In anticipation of the impending end of the Buhari administration, Femi Adesina, Buhari’s special adviser on Media and Publicity, has secured a job as the editor-in-chief of YeyeNews.com. Mr. Adesina is following the footstep of Mujahedeen Isa Pantami, Minister for Communication and Digital Economy, who recently secured a job as a professor of Cybersecurity at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri. (FUTO)
Unlike Pantami, who got a fast-tracked promotion from a junior lecturer in Bauchi to a professor at FUTO, Femi Adesina is returning to being an editor of a newspaper. Surprisingly, Femi Adesina did not return to Sun newspaper, where he was an editor before Buhari picked him as an adviser. Instead, Femi Adesina is picking up the editorship of a new newspaper called YeyeNews.com.
A few former media friends of Adesina who spoke to YeyeNews.com told our reporters that they were not surprised he chose a less known newspaper to reignite his career. “When he went to Aso Rock, he turned his back on us,” one of them who pleaded anonymity said. “Now that his time is running out, he has no friends in the industry to return to.”
Another former friend of Femi Adesina put it this way: “Past media advisers to presidents in Nigeria like Segun Adeniyi and Reuben Abati found their way back into the media when their time as big men were over. But in the case of Femi, he did not take care of the boys. He chopped alone, so he has nowhere to return other than to start afresh at an obscure newspaper called YeyeNews.com.”
It is not clear if Femi Adesina could still write. It is also not clear if he would have the moral right to be critical of any government coming after Buhari. But media observers in Nigeria said that he would try but would not regain the respect he had before he went into government.
“Once Aso Rock touches you, the stench stays forever,” says the Nigerian Union of Journalists Chairman, Okija branch. “It is the way things are due to the lies they tell as the president’s spokesmen.”
The publisher of Yeyenews.com did not return our call to give us further insight into the decision to hire Mr. Adesina. Media observers believe that it had something to do with his recent media briefing where he announced that Buhari would teach world leaders at the UN how to manage their economies during a pandemic.
