Ajuri Ngelale, the broadcast journalist who made a name for himself with his eloquence and sonorous voice, did not resign as special adviser to the president on media and publicity to tend to a \u201cvexatious medical situation\u201d in his family as he claimed<\/p>\n
He was fired by the presidency and only allowed to publicly resign after his repeated pleas for a soft landing.<\/p>\n
Ngelale, who was also the special presidential envoy on climate action, stunned Nigerians on Saturday morning when he announced his abrupt exit from office, citing \u201cmedical matters presently affecting my immediate, nuclear family\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Friday, I submitted a memo to the Chief of Staff to the President informing my office that I am proceeding on an indefinite leave of absence to frontally deal with medical matters presently affecting my immediate, nuclear family,\u201d Ngelale wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I fully appreciate that the ship of state waits for no man, this agonising decision \u2014 entailing a pause of my functions as the Special Adviser to the President on Media & Publicity and Official Spokesperson of the President; Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action, and Chairman, Presidential Steering Committee on Project Evergreen \u2014 was taken after significant consultations with my family over the past several days as a vexatious medical situation has worsened at home.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he looked \u201cforward to returning to full-time national service when time, healing, and fate permit\u201d, and respectfully asked \u201cfor some privacy for my family and I [sic] during this time\u201d.<\/p>\n
But multiple highly-placed sources in and around the presidency told FIJ on Saturday afternoon that Ngelale\u2019s exit was not triggered by a family health emergency, but rather his loss in a power tussle with Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy.<\/p>\n
It was understands that following the election of Bola Tinubu as Nigeria\u2019s president in 2023, Ngelale did not exactly hit it off with Onanuga, largely because having been in government before Onanuga \u2014 President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Ngelale his senior special adviser on public affairs in 2019 and he served in this position until the end of Buhari\u2019s tenure \u2014 he considered himself Onanuga\u2019s boss.<\/p>\n
Ngelale, 38, began his career with the Africa Independent Television (AIT) in the 2000s, while Onanuga, 67, a former Managing Director of the News Agency of NJigeria (NAN), began his career in the 1980s. There was one problem, though: while Ngelale was special adviser on media and publicity, Onanuga was the special adviser on information and strategy.<\/p>\n
It was believed that civil servants found the roles confusing. This was nothing like in the Buhari administration when Femi Adesina was the special adviser on media and publicity and Garba Shehu the senior special assistant on media publicity. In the latter case, everyone knew Adesina, as SA, was senior, while Shehu, as SSA, was subordinate.<\/p>\n
Ngelale and Onanuga both had special adviser roles; and the profolios seemed similar. However, by design, the civil service structure of the villa reported to the SA media, and that was Ngelale.<\/p>\n
\u201cNgelale considered himself untouchable because he had the backing of the president\u2019s son Seyi and Femi Gbajabiamila, the president\u2019s chief of staff,\u201d one source who asked not to be named for fear of retribution told FIJ.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was fired; I became aware of this on Tuesday, but I won\u2019t rule out the possibility that it happened earlier. When he got the letter, he started to plead to be allowed to resign as a soft landing. He was eventually given a soft landing, which is understandable. News of his sacking in public would have thoroughly embarrassed not just Ngelale but the presidency too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although this source expressed regrets that things eventually got to a head, they conceded that there was no other way out, given Ngelale\u2019s unwillingness to discuss his long-drawn-out feud with Onanuga when the opportunities were presented to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ngelale-Onanuga feud was no secret in the villa, so several top appointees and cabinet members attempted to intervene at separate times; and while Onanuga was open to peace talks, Ngelale wasn\u2019t,\u201d the source continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, Mohammed Idris Malagi, the minister of information and national orientation, called for talks four times. Onanuga was willing to attend but Ngelale snubbed them all, always claiming he was busy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Civil servants who asked not to be named, as well as a source familiar with presidency happenings, said that Onanuga, despite being formally appointed in October 2023 \u201cwas a squatter in the presidency and did not have an office of his own until just a few months ago\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Onanuga was appointed, he had no office. He was squatting in Tunde Rahman\u2019s office,\u201d said one of the sources. \u201cIt was just recently that he eventually got an office that belonged to either Wale Edun or Zacheus Adedeji when they were still advisers.<\/p>\n
Rahman, the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, was appointed in July 2023 \u2014 three months earlier than Onanuga\u2019s appointment. Meanwhile, Zacheus Adedeji was appointed special adviser on revenue while and Wale Edun was appointed special adviser on monetary policy in June 2023.<\/p>\n
While Adedeji has since become the executive chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Edun has since become minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy. Notably, all three appointments came months ahead of Onanuga\u2019s.<\/p>\n
These were people who had been with Tinubu for decades, unlike Ngelale, so how did Ngelale become so powerful that he got appointed earlier, blocked Onanuga from having an office to himself and all the aforementioned appointees could not fix Onanuga an office?<\/p>\n
As written earlier, Ngelale had the backing of Seyi Tinubu and Gbajabiamila, but a third source took it even further, saying: \u201cIt was about how he got the job.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the 2023 presidential electioneering, Jumoke Oduwole, the special adviser on Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), introduced Ngelale to Gbajabiamila,\u201d said the source.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Ngelale got there, he met Seyi. He told Seyi he would facilitate a CNN interview during which Tinubu\u2019s presidential ambition would be discussed. Seyi thought it was impossible, but Ngelale did it. He secured the interview on CNN. He then told Seyi the time and date it would air. Seyi promised Ngelale that Tinubu would phone him if he pulled it off. Immediately after the interview was aired, Tinubu called Ngelale.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Tinubu won the election, Ngelale was abroad. People told him to return home but he said no; he insisted he would get his own appointment once he arrived in the country. And that was exactly what happened: Ngelale\u2019s appointment by Tinubu was announced days after his return to Nigeria.<\/p>\n
\u201cConversely, Gbajabiamila delayed the announcement of Onanuga\u2019s appointment for at least two months. It required Chief Bisi Akande, who originally made the case for Onanuga\u2019s appointment, to return to Tinubu for follow-up conversations. That was when Tinubu ordered that Onanuga\u2019s appointment should be made, and that was how Onanuga came to the villa.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was believed that villa staff and civil servants whose work related to the president\u2019s communication strategy noticed the tension between Ngelale and Onanuga and thought if they worked with one, then the other thought they were against him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis meant thework of publicising the president\u2019s progressive policies was derailed,\u201d said the source.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the way, Ngelale instructed civil servants that no statement from Onanuga could go out if he had not personally cleared it. If you speak with sources across divides, they would tell you Onanuga was the more peace-seeking of the duo. But this particular order from Ngelale to civil servants annoyed Onanuga.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ngelale\u2019s standing with Tinubu started to plummet once it was easy to pitch to the president how Ngelale\u2019s unharmonious relationship not just with Onanuga but with the media was hindering good publicity for the president.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did not have a good relationship with journalists. Ask the reporters; ask the state house correspondents. And also ask editors,\u201d added the source.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany people consider him disrespectful and arrogant, even the editors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ajuri Ngelale, the broadcast journalist who made a name for himself with his eloquence and sonorous voice, did not resign as special adviser to the president on media and publicity to tend to a \u201cvexatious medical situation\u201d in his family as he claimed He was fired by the presidency and only allowed to publicly resign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":47504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47545"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47551,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47545\/revisions\/47551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}