OBASANJO AND HIS MEDIA TEAM

By SALIU IYANDA <saliuiyanda2010@yahoo.com> Oct 5, 2006

President Olusegun Obasanjo has taken full charge of his media war with vice president Atiku Abubakar, this has come to be following clear indications that he has lost out in the court of public opinion. The media committee comprise of Akin Osuntokun, Remi Oyo, Frank Nweke, Uba Sani and Raymond Dokpesi. Dokpesi was brought into the committee because AIT is central to the media onslaught the president’s committee plans to unleash on Atiku. At a meeting held recently held recently, the president alleged that the Nigerian print media was compromised and the broadcast media particularly AIT and NTA remained the only credible means to reach the Nigerian public.

It is in this regard that caution and decorum was thrown to the wind in airing a very libelous documentary on vice president Atiku Abubakar just to discredit him and make sure that, at all cost he is not able to contest for the 2007 presidential elections. This because the president has no plans at all to relinquish power come May 2007, he wants to remain in power till he dies and the only person that can stand in his way is vice president Atiku Abubakar. That is why there is planned, programmed and sustained campaign of calumny against the vice president to present him to the general public as some one who is not credible and, therefore, should not be allowed to contest for the highest position in the land.

It is for this ignoble reason that the AIT an electronic media house that has been largely comprised embarked on a smear campaign to tarnish the good name, integrity and credibility of the vice president. In doing their master’s bidding, AIT and the federal ministry of information got the services of a common thief, Dan Etete, to rubbish the good image of the vice president, which he could not do convincingly, even under the influence of alcohol and financial inducement.

But the media team of Obasanjo are weak, not articulate, not factual, disjointed, a-run-of-the-mill, a-bull-in-the-china-shop and indeed a crop of people who do not understand the modern dynamics of journalism. That is why they have gone to cook up crooked and non-existence stories about the vice president just to nail him at all cost. AIT as become a willing tool in the hands of Obasanjo and Odili to barbarically fight those they perceive as political opposition in what has become an embarrassing savage war of political vendetta. AIT has become a very big disgrace and embarrassment to itself, media organizations in Nigeria and Nigerians generally. AIT is a very good example about how not to not to run an organization, that is why salaries of staff are not paid for several months, those in management cadre have always sexually harassed female workers, staff are not well trained, pronunciation and phonetics are very poor, programmes co-ordination are horrendous, hence, AIT are very banal to say the very least.

If AIT is taking about corruption, then they should go and ask Raymond Dokpesi what he did to MKO Abiola and Shehu Musa Yar’Adua when they entrusted some businesses into his hands, Was Dokpesi not the Chairman, board of directors when funds were mismanaged in National Interest, to the extent that a bank has to appoint a receiver manager to managed the media outfit after the place had been closed down? Is what is today called Daar Press at Amore Street in Ikeja, bought by Odili for Dokpesi to manage for him the same way, Odili bought majority shares in AIT? But the bigger question is where did all the money come from? It is personal money? If yes, what is the source of his wealth?

Here is Odili a man that has been associated with the assassinations of Marshall Harry, A.K. Dikibo and many others, where is a man that wants to the president of the country, but has consistently armed the youths of the Niger-Delta and even finance them. I am not surprised at the kind of people in the president’s media team; the president no doubt is at his wits end, and his of the firm opinion that he knows everything when he knows nothing, Uba Ahmed was a land speculator, who engaged in land racketeering, Akin Osunkotun is an expect in marketing incompetent, here is a person that was sacked from the editorial board of the guardian because of his inability to write editorials, Remi Oyo is completely benighted, who always uses her natural endowment to get what she wants, Frank Nweke is not a media person, this is a man who is always annoyed with himself and of course, Dokpesi who is always in a permanent state of stupor and enjoys the company of women. It is not surprising that therefore that this group of reprobates wants to mudsling the white garment of the vice president, they will all fail and fall together like a pack of cards.

By     

 Saliu Iyanda,

No 170 Ibrahim Taiwo Road,

Ilorin,

Kwara State.