A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Segun Sowunmi, has called out President Bola Tinubu over his decision not to have a principal or single spokesperson.
Speaking on Wednesday during an interview with Arise News, Sowunmi said the kind of mistakes President Tinubu makes is disgusting and unexpected from someone like him who has been the Governor of Lagos State.
According to him, having more than one spokesperson without a head does not work. He asked who would be saddled with the task of breaking the news if the situation occurred or who would be called upon immediately.
In a statement late on Monday night, presidential media aide, Bayo Onanuga stated that there is no single spokesperson for President Tinubu.
According to the veteran journalist, the president has appointed three spokespersons as against the previous arrangement where Ajuri Ngelale acted alone.
Onanuga also announced a change in the job description of Daniel Bwala, announcing that he (Bwala) is now the Special Adviser on Policy Communications and no longer the Special Adviser on Media and Public Communications.
Speaking against the backdrop of Onanuga’s statement, Sowunmi said someone with Tinubu’s wealth of experience and investment in media should understand the need to communicate to the citizens properly and not have a cacophony of voices speaking for him.
In his words, “Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the President now, is one of those politicians, if you like, who has invested heavily in the media. He has enough titles, he has enough television outfits,… I am disgusted.”
Questioned by the anchor on why he chose such a strong word, Sowunmi said Tinubu is not a novice in the media industry, and some things are therefore not expected of him.
“I am disgusted in the sense that there are mistakes you expect a novice who doesn’t understand these things to make. You don’t expect that from someone who has been Governor in Lagos. I know because when they were in the tenure in the second term, I was the Special Adviser to the Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, on Media, and I used to cross swords with Dele Alake in those days, and I know how tight their media outfit is, I know a lot of strong people and strong voices that have managed the complexities of his media even in the midst of crisis when he was having both his academic issues with Gani Fawehinmi, the ones he had with Obasanjo and all that, why would he become President of Nigeria and begin to say that putting together a media team is such a cacophony of strange fellows.”
Stressing the need for President Tinubu to be more strategic with the composition of his media team, Sowunmi raised the question of who takes the buck for responsibilities in the media team.
“On whose table does the buck stops? Who clears it like my brother (referring to the other guest in the studio) mentioned? The other question is that if for instance, there is a breaking news in Nigeria and CNN, for instance wanted to talk to someone, who do they call? That’s even mild.”
“The third one is imagine that for a second, there is a communication crisis that they now all need to go to television or whatever to speak to…what do you think you have communicated to the people?
What they don’t understand is that there are about four keys they must remember everytime. We need to educate them so that they know we don’t hate them, we just need them to do the best for their country…. The world has gone out of the business of talking attack dogs you know why? Because communication now is consumed and delivered at such a micro level that young people don’t even have the time, the believability is the most important.”
