Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, says former President Olusegun Obasanjo would have insulted anyone who made a demand for him to address the nation on any issue.
Mr Adesina stated this in an article posted on Facebook on Friday.
In the article titled ‘If you can’t take blows brother, don’t throw blows’, the presidential spokesman said his principal, President Muhammadu Buhari, was not in the habit of talking too much, and that three national broadcasts he gave on coronavirus (COVID-19) should suffice.
Adesina was reacting to the criticisms he got after his appearance on a programme on 95.1 Nigeria Info FM Abuja where he said Nigerians did not have the right to order Buhari around.
“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?” he wrote.
“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.”
