According to the President (II)

Garba Shehu’s book, According to the President: Lessons From a Presidential Spokesman’s Experience, is a compelling account of his journey from the world of journalism to the pinnacle of serving to project the image of a vice president and a president in different circumstances. He had moved from his job as a journalist at the Triumph titles in Kano to a public relations assignment at ALSCON. It was from there, in June 2003, that he was appointed Special Assistant (Media) to the Vice President. He had earlier been brought into Atiku’s notice by his mentor, Wada Maida, a media consultant of the Vice President.

Garba came in as part of a media strategy group under the umbrella of the National Democratic Project (NDP), a think tank set up by Dr Usman Bugaje, who was the VP’s political adviser during the first term (1999-2003), and later a House of Representatives member. Garba came into the job of projecting the Vice President’s image with sufficient gusto. However, six months into the job, he found himself in the line of fire. Garba wrote: My time in the Presidency was short-lived. Six months or so after the appointment, someone from NTA called me and said, “ We are going to announce your resignation tonight.” I said I did not resign, but the government said I had resigned, so I had to leave.”

The beginning of President Obasanjo’s second term tested the patience and loyalty of everyone in the Office of the Vice President (OVP). Events surrounding the 2003 election have put the trust between President Obasanjo and Vice President Atiku Abubakar asunder. The president came into the second term with a vengeful agenda and would strip the vice president of all his staff and financial powers. The first to be fired were Garba and Prof Sam Oyovbaire, the Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Policy and Programme Monitoring.

Garba and Oyovbaire needn’t have done anything wrong to warrant the dismissal. They were just the initial collateral damage in the feud between the president and his deputy. In due course, every political appointee in the OVP would be cast away. In the long run, even the VP’s ADC would be dismissed. Fortunately, Atiku Abubakar had other plans for Garba. He wrote: “VP Atiku Abubakar, whose ambition to become president was not secret, felt strongly that, to be in control of his own narratives and earn public goodwill, he must establish an organisation outside of the villa.”

Soon after Garba was fired from the villa, Atiku told him, “It is better you operate from outside the government.” Thus was born the Atiku Media Office (AMO), which Garba managed. Atiku fully funded the office and provided them with the state-of-the-art communication facilities to protect his persona and project his image. Garba gave many details of the battles they fought for their principal. I had a good ringside view of events, being a director in the OVP at the time. Some of the fights I can recall include the AMO’s challenge to Obasanjo’s subtle move to amend the constitution for his third-term agenda, when he declared the office of the vice president vacant, the demarketing of Atiku’s public image as corrupt, and many more.

He remained with Atiku all the way to the historic juncture when Atiku teamed up with like-minded compatriots to form the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the bid to wrest power from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Atiku made valiant efforts during the primaries to clinch the APC presidential ticket. When eventually Muhammadu Buhari won, Atiku, along with other contestants, donated his campaign assets to the larger APC campaign. That’s how Garba found himself in the Buhari campaign team. He wrote: “That was how I, who worked as director, media and publicity for the campaign of former VP Atiku Abubakar, a leading contender, became part of the Buhari campaign, and played a significant role in the Presidential Campaign Council (PCC).” To his surprise, he was even appointed the PCC’s Director, Media and Publicity.

For the APC, the 2014 campaign was conducted under very harsh conditions, as the PDP-led government made it difficult for the APC’s campaign council to promote candidate Buhari. Nevertheless, the campaign council acquitted itself with distinction, as the APC won a substantial majority. To his surprise again, Garba found himself appointed as Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity) to the President. A return to the post he was unjustly fired from, over a decade ago in 2003, was a vindication of sorts, and Garba embraced the new circumstances with a great deal of verve.

Projecting the image of President Buhari was a different ball game. Garba wrote: “Like many Nigerians, I knew Buhari by his fierce reputation of incorruptibility, austere lifestyle, decisiveness and all that. That was quite comforting. For a spokesman, knowing what your principal stands for, or where he or she stands, come rain, come shine, and other personal attributes and communication styles is a crucial success factor.”

Despite this optimism, Garba and the media team faced many challenges during their tenure across the president’s two terms. Garba recorded all these faithfully and many more.