Mr. Ibrahim Gambari, who was recently appointed as the new Chief of Staff to President Buhari, has come under criticism for his role in bolstering the gag on press freedom. The diplomat served as the Minister for External Affairs between 1984 and 1985 under Mr Buhari who was a military head of state then.
Also, Mr. Gambari worked for the late dictator, General Sani Abacha, whose regime saw to the victimisation of journalists and activists. One of the victims of the stifling of press freedom under Abacha was Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian journalist and environmental activist, who led a nonviolent campaign against environmental degradation of the land and waters of Ogoniland by the operations of the multinational petroleum industries.
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Mr Saro-Wiwa was hanged in 1995 by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. However, years after the killing, Mr Gambari defended the actions of late Abacha saying the killing was in the interest of the state
Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, in 2008, condemned Ibrahim Gambari for his support of dictatorial governments.
From the column published on July 12, 2008, Mr Adesina lampooned Mr. Gambari. The article published on page 15 of Saturday Sun was titled “Gambari: the slap next time.”
In one of the paragraphs, Mr Adesina referred to the new Chief of Staff as a man who enslaved himself to please his paymasters.
He blasted him thus:
“Gambari enslaved himself to please his paymasters. Now, 13 years later, the shackles are still tied round his neck trying to aspyxiate him. What an enteranl lesson for grovelling Bootlickers to learn.”
When you are sent on a slave errand, do it as a freeborn.
He also lampooned Gambari for calling the Ogini Leaders, “Common criminals”.
Fast forward to 2020, Femi Adesina has proven to be better at bootlicking than the man whom he criticised for the same offense years back. He did this by using his office as Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity to mock and slander Nigerians.
Events took a turn for the worse when the same man he criticised was appointed as Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari and became his boss by proxy.
Although Femi Adesina has not publicly congratulated Mr. Ibrahim Gambari on his new position, we are still waiting to see how events unfold.
Is Adesina happy with the new development or is he a slave to his own conscience?
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK