“If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business” – US President Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865.

I address you as “my brother” not because you are Yoruba and Ijebu; but because you are a Nigerian.

As a stubbornly non-party member, I remain non-partisan.

Politicians can play their games as they always do – deceive, decamp, destroy, defraud – but my neutrality is unassailable.

That should not be misconstrued to mean that I have no opinions about performances, usually horrible, but they are never coloured by partisanship.

Each event or issue is viewed from an independent perspective; and damn the consequences.

MAN ON THE HOT SEAT

“Stewards are not hired for their creativity but their reliability” -VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 233

The position you occupy, Special Adviser to the President, Media, is perhaps the hottest seat in government.

Few predecessors in office had escaped having their trousers or skirts burnt.

There is no need to list seriatim all those who went into the office with excellent reputations; which have been tarnished forever.

For those who were brought up with high ethical standards, Double Chief Duro Onabule, former Chief Press Secretary to President Babangida, the post office trauma he experienced, as he personally told me, gave him sleepless nights.

Everywhere he went, people virtually held him responsible for the decisions of government which were made without his views being sought; and which he was bound to defend as if his life depended on it – which to some extent it did.

My brother, you have my sympathies; because all you are doing is nothing more than following the familiar road of defending government on matters which might be beyond the control of the President who appointed you; and who you must reliably serve – even if your utterances are unconvincing.

Let me provide a true example from the hideous past when you were away in exile.

The late Wada Nas, who I addressed as Wada Nasty, became Abacha’s spokesman late into the life of that regime.

Unknown to Wada and anybody else till today was the fact that one of his closest friends was also my friend – on account of his dad being a major transporter for North Brewery Limited, Kano; when I was responsible for paying the transporters.

Abdul, that was his name, told me one day that Wada was in tears one day – when he was carpeted for not responding to an article written in the TRIBUNE very critical of Abacha’s government on education.

He immediately called reporters and issued a statement accusing the author of having attended a clandestine meeting with people wanting to destabilise the Abacha regime in a hotel in Tamale, Ghana.

I went to the Ghanaian High Commission in Lagos, pretending to want to travel to Ghana and lodge in the hotel. It did not exist. Furthermore, Abdul revealed that Wada knew there was no such hotel. He just had to save his job.

“You cannot bully reality” – VBQ p 288 

You are not Wada Nasty, at least not yet.

But, you are falling into the same manhole as your predecessors in office; at a time when bullying reality has become almost impossible for governments.

You cannot now get away with attempts to distort unpleasant facts. In the almost two years since your appointment, it is quite possible that for every new fan you have acquired, you have lost 20 – who formerly believed in you.

Given that the messenger constitutes an important part of the message, your attempts increasingly are becoming unconvincing – even when there is a good message to deliver – for instance your defence of the solar power for Aso Rock; which I fully endorse.

Your recent rejoinder to the President of the African Development Bank, Akinwunmi Adesina, was the latest in a series of ill-advised interventions.

It reminds me of the hammer principle.

DANGEROUS OPERATING ON THE HAMMER PRINCIPLE

“If someone’s only tool is a hammer, they will tend to see every problem as something to be hammered” – Abraham Maslow, 1908-1970. 

Whenever government spokesmen assume that every unfavourable report, observation or comment must be countered by a rejoinder – oftentimes in combative or even crude language – they demonstrate the hammer principle in operation. Frequently, they might not even be experts on the subject matter. Emotionalism takes over; denial of obvious truths follows in quick succession.

With the possible exception of their bosses and camp-followers, very few people are convinced by what they publish.

Credibility gap worsens. 

The rejoinder to the statements credited to Adesina was a classic example of how the response makes the situation worse for government in several ways.

Primarily, it draws the attention of those who missed the story to go in search of it.

The remark was forwarded to me by a friend; and, to be candid, I saw nothing new in it.

Furthermore, as an economist, and Adesina is not, I thought it failed to mention the role the government of President Goodluck Jonathan, on whose cabinet he was Minister of Agriculture, played to bring Nigeria to the sorry situation in which our country finds itself.

In short, it was a broad historical perspective – mostly correct – but, it was not a specific condemnation of Tinubu government. 

Nigeria became the World Poverty Capital in 2018 – three years after Jonathan left office and three years after Buhari mounted the saddle.

It has remained in that position till today.

Tinubu’s two years in office certainly did not create it, but, it accelerated the descent into poverty and added more millions to the numbers.

Among the thinking classes in any country, every attempt to deny the obvious only invites needless counter-rejoinders and widespread ridicule.

“Most of the problems a President has to face have their roots in the past” – US President Harry Truman, 1884-1972.

Announcements such as Adesina’s should either be ignored altogether or should be out-sourced to economic historians and demographers who could have rendered more objective and professional criticisms of an imperfect submission.

The bottom line of all these is simple: Please stop trying to send a hasty reply to every criticism of the government you serve.

No government is perfect; and there will never be one – as long as human beings are in charge of our affairs. Focus on persuasion rather than combativeness when a rejoinder is inevitable.

Nobody is convinced by tough talk; and in the Age of Social Media, an avalanche of maledictions against the spokesman and President is guaranteed.

PAT UTOMI AND HIS SHADOW GOVERNMENT

“They came forth to war; but, they always fell” – James Macpherson, 1736-1796.

James Macpherson, a Scottish writer, was the father of John Macpherson, who was the Governor General of Nigeria from 1948 to 1955; when he retired and was replaced by Sir James Robertson.

His father penned that line after several failed attempts by the Scotts to go to war with the British.

Pat Utomi’s announcement of the formation of a Shadow Government, which inexplicably has rattled the government, reminds me of that aspect of history; as well as other similar attempts by conscientious men to change societies which apparently are unchangeable – at least not in the way they want.  Ordinarily, I would not have bothered to comment on the matter but for two reasons.

First, I agree ninety per cent with Pat Utomi regarding the sort of society Nigeria should have.

In fact, I find myself nodding from the first to the last sentence each time he publishes an article.

Second, with the current state of the nation, Nigeria definitely needs a change of direction.

We simply cannot continue like this. Pat, more than most people known to me, is well equipped to lead the quest for the transformative agenda that might save our nation before it goes the way of Sudan or Syria.

Unfortunately, he had tried before to put together groups of people who he thought could help bring about a new social order.

When he created Patito’s Gang – a group of young, well-educated, articulate and strongly opinionated men – he must have thought he had the nucleus of the socio-political movement; which would ultimately change Nigeria for the better.

In 2001, with all of them under the age of 50, George Bush II was US President and Tony Blair was UK Prime Minister – both about 50 – the battle cry of the Gang was for Nigeria to be turned over to the young people under 50. 

Apart from the weekly meeting on the television show – where everybody agreed with Pat on how Nigeria should be governed – meetings were held at Apapa in the office of Olisa Agbakoba – aimed at getting a young Nigerian elected President.

I was invited and went to one television programme and one meeting at Agbakoba’s office; and came to a conclusion: Pat had gathered office seekers masquerading as political reformers. I was proved right and Pat wrong when old man Obasanjo started his re-election campaign and packed his Media and Publicity Unit with members of Patito’s Gang. Agbakoba, who was warming up to run for President, with the support of the gang, was totally abandoned in the race to obtain their own pieces of the national cake.

Several of them have since served governments headed by old men. Now they are over 60; many compromised.

I just hope that Utomi’s Shadow Government will not be another Patito’s Gang. 

Vanguard