Femi Adesina, who served as Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, revealed that Buhari was initially unwilling to congratulate Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara after they controversially became Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2015.
Adesina shared this in a tribute to Buhari, reflecting on his early experience as the president’s media aide and the difficulty of balancing loyalty with professional duty.
He explained that the incident happened just nine days after he took up the role of presidential spokesman.
According to Adesina, Saraki and Dogara emerged as leaders of the National Assembly against the preference of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Although their emergence was viewed as defiant, it still adhered to constitutional norms.
“I told the President we needed to congratulate them. He balked. But I stood my ground. He said no, I also said no. I said it would portray him as undemocratic,” Adesina wrote.
He noted that Buhari later agreed to issue the statement, making only a small addition to the final version.
“At the end of the day, he reasoned with me and the statement was written, with him just adding one word,” he stated.
“Keeping to his word is part of the famed integrity. Argue with me. If you have a better point, I’ll agree with you.”
