The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina has insisted that Nigerians cannot force President Muhammadu Buhari to address the nation on the coronavirus pandemic.
Adesina stated this on his Facebook page in an article titled, “If you can’t take blows brother, don’t throw blows”.
According to him, if it were the former President Olusegun Obasanjo that was still in power, he would have insulted Nigerians calling on him address the nation.
“You know what? If it was former President Olusegun Obasanjo that had come under the ‘you must talk to us’ barrage like that, and on live television, he would have first cleared his throat noisily, adjusted himself in his seat, and then bellowed: ‘And who are you, that I must talk to you? I say who the hell are you?
“Who is your father? Who is your father’s father that you are commanding me to talk to you? Were you born when we fought a civil war to keep this country together? Where was your father when I received the instrument of surrender from the Biafra Forces? Don’t come here and tell me nonsense. Talk to us, my foot!
“But President Buhari would not upbraid anyone like that. He rather keeps his peace. And some people have now taken liberty for license, till they begin to sound like broken records. Yes, no apologies. That’s how they sound.
“The fact that you have voted a man into office is not carte blanche for you to lead the man around by the nose. A leader worth his salt would not even submit himself to such cavalier treatment. Definitely not President Buhari. I made that point clear on the programme,” he said.
Adesina said he would continue to defend the President as a spokesman but would not be compelled to answer questions which are not within his purview.
Explaining that Buhari was not in the habit of talking too much, Adesina said that the three national broadcasts he had done on COVID-19 should be enough.
KanyiDaily recalls that Adesina had said it is the style of President Buhari not to address Nigerians during the Coronavirus pandemic.
According to him, Buhari’s decision not to come out to address Nigerians on a daily basis following the outbreak of deadly virus is a ‘matter of style’.
