Presidential spokesman, Femi Adesina, has done a pretty good job as President Muhammadu Buhari's 'bootlicker' in Gumi's own words, a 'presidential megaphone' in Soyinka's, and for being a sycophant in Adebanjo's.
Adesina can best be described as the most hard working member in Buhari's government. He seemed to be doing much of the heavy liftings when it comes to painting black white and white black to protect his boss.
“I am old enough to have seen our colorful and even swashbuckling politicians in action. I have seen the great Obafemi Awolowo. The charismatic Nnamdi Azikiwe (Zik of Africa). Shehu Shagari. Amino Kano. M.K.O Abiola. Bashir Tofa, and many others in action.
“But I have not seen anyone with the kind of attraction, magnetic pull, that Muhammadu Buhari has. And that is round the country, north, and south. People swarm round him as bees do to honey,” Adesina said in an opinion piece which drew rebuttal from leader of pan-Yoruba. socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo.
Describing Adesina's action as 'sycophancy taken too far', Adebanjo said Adesina's claim is quite the opposite, saying a man who is regarded as the worst president in Nigeria's history, cannot be as good as Adesina claims.
“For Adesina, with his record in journalism to have compared Buhari whose certificate is completely down and whose record of performance has been seen as battered, to the pride of Nigeria, is a disaster.
“For him to compare the man who has been regarded as clueless, visionless, a bigot and one also regarded as the worse of Nigeria’s president to the founding fathers of Nigeria, is sycophancy taken too far,” Adebanjo said.
Saying Buhari is too good that 'people swarm round him as bees do to honey,' is an absurd height of self-glorification, and an insult to every sane Nigerian. But, this is exactly what he was hired to do.
This same Adesina told us how successful the Buhari government has been in the fight against insecurity, in another article titled, “I like this pampering. Don’t you?”.
In the article where he praised the Nigerian army's onslaught against bandits in Zamfara State, Adesina said, “In the different evil forests, when the Nigerian Air Force strikes from the sky, the remnants of the evildoers not killed immediately attempt to flee. The ground troops then pick them off like flies. I say it again. One has never been prouder of our troops. They are cleaning up the country."
While the Nigerian army did made considerable progress in the fight against the terror group, saying bandits where so badly dealt with, that they were being picked 'off like flies', is highly exaggerating. Such depiction of the situation is more of glorifying the Buhari administration, than giving hope to a people so badly traumatized by the ongoing security challenges in the North.
The recent escalation in terror attacks in the North, is so bad that Buhari himself admits being 'distressed'.
"I am very distressed at the manner of death visited by bandits on innocent citizens in Sokoto who were undertaking a legitimate journey to another part of the country," Buhari said in a condolence message following an attack on travelers by bandits along Sabon Birni-Isa road in Sokoto, leading to the deaths of over 30 people who were heading to Kaduna en route to southern part of the country.
"The evil of insecurity that this administration is confronting is one that requires the support and involvement of all Nigerians," he said.
Acknowledging the severity of the situation, Buhari said in another statement, "I have dispatched a high-level delegation of Security and Intelligence chiefs, led by the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno (Rtd), to Sokoto and Katsina States, in response to the spike in the activities of bandits in the two States."
"I am expecting from them an immediate situation report and recommendations on actions to follow, to effectively deal with what is no doubt a WORRYING situation," he added.
With Buhari himself admitting "spike in the activities of bandits" in the North, a place we were told bandits were badly dealt with, and 'picked up like flies', by Mr Adesina, can the spokesman be humble enough to apologize for glorifying a government that obviously failed the people it promised to secure if voted to power?