Politics
Onanuga, Dare, Bwala: Intrigues within the presidential image makers escalate
The seeming confusion in this government is clearly being manifested in the presidential team for the image of the president. Of the many challenging tasks around the presidency, the one that is problematic and ever most intriguing is superintending the image of the President, and indeed, communicating him to the sceptical and cynical public. On many occasions, when one thinks applause is on the way, one is instead assailed with criticism and stand being considered a propagandist, who is merely selling a damaged product to a public that is not prepared to buy.
It is even worse when one makes mistakes. They are quickly spotted by many experienced eagle eyes out there whose only duty is perhaps to see where one slips off the delicate turf and criticize.
Many people had thought that the departure of Ajuri Ngelale would be order to the power intrigues, the contrary seems to be the case. Recent appointments by President Bola Tinubu into the team have rather than mellow the tension, escalated the chaos.
Amid covert infighting within the president’s communications team over influence and a seeming lack of coordination, the question Nigerians are asking is, who is President Bola Tinubu’s official spokesperson? This is the question many Nigerians have been asking since Henry Dele Alake resigned as the president’s sole spokesman to take up an appointment as minister of solid minerals in the cabinet, and the resignation of Ajuri Ngelale, the former presidential spokesperson, and the appointments of Sunday Dare and Daniel Bwala to complement Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy.
Scarcely had Daniel Bwala announced himself as the new presidential spokesman, when Bayo Onanuga, came out with a statement to the effect that there was no “presidential spokesman” in that sense.
To wit, Onanuga gleefully disclosed the re-designation of Bwala as Special Adviser on policy communication to the president — a post that translates that Bwala will now operate away from the presidential villa.
It could be noted that Bwala was announced as the Special Adviser to media and public communication on November 14, leading to speculation and uncertainty as to who in reality would be in charge of the president’s information management team.
Recall that Onanuga had hitherto been doing the job, issuing statements and making pronouncements on behalf of the president since the exit of Ngelale Ajuri, who was Special Adviser on media and publicity, in September.
Business Hallmark learnt that after a meeting of members of the media team at the office of the spokesman at the presidential villa there was a reluctance on the part of Bwala to depart.
A source knowledgeable about the matter said, “It appeared he wanted to start using the office immediately. Incidentally, Onanuga, who moved into the office only recently, is currently with the president in Brazil for the G20 meeting, so it seemed Bwala wanted to take it over in his absence.”
The source said that shortly after, Bwala moved into the press briefing room to address State House correspondents — to the shock of everyone.
“There is no issue as to the differences in terms of the responsibility; everybody knows his responsibility,” he told the media when asked what he would be doing.
“I only came to introduce myself to you and the role that was given to me by Mr. President. I told you that role was once occupied by Ajuri Ngelale.
“When Ajuri was there, the nomenclature was special adviser on media and publicity, and now that role is called special adviser on media and public communications (State House). Sunday Dare works from the office of the minister of information.”
He also posted on X: “Today, I resumed officially as the Special Adviser, Media and Public Communications/Spokesperson (State House). ”
The most intriguing part is that “Spokesperson” was not part of his designation when it was announced four days earlier, “meaning that he was already positioning himself as Ajuri’s successor with perhaps a backing of some powerful shadowy figure in the corridors of power”, Dr. Atteh Abiodun, a media scholar told Business Hallmark.
On learning of the designation “Spokesperson”, which was not what was added to his designation, President Tinubu was said to be angry; though he was in Brazil, Tinubu instructed Onanuga to issue a clarification.
In his clarification statement, Onanuga wrote: “President Bola Tinubu has re-designated the positions of two recently appointed officials in the State House media and communications team to enhance efficiency within the government’s communication machinery.
“The restructuring is as follows: Mr. Sunday Dare – hitherto Special Adviser on Public Communication and National Orientation, is now Special Adviser, Media and Public Communications.
“Mr. Daniel Bwala – announced last week as Special Adviser, Media and Public Communication, is now Special Adviser Policy Communication.
“These appointments, along with the existing role of Special Adviser, Information and Strategy, underscore that there is no single individual spokesperson for the Presidency. Instead, all the three Special Advisers will collectively serve as spokespersons for the government.”
‘Spokes screen’
“Tinubu had put together a very large media team — perhaps, biggest in Nigeria’s history — and this might have led to the game of intrigues from the day he (Bwala) assumed office”, noted Yakubu Dabai, communication consultant and Media scholar in his chat with this medium .
It was reliably learnt that Dele Alake, Commissioner of Information and Strategy in Lagos state from 1999-2007 when Tinubu was governor, was pencilled down to be Special Adviser on media, strategy and special duties to the president.
That was the scenario until Seyi Tinubu, whom sources hinted played a major role in appointments made by his father, decided to disrupt it.
“Seyi brought Ajuri. After the appointment, he asked Ajuri to assert himself from the get-go and that was what Ajuri did. That gave him unfettered access to the president. Other members of the team did not have that access,” the source added.
“When Ajuri fell out of favour, Seyi started working on bringing Bwala to replace him. He believes a presidential spokesman should be very vocal and should be on TV every day attacking the president’s critics, so Bwala fitted the bill for him.
“When Bwala’s appointment was announced, Seyi also told him to adopt the same Ajuri strategy: go on the podium, declare yourself spokesman and take over the office.”
Bwala tried the script. It worked for less than 24 hours.
All indications are now that he would be speaking for the office of special adviser to the president on policy coordination, headed by Hadiza Bala Usman, rather than the president.
But how do the three musketeers rank in terms of influence?
Many agree that Onanuga is the most influential of the three musketeers, having maintained a steady relationship with Tinubu dating back to the Abacha days. When Tinubu was in exile, he was part of a rump of journalists Tinubu took under his wings during National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) struggle against Abacha.
“Onanuga is very influential in the administration. He and Alake and Sunday Dare have for long been in the Tinubu’s media loop for decades.”
Sunday Dare was also a correspondent in Onanuga’s TheNews magazine as one of the founding staff. Bwala is a new entrant. I think it was an uppercut Tinubu gave Atiku since Bwala was Atiku’s media image maker”, Dabai told this medium.
Sunday Dare had been in government, and has had quite an experience, having previously been a cabinet member under Buhari as minister for Sports.
Dare began his journalism career about three decades ago by working as a correspondent for The Nation magazine in New York and as a production editor for the European-backed Fourth Estate magazine during Nigeria’s military interregnum. He was also part of the founding team of Nigerian weekly magazines The News and Tempo.
Between 2001 and 2009, Dare served as Chief of the Hausa Service, African Division at Voice of America (VOA) in Washington, DC, where he managed various portfolios including the daily production of radio and online broadcast programs. He also led a team of international journalists based in Washington, DC, and correspondents in West Africa for Voice of America.
In 2009, Dare was appointed Senior Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister of Information and Communications. In this role, he managed media-related decisions, public information dissemination, and media policies under the Ministry’s jurisdiction.[6] He was instrumental in the sale of the 2.3 GHz spectrum frequency in 2014.
Dare founded the Social Media Clinic (SMC), a Media/Information Technology program aimed at educating citizens about IT development and new media usage for building a responsive society. He also served as the Chief of Staff/Special Adviser on media to former Lagos State governor, who is the current President of Nigeria.
His political stance and bold critiques, including pointed comments on Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC’s presidential candidate, have made him a prominent voice in Nigerian political discourse. In April, many people were surprised to see visit Tinubu in the Villa. It was a sign of change in alliance, culminating in the appointment.
