The perception of the contemporary Nigerian political leader doesn’t resonate with great admiration among many. If a wife has a tiff with her husband overnight, the president is the fall guy behind the scene to be shellacked. If bandits vandalise power cables and throw the neighbourhood into darkness, the president is singled out for persecution. If an unruly cop slaps an uncompromising bus driver, the president bears the brunt. If a greedy trader wakes up one morning and raises the price of his wares downtown, the president gets a sling of mud in the face. Though no president is without blemish, as far as many Nigerians are concerned, he is the chief pilot of the banditti clan superintending over a legion of perpetually ruffled feathers. Does being a spokesperson for the president, then, offer any the liberty to moonwalk? You probably wouldn’t get many yes as answers.
Garba Shehu, former Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity, to the immediate past Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, worked closely with him for more than eight years – from being a campaign media director prior to his election to working as a presidential media aide alongside Femi Adeshina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity. His encounters, captured in the thrilling, new book, According to the President: Lessons from a Presidential Spokesman’s Experience, offers rare insights into intrigues in the corridors of power, practical lessons in media administration and public relations at the highest level. Beyond what we see, Shehu makes us aware about the role of the journalist as an interpreter and a troubleshooter, who breathes life into mundane, political routines. For his principal, he takes the bullets, yet he is duty bound to set the records straight or let the opposition or the public stick to a preconceived notion of him. This isn’t, by any means, a job for the faint hearted.
Lest we forget, Garba Shehu, before he worked with Buhari, also worked with former Nigerian president, Atiku Abubakar, as a media aide and later as his presidential campaign media director. Both experiences, together with those on the field, are chronicled here. The book, therefore, is a hands-on approach to media practice and PR.
A book with ten chapters, According to the President… contains a prefatory note by Boss Mustapha, former Secretary to the Federation under the Buhari administration in which he says about Shehu: “In my close relationship with him, I have known him as a journalist whose heart burns with the desire to impart knowledge… I am therefore not surprised that he has done this book, using the troubles of the Atiku Vice Presidency and the challenges and the successes of the eight years of the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency to provide lessons to students, researchers, practitioners of journalism and public relations, and to writers of modern history” (p.viii). The author educates the reader on the opening pages that his book isn’t a memoir, though it contains details of his childhood, education, career as a journalist, activist and media handlers to Atiku and Buhari. What Shehu has done with this book, especially in capturing high-wire intrigues in Aso Rock isn’t out of place. Media aides all over the world often tell us the other side of the story, different from the prevalent hearsays that hitherto made the rounds at the marketplace of public opinion.
Shehu’s upbringing tells the story of a gifted student. He graduated from Bayero University, Kano, with a Second Class Upper in 1981 and also won an award for the Best Graduating Student in Hausa. He had an eye on being a media personality, and his wish came to pass when, in 1982, he was hired by NTA as a reporter for its Sokoto station. Two years later, he was transfered to NTA Network News Centre in Lagos, assigned to the energy desk headed by the legendary Chris Anyanwu. At NTA, he enrolled at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for his master’s degree programme in 1985, majoring in journalism. His first print job was with Triumph newspaper based in Kano, where he was a senior writer. He was to work as a public relations practitioner for a corporate organisation, Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria, Ikot Abasi, where he laid the foundation for his later engagement in life.
In this book, Shehu pays witness to the spats between Atiku and Obasanjo. He was designated Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice President on June 1, 2003. The author chronicles that Atiku, while as the VP, suffered at two fronts. The Northern political establishment saw him as not being Northerner enough due to his pan-Nigerian posture and unalloyed loyalty to his principal while President Obasanjo saw him as a threat that must be cut down to size. Atiku’decision to challenge Obasanjo in the next presidential election made the fights more intense. You need to read this book to know about the messy fights and how Obasanjo sought to demarket him.
On pages 87-88, the author recalls how he was abducted and kept incommunicado by the DSS over his press release saying Nigeria under OBJ had become a police state. He was eventually set free under strict conditions. From the fifth to the last chapter, the author opens our eyes to the Buhari campaign strategies before his election in 2015 and his reign as the president. The author tries as much as possible to shed light on the achievements of the former president and his personality. Among others, he writes: “By the remoteness of his personal disposition, his strong will, aversion to graft, strong Islamic principles, contentment and simple lifestyle, Buhari effectively stayed above corruption and controlled it around himself,” (p.121).
Students of journalism and media practitioners would find the seventh chapter, “Press Statements and Interviews”, most useful as it profiles Shehu as a media and public relations expert who knows his onions, using copious samples of State House press releases, highlighting the key points of each, for illustration. These interventions are also meant for media end-users’ application and public scrutiny.
