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Less than a week after adding former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s campaign spokesman to his media team, President Bola Tinubu has restructured his media and communications team by redesignating Daniel Bwala and Sunday Dare. ...READ THE FULL STORY FROM SOURCE ↔️
This was just as President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has countered the newly-appointed presidential media adviser, Bwala, on his claim that he is “the spokesperson” of the presidency.
“Today, I resumed officially as the Special Adviser, Media and Public Communications/Spokesperson (State House). I am happy to have joined a meeting of the robust and fantastic communication team of Mr. President. I love the existing unity among the team and hope we can leverage on that even for more synergy,” Bwala had tweeted on Monday.
But Onanuga clarified in a press release that no single individual will act as the presidency’s spokesperson. Instead, all three special advisers – including Onanuga himself – will speak for the president.
Onanuga had once clashed with the former State House official spokesman, AJuri Negelale, over responsibilities. The latter resigned from the position in September.
Dare, a former Minister of Youth and Sports, who was recently appointed as Special Adviser on Public Communication and National Orientation, has been redesignated as Special Adviser on Media and Public Communications.
Bwala, announced last week as Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, has been reassigned as the Special Adviser on Policy Communication. Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, Bwala dumped President Tinubu and defected from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to join Atiku’s campaign organisation in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Onanuga clarified that “These appointments, along with the existing role of Special Adviser, Information and Strategy, underscore that there is no single individual spokesperson for the Presidency.
“Instead, all the three Special Advisers will collectively serve as spokespersons for the government. This approach aims to ensure effective and consistent communication of government policies, decisions, and engagements.”
Ngelale, the former Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, announced in September that he was embarking on an indefinite leave of absence which he attributed to pressing family medical challenges.
It was reported how Ngelale clashed with Onanuga over a press statement issued by the latter “without authorisation”.
On May 28, Onanuga released a statement announcing that President Tinubu would address a joint session of the National Assembly to commemorate his first anniversary in office and 25 years of Nigeria’s democratic journey.
Hours later, Ngelale issued a contradictory statement dismissing Onanuga’s press release as “false and unauthorised.”
Onanuga’s clarification on Bwala and Dare may be aimed at avoiding earlier tensions witnessed within the media team when Ngelale was the official spokesman.
Meanwhile, during his time with Atiku, Bwala accused President Tinubu of rigging himself into office and claimed that Tinubu would struggle with moral legitimacy as president.
“Right now, although the presumption of law is in favour of Tinubu until the final determination of the election tribunal and appeals, he will struggle with moral legitimacy (because he rigged the election) for 240 days of his presidency,” Bwala posted on X.
In an interview on Arise TV in May 2023, Bwala had said: “We are in court to say it was a rigged process. As long as there is no final determination of the matter, we have every right under law, equity, and justice to express our opinion that he is a president-select and not a president-elect.”
In a Channels TV interview in December, Bwala suggested President Tinubu would not be able to fix Nigeria’s problems even if he was given 30 years in office.
“When people talk about being patient, you have to consider the time frame the public officer has to execute their mandate. The President has just been voted into a term of four years. He’s eight months in, which is 31.8% of his total time.
“He has less than 70% left; when is that change supposed to happen? When Buhari took over in 2015, we were told the same thing. He finished his term, but the fundamental problems remained. If the policies are flawed, even 30 years won’t fix it,” he said..… Read -T.he .Full _Article .Here..
