The Presidency at the weekend declared that the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to share oil wells to selected few is one of the main reasons, many Nigerian elites are against his person and government.
According to the Presidency, “the elites see Buhari as a bad man because you cannot go to him and say give me oil well and he will sign papers and give you”.
Presidential Spokesman, Garba Shehu made this assertion during interaction with journalists covering the the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja.
Shehu dismissed claims that Buhari’s administration has been hijacked by a cabal which he said does not exist, emphasizing that no President can operate alone without having a team of close confidants.
He noted that in other climes, every president usually has a ‘Kitchen Cabinet’, but in Nigeria, the opposition both within and outside the government would prefer to refer to such collection of ‘self-sacrificing’ individuals as cabals.
“What is the meaning of cabal? I just googled Thesaurus and among many other definitions, what they are saying is that cabal means ‘conspire, intrigues, mystique, occult, secret’.
“There is no government in this country that we have had that some people were not accused of being a cabal in that government and it is because every administration, every president must have a secretariat.
“Every president must have people who advise him. It is not a sin, it is not an offence to have people that you take into confidence. Elsewhere, they call it ‘Kitchen Cabinet’, but in our own country we are being derogatory and we term them the cabal so that it will tarnish their own good standing”, Shehu said.
The Presidential Aide aslo called on the media industry as a critical stakeholder to proffer media-driven solutions to the problems being created by the social media, stressing that the ongoing review of media regulations is not intended to weaken it.
“Social media has become a problem for many families because rights of women and children are being abused. There is a need to protect vulnerable members of the society. There is need to protect minority, whether tribal or religion in our own country.
“So, it makes sense that you as media stakeholders come around the Minister of Information and Culture and formulate the kind of regulation you want so that it is not that there is top bottom approach, so that government will not be accused of imposing a regulatory mechanism on the media.
“The Mnister is saying come, sit down with me and let us talk about it. And I was told that the day he called on NUJ, they walked out of him. If that report is true, I think it is very unfortunate. I think we need to come around him and offer media driven solution so that at the end of it this country will have a vibrant and effective social media communication system”, he added.
On the friendly environment for the media under the Buhari administration, Shehu said, “the last time, we licenced about 300 radio stations and as I’m speaking to you now this administration is processing almost 500 requests for radio stations. Media cannot be expanded, if it is being oppressed.
“A lot of our colleagues I have seen them, any editor who loses job today or senior journalist, you will see him set up a digital newspaper and they are doing well. Many of them are prospering which tells you that the media is not in any way constrained in carrying out its constitutional duties”.
James Kwen
