Posted on: 04:54 Sun, 26 Jun 2016



Special Adviser to the President on
Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina,
has dismissed allegations by the
national assembly leadership that
the Presidency was behind its
many travails. The Senate during
its plenary last Tuesday June 21st,
accused the presidency of using the
judiciary to fight & intimidate the
legislature.

Lawmakers made the allegation in
the wake of the fresh charges of
forgery of senate orders leveled
against Senate President Bukola
Saraki and his deputy Ike
Ekweremadu, for which they would
be arraigned before an Abuja high
court tomorrow June 27th.

In this fresh interview with
Independent correspondent in Aso
Villa, Innocent Oweh, Femi
Adesina, dismissed the claim,
stating that President Buhari
understands the separation of
power in a democratic system
“They are independent arms, the
judiciary is independent, the
legislature is independent of the
executive, so if they are
independent, how can one be
behind the travails of another. It
doesn’t add up. If you know this
President you will know that he
plays by the rules strictly. So, he
will not have anything to do with
undermining any other
independent arm of government.

Not this President. They can source
their troubles to somewhere else, if
they have any troubles, but not this
President. They are purely
independent bodies, they just relate
within the ambit of the law and
constitution and I have no cause to
believe that there is anything
wrong with the relationship”he
said

With the gloomy economy, workers
are becoming tensed, and recently
staff of the Federal Ministry of
Finance protested over poor
welfare issues, are you aware of
their grievances?

I read the explanation from the
finance ministry that what they are
agitating for had been stopped by
the previous government, that
explains it. If there would be
further explanations, I think its the
ministry of finance that would do
it, but I think what they have said
satisfies me, it suffices for now
What would you say is the policy
direction of this administration,
especially on the economy?

It is that Nigerians need to look
inward, all the luxuries that we
can’t afford have to be cut off and
that is simply what this government
wants to do. There are 41 items
under forex ban now, that already
shows you the direction this
administration is going. Whatever
we cannot afford and we can do
without let’s cut it off. Why do we
expend scarce foreign exchange on
rice, cement, toothpick or tomato
puree; on things that we can
produce locally, so that already
shows the direction the government
wants to take the economy.

Nigerians seem to have taken
government deregulation policy in
its stride, what informed this
policy? Not only do you have fuel
prices coming down, it shows you
that by the time the thing is in full
stream, there is going to be
competition in terms of prices and
people will buy where they like and
that very process itself would force
down prices.

The 2016 budget is undergoing
implementation, should Nigerians
still maintain high optimism that
they had at the inception of this
administration?

Optimism is part of life, optimism
keeps us going. By the time we lose
optimism, we have lost everything.
So, I expect that we continue to be
optimistic. As clear as day follows
the night, things will get better in
Nigeria.

Buhari has obviously made his
mark in tackling terrorism but
Nigerians would like to know what
gave him the impetus to deliver in
a short time?

The difference is clear. Government
is a continuum; we know where the
last administration stopped. This
government continued from there
and we all know where we are
now, where we are today is very
far to where we were this time last
year. In fact, there is almost no
comparison between where we are
now on the issue of terrorism and
where we were this time last year.
How was the magic performed to
quell the crisis?

You know the President himself is a
retired General, so he knows what
to do. He changed the leadership of
the military, he arranged for
retraining, arranged for re-
equipping, he arranged moral
booster for them and everything
working together for good has led
us to where we are now.
But challenges of IDPs have
cropped up as a result of terrorism,
how would the Federal Government
address that issue as well?

You know that there are groups and
agencies working with the Federal
Government on that. There is also
the Danjuma Committee set up to
ensure that their plight is attended
to. There are international
organisations working in concert
with the Federal Government on
that, all I want you to know is yes,
the issues of IDPs are being tackled.
It is a major issue that is being
attended to.

How far about the MoUs signed by
President Muhammadu Buhari on
his recent trip to China, has it been
rested?

We came back from China with
potential investments in excess of
about $6billion dollars and it is
work in progress now because it’s a
process, we have signed the
Memorandum of Understandings
and we must come up with
counterpart funding, which was
what the Jonathan administration
did not do; they signed most of the
MoUs but they didn’t do their own
part of funding. This government,
despite the paucity of funds, will do
its part.

We have heard that the railway
transport programme resuscitated
by the immediate past
administration will come on stream
by July, can you throw more
enlightenment on that?

Yes, the Ministry of Transport is in
a better position to tell you but I
am aware because I have heard the
Minister of Transport, Rotimi
Amaechi saying that it will come on
stream soon, so its a good
development. Nigeria is making
progress. That shows you the
benefits of continuing with the
policies and projects of the
previous government because that
was a project inherited and it was
taken forward. A petty government
could have come and discontinued
it, no it was taken forward and we
are in the verge of launching it. It
shows you that government must
always be large-hearted, broad
minded enough to continue the
good things it inherited.

You have been with the President
as one of his media aides in the last
one year, how would you describe
your experience so far?

Fulfilling. I came to do this work in
the first place because it is the
President, the person of the
President brought me. I am not a
person that wanted to work in
government but the person of the
President was the attraction for me
and I am happy doing it. I will
serve him anyday.