NIRAN ADEDOKUN FROM PUNCH
On Monday, Nigeria’s presidency released another of those unhelpful press statements. The statement, which Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, signed, negates the objectives of public communication in two ways. This made it a counterproductive initiative, at the end.
Mr Shehu’s objective was to establish the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), as a devoted democrat and compassionate leader. One whose purpose is to advance democracy and protect the people’s interest. While the latter is the persona Buhari wanted since 2015 when he became President, the former is a “notorious fact.”
In the Monday statement, the spokesman told Nigerians that their president did not instruct the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria,Godwin Emefiele, and the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, to disobey “any court order…”
For context, the statement concerned the February 8 and March 22 orders of the Supreme Court that the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes continue to circulate alongside the redesigned ones as legal tender. This order remained largely disobeyed until Monday, and this man saw the need to exonerate his principal from complicity. But the intention to polish Buhari’s image on this score fell flat and even did damage. It came across as one of those knee-jerk reactions from government people.
First off, rather than show respect for Nigerians as you would expect of public communicators, this statement appears as an attempt to play on the people’s intelligence. To twist an obvious fact before their eyes, pretending that they have no eyes to see or are unable to read between the lines. I have reasons to say so.
Chief of this is that President Buhari spared no opportunity, including internationally, to speak about how lofty his administration considered the naira redesign policy to be. He spoke glowingly about how it would stop vote-buying and money politics, even after the Supreme Court’s interim order.
Not just that! Although he was silent on the February 8 order of the Supreme Court, Buhari met Emefiele shortly after the ruling. On February 14, the latter met with members of the diplomatic corps, and insisted that the old notes were no longer legal tender. This clear defiance of the court order came only a few days after he had an audience with the President. The news media reported this event yet Buhari neither cautioned Emefiele nor denounced his assertion.
What did he do instead? Two days later, he addressed the country! His message was that only one of the three outlawed currencies would remain legal tender. This “decree” defied the court order, which was clear about the reinstalment of the three denominations as legal tender.
In essence, the administration laid no foundation for plausible deniability on this matter. Mr President’s fingerprints were all over the actions of the CBN every step of the way, and so, these new denials are a waste of time.
The more serious damage the statement did is to President Buhari’s image. A man who has always sold himself as compassionate did not need the intervention of the Supreme Court to take appropriate action on a matter that brought so much hardship on Nigerians. The endless social crises witnessed before and after the legal interference are an unwholesome negation of the personal and political reputation of the President. Proactive governance did not need the courts to see the need for the reversal of policy, defying expectations. At least for a government that is high on its own morality.
Even without that “man of the people” reputation, the government’s primary objective is the security and welfare of citizens. So, a president must realise that, regardless of any purgatory or redemptive mission he appoints for himself, anything derogating from the collective dignity of the people is an aberration. This is exactly where Nigerians have been in the past couple of months. Now, all the government does is try to look good and throw its appointees under the bus.
Connect with us on our socials: