President Muhammadu Buhari walked-in briskly into the press briefing hall of the Presidential Villa as over 60 journalists quickly stood up to acknowledge his arrival. On reaching his executive seat, he asked jokingly: “can I take my seat?”
What followed was hearty laugh from amongst the journalists who have been patiently waiting for him for most part of Monday, June 22, 2015, the very day he began to operate from the Presidential Villa after being inaugurated as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC) on May 29, 2015.
And when it was time to commence the business of the day, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, introduced the president as “being here to pay courtesy visit on you.”
Even those in the State House Press Corps (SHPC), an organization that binds the media men and women covering the activities of the presidency together, who before then had had a negative view of President Buhari, either as a result of political differences or on the basis of his unfriendly nature towards the media in the past or otherwise, showed open acknowledgement of his good move.
Buhari attentively listened to the chairman of the SHPC, Kehinde Amodu as he reeled out the expectations of the group in the performance of their legitimate assignments in the Villa and so on and so forth.
And when it was his turn to speak, President Buhari surprised everybody by getting to his feet. Not even the silent protest from his audience that he should sit down to address them would move him. That was when it occurred to the media men and women that President Buhari has not only changed greatly from his military mentality, but has become so humble, as a born-again democrat, that even many ‘traditional’ democrats would envy him.
Buhari began by saying: “I’m going to be brief because it will be consistently brief until I leave this place.”
The President said that it was not by accident that he got the best of the media practitioners to be the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity; he is one of the 15 aides he got clearance from the Senate recently to appoint He is Femi Adesina, who himself was in the hall along with the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu.
The President went on by saying that Adesina is one of the best Presidents of the Nigeria Guild of Editors that he could have as special adviser, stressing that “I brought one of the best of you so that he can consistently defend me against you. Whether my job is a difficult one or easy, it is up to him, but I’m here to thank you in advance for what good and ill you are going to do to me.
The President continued thus: “I have to quickly come and see you and welcome you to this place. I hope what happened of recent between the former president and one of you will not happen between me and you. I hope we are starting and this culture developed, as 100 Days (concept) is bringing so much pressure with treasury virtually empty, with debts in millions of dollars, with state workers and even federal workers not paid their salaries. It is such a disgrace for Nigeria. I think Nigeria should be in a position to even pay its workers. Because of the bad management that we find ourselves in, we really need your help to protect us from people before they match on us. Thank you very much.”
The President, who was observing fasting and who had had series of meetings with service chiefs and other groups in the day, was on his feet, having hand-shake with each of the over 60 media men and women. He made sure to add banters, jokes and live into the exercise, as he referred to AIT reporters as “great people” and even told one of the journalists, “your cartoon about me was funny,” eliciting hearty laughter.
When it was all over, the media men and women around got a nice impression of an old man that has emerged to play the role of a loving, caring, and understanding father to all.