his next plan. We had sent an sms to him and we never thought he could take us serious. But he did. Unlike other people who suddenly develop an arrogant posture immediately they reach such a peak, Mr. Adesina took his humility to the corridors of power. Instead of replying us with a text, the very articulate media guru made a call to our phone and asked that we wait until his principal’s schedule gives a window for an opportunity to meet us. He asked that we constantly remind him with a text message. Knowing that we had a very limited time in Abuja. He finally gave us appointment for the early hours of Thursday, December 22nd. We arrived Aso Rock that morning and went through all the necessary security checks from a team of State Security Services. We eventually made it. We made it to Mr. Adesina’s office inside the Villa and the encounter began. We engaged the Presidential Spokesman in a hearty-chatty encounter which borders on his lifestyle as presidential spokesman, his challenges and new aspirations. Mr. Adesina gave answers to all our questions without turning any one down. It was a vintage Femi Adesina in his element as he answered both critical and humble questions from GBENGA ASABE.
What is the difference between running a newsroom as an Editor-in-Chief of a newspaper house and handling the public relations of the first citizen of a nation?
They are almost similar. It is all about news management, response to news and the only thing added to it now is that there is also perception management. Image management. On the other side, I was concerned just about news, presenting it, reacting to it, responding to it, breaking it. But here now, while yes, I still have to respond to breaking news, I am also concerned about making sure that my principal is on the right side of events. Whatever he does, people must be informed and if there are misconceptions, he must be defended. And whatever he has done, if we need to expand on it, we need to do that. So, what I have added to my former schedule is perception and image management. But the two are similar. In fact, journalism prepares one for this kind of job.
How many hours do you sleep now?
I still sleep. I sleep well, I sleep well. In fact, when my predecessor wrote an article saying he found it difficult sleeping in Aso Rock Villa, I replied that I sleep, I sleep and I even snore. (Laughter)
Many people said maybe you didn’t see all those spirits your predecessor said he saw in his article because you are a man of God?
(Laughs heartily) I have not seen any spirit. So, anybody who saw evil spirit is the one who can explain and defend what he saw. But for me, it is just part of life. What happens in the Villa and its environment happens anywhere in the world. I work with a principal, who is very organised, very, very organised in terms of timing. Whatever he is going to do in a day has been scheduled. So, we run that schedule. The ones that need my presence, I am there. The one that needs to be reported, we report. And if he needs to do late evenings, as long as there are things that need to be reported, I am there. But you find that this is not an administration given to frivolities and excesses. In some other administrations, they close and they begin to drink. Not this one (Laughter). Our President, once he has his dinner and if one or two persons are scheduled to see him and they see him, he is going to bed. I too can then go to bed. The only thing that may disturb my sleep are journalists calling from all parts of the world. And at anytime they call, I respond. 2, 3am, I pick my call and I respond.
How does your day start?
My day depends on the schedule of the president. We have a weekly schedule of his activities. So, before I leave the previous day, I would have looked at the president’s schedule for the next day, it determines when I come. If he has an 8am appointment then I am here, at 7am. If he has a 10 am appointment, then I am here at 9am. So, his schedule determines my schedule. I come in the morning, so that when he has events that are of public nature, I am there. He has private events, audiences that are private in nature, then, one doesn’t need to be at those ones. But as long as they are public, I am there. And if it lasts through out the day, I am there. Until it is finished, I don’t have the liberty of leaving. So, his schedules determine my schedules.
What is the difference between your job and that of Garba Shehu?
No, we work together. I am the Special Adviser on Media, he is the Senior Special Assistant. So, we collaborate. Unfortunately, before we came to this assignment, I have known Malam Garba Shehu for more than 20 years. So, there was no need to tussle. No need to bitter over anything, we have found a reason of working together and as far as I am concerned, we will continue to work together.
Your facebook account is always very busy daily and one wonders how you are able to quickly marshal points and photographs from events attended by the President around the world and put on your facebook account in a jiffy?
Well, that is the journalism of the now. If you are a journalist and you can’t function like that, then, you are analogue. You are ancient. And you will soon fade away. And by the grace of God, I pray that God should give us life, when this assignment is over, I will return to journalism.
I was about to ask you that question. There are opinions in town that you might do other things after this assignment. Of course, some of your predecessors went back to the newsroom to become Chairman of Editorial boards, while others simply walked away. Are you sure you want to go back to the newsroom after this assignment?
By the grace of God, media work is what I enjoy doing. I will love to go back to it. Yes, I may write books because I am a writer, but I will always want to be in the media. I am on leave of absence from the media and I intend to go back except God determines otherwise.
Will you be returning to The Sun Newspapers?
Yes, at The Sun I am on Leave of Absence. The Publisher of The Sun is not only my employer, he is also my friend. (Laughter) So, all things being equal, I will still like to work for him and with him.
With the trend of the social media having prominence in the society than the traditional media, do you think or do you fear that the print media will suffer a disaster soon?
Yeah, the digital media, no doubt, has posed a challenge to the traditional media, but the traditional media will always be there. Let’s go back in time. When radio came, it was noise all over the world that ‘oh, this will kill the printed word’. But hundred of years after that, radio is there and the printed word is there. Now, when television came, ah, the noise was louder. That ‘this one is combining vision and auditory, that you can see, you can hear, ooh, this means the printed word is gone, newspaper is dead’. Almost a century after, the television is there, the newspaper is there. And then, when internet came, oh, they said ‘this is the final death knell for the printed word’. When I was still in the media, I had the opportunity to attend some international conferences. I think one of them I attended in Harmburg, Germany, the conclusion was that ‘Yes, the social or the digital media would challenge the traditional media, but the consumers of media services trust the traditional media more than the digital media. So, that trust will also sustain the traditional media’. You find that when people read things on digital media, they still wait for traditional media to authenticate it. So, the traditional media will always be there. But the challenge is upon those who run that traditional media to now be creative. You can’t just have one source of income, the printed word. You need to have multiple streams of income.
How is your work affecting your family?
Yeah, anybody who marries a journalist must be ready for it. Before I came to this assignment, I had been married for 24 years. So, my wife already knew that I have a challenging schedule. And now that I have come here, 25 years into our marriage, she has come to understand. They live in Lagos, I live in Abuja. So, that means minimum of once in a month; and I can make it twice, I go to Lagos, spend a weekend with them and come back.
Why did you not bring them to Abuja?
Why I couldn’t move the family is that our children are grown up. My son is already a pilot. My daughter has graduated from U.I. (University of Ibadan) and I just have 2 of them. So, how can you start moving them at that age?
