The real truth about Femi Adesina

monjola sotubo

August 7, 2015 9:23 AM

President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina is currently one of the most misunderstood men in the country and social media is to blame.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina is currently one of the most misunderstood men in the country and social media is to blame.

I met Mr Adesina during a media parley on Sunday, August 2, 2015, and he was nothing like I expected.

When he walked into the room where the meeting was to hold, it was hard to believe that this was a man who had the President’s ear.

He was unassuming, courteous and surprisingly even seemed to be uncomfortable with the attention being paid to him.

When he was asked by the older people in the room about the attacks on him via “the social media”, I felt instantly sorry for him and this group of his peers who couldn’t understand the platforms which had suddenly given people their children’s age the impetus to insult them.

Mr Adesina was first criticized on Twitter for describing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as a group of “Wailing Wailers”.

The “Wailing Wailers” is the 1965 debut album by The Wailers, a group to which reggae legend, Bob Marley belonged.

Unfortunately for the presidential aide, most of his audience on Twitter did not know that.

Mr Adesina has actually had the best of intentions for his tweets but they fly right over the heads of his readers who, in fairness to them, just don’t understand him; it’s a case of double misunderstanding.

The presidential aide and his peers haven’t yet realized that social media (with no “the” attached) is a place where the sharks and crocodiles don’t wait for you to come into the water, instead they have wings.

However, frankly speaking, Mr Femi Adesina is as nervous as any of us would be in his shoes and he is honestly, sincerely trying his best.

It’s a good thing that President Buhari has appointed young journalist,Tolu Ogunlesi as his Special Assistant on New Media.

However, until Tolu resumes, I plead with young Nigerians on “the social media” to please have mercy on Mr Adesina; he is just doing his best.

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See photo gallery from the media parley with Mr Femi Adesina below:

monjola sotubo