Obasanjo didn’t expect bad stories against him in newspapers – Garba Shehu

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo never thought that there would be any negative story against him in any media outlet when he held sway between May 29, 1999, and May 29, 2007.

Malami Garba Shehu, who was the Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, made the claim ahead of the launch of his memoir entitled: “According to The President: Lessons from A Presidential Spokesman’s Experience”.

Shehu, in an interactive session with reporters on Tuesday in Abuja, claimed that he incurred the wrath of Obasanjo after the publication of a scathing cover story against him in the News Magazine written by Bayo Ononuga , who incidentally is now the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Shehu, who was the media aide of the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, believed he was relieved of his job at the presidential villa at the behest of Obasanjo, who was at loggerheads with his principal at the time.

He said, “I think President Obasanjo convinced himself that there cannot be a bad story about him in any newspaper except that it is generated by someone who would have told the newspaper to take that bad news. I think that is the environment in which we operated. So he and Atiku were boxing each other below the radar at that time.

“And you know, around power also, there is a lot of gossiping going on. It depends on the kind of leader you had. Otherwise, storytellers would come and tell all sorts of stories about people to you and undermine them. So in my own case, I was the first to have been fired on the basis that the News Magazine did a cover story for the week in which I was fired.

“Bayo Ononuga was with the News Magazine at the time. Anyway, he is my friend and I am not sure anybody would accuse me of being the one who gave him that story. But they did a nasty cover on Obasanjo. And I guessed people told Obasanjo that I was Bayo’s friend, and I influenced the story. This is what I learned. Unfortunately, the agent who did this was someone very close to me.

“May the person’s soul rest in peace. So we were in Jos, we had finished from National Institute for policy and strategic studies (NIPSS) and we just came back from NIPSS just resting and I got a call that we are going to announce your resignation on NTA 9 O Clock that I have resigned my position. I said I haven’t resigned (laughter), the person said no, we have your letter that you have resigned. I said okay, so they announced it on television.”

Shehu remarked that he decided to pitch tent with former President Buhari to serve on his campaign trail and subsequently as one of his media aides with the approval of Atiku shortly after the presidential primary in Lagos.

Asked why he did not attack Atiku while serving with Buhari even though Atiku rejoined the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in a bid to actualise his presidential aspiration, he said: “You learn from people. When IBB annulled Abiola’s election and he eventually died, before all of that anyone of you who knew the presidential spokesman at that time, may his soul rest in peace… did you ever hear him attack Abiola as he worked with President Buhari? So you learn from people. Common sense, as I say, if I were with Buhari and I attacked Atiku, how would Buhari trust me?

“Because he knows that one day I am going to change another master, I will go after him. You have to work with your head. Even as I worked with the President who trusted me, there are people around him who don’t see that trust in you, who still see you as an Atiku boy.”

Former President Buhari is billed to officiate at the book launch on the 9th of this month in Abuja, with dignitaries from across the country billed to be in attendance.

Recall that Shehu served as a spokesman to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar during the Second Term of President Olusegun Obasanjo (2003-2007).

The Kano-born trained journalist was in office for only six months, and he described his ordeal as a testy yet remarkable period in my professional growth.

He explained that throughout that period and the years that followed, we were fighting others for the political life of the vice president.

The book documents those rough and tough moments, not only for the vice president but also for those who were around him.

He recalled how he was arrested and detained several times by the DSS, and by an order of a judge, was thrown into the Kuje prison with the trial spanning over two years before his eventual acquittal.

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