The Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, has disclosed that his principal will not request any journalist to “kill” stories for him, no matter how adverse such report may be.
Adesina said instead of doing that, the administration will rather encourage newsmen to run stories that will critically examine the workings of government and provide it with the way forward.
Adesina said these on Thursday at a dinner held for him and other presidential spokesmen by the online publishers under the auspices of Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, GOCOP, in Abuja.
Also hosted by the GOCOP members were the Senior Special Assistant on Media to President Buhari, Malam Garba Shehu, and the Senior Special Assistant in the Office of the Vice President, Laolu Akande.
Adesina said the first thing the President told him when he assumed office was to “Always tell me the truth.”
He said Buhari was emphatic when he equally told him that as a General he loved to argue, but would always bow to superior arguments. “The President told me: ‘Please do not fail to argue with me.”
Adesina who is one of Trustees of GOCOP, said Buhari has vowed to run an open and transparent government so much that he would have nothing to hide and would have no cause to want to ask for any story to be “killed”.
He said the only thing he asked is that for any news item, the Presidency should be allowed the opportunity to state its side before being put in the public domain.
Adesina commended the online publishers for coming together to form a group, even as he advised them to look out for spoilers, gate crashers and those who might hide under the canopy of online publishing to damage the reputation of innocent public officers.
“There is a saying that …Read More
Source:: New Mail
