Former presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, has said he reluctantly accepted to serve as media adviser to the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari.
Speaking with journalists in Abuja at a pre-book launch media conference, Adesina stated that although he admired Buhari and had been writing in support of his presidential ambition since 2003, he was relishing his positions as Managing Director of Sun Newspapers and President, Nigeria Guild of Editors, when he reluctantly took up the appointment as presidential spokesperson for Buhari.
The two books, “Muhammadu Buhari: The Nigerian Legacy (2015-2023)”, edited by Dr Udu Yakubu and “Working With Buhari: Reflections of a Special Adviser Media and Publicity (2015-2023)”, authored by Femi Adesina, will be unveiled and presented by the former President next Tuesday in Abuja.
Adesina, who served as presidential spokesperson from 2015 to 2023, said he had no apology to some Nigerians he described as “wailing wailers” while he was in government.
He said: “No fence to mend really. If there was something to mend, we will mend it. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing to mend. There is a whole chapter, which I called the ‘Wailing Wailer’.
On why he decided to write on the former president, he said: “I have known President Buhari long before I came to work with and for him as his adviser on media. Before then, I had not worked with him and I had no desire to work with him. But when the invitation came to work for him, because he was a man I had admired since he was a military leader, I decided to take up the appointment. I also had a moral issue because I had supported him since 2003 when he ran. I did in 2007, 2011 until he won in 2015.”
“He had invited me to work with him, I declined because I was the Managing Director of the Sun Newspapers and the President, Nigeria Guild of Editors and I didn’t want to leave what I was doing because I was enjoying what I was doing then and want to possibly retire quietly.
“I, however, reluctantly accepted and I just reflected on the book how I cried the day I resigned because I was stepping into what the military will call cover incognita, the place you don’t know at all.”
