Opinion
SHOCKER: How two Buhari aides married one wife at the same time!
The unveiling of the experiences of Mallam Garba Shehu in the political space as packaged in a book last Wednesday, was understandably graced by an incongruous audience.
It couldn’t have been otherwise, given the paradoxical role the esteemed journalist and public relations expert has played in the course of a so far distinguished career.
President Bola Tinubu who is out of the country was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF Senator George Akume. The cream of the opposition was no less present, with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar present.
Also present was the secretary of the new coalition, African Democratic Congress, ADC, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who was unusually out of place. An attempt by Prince Nduka Obaiegbena who was vice-chairman of the occasion, to lure Aregbesola to speak was unusually spurned by the oppositionist. What would make the normally animated political actor act coy was befuddling.
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Was it because of his present engagement in positioning the opposition to eviscerate the political structure that he had not too long ago fought fervently to build? Anyway, also present were many of those who helped in framing the present political configuration that now has Asiwaju Tinubu as the apex leader.
While some of them have been set aside or laid low, they were, however, proud to associate with Mallam Shehu, who served as an effective media mobiliser in enthroning Buhari to power.
Among those present were Senator Olurunnimbe Mamora, the deputy director-general of the Buhari campaign in 2014/15, Dr Kayode Fayemi, the immediate past governor of Ekiti State, renowned for his strategic roles in the overthrow of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and of course, the presidential running mate, Prof Yemi Osinbajo.
There were also some non-political actors, including General Yakubu Gowon, who served as chairman, Garba Shehu’s roommate at Barewa College, Alhaji Lawal Garba, and many beautiful ladies, including the vivacious former executive secretary of the Nigerian Investment and Promotion Commission, NIPC, Saratu Umar.
Mallam Shehu’s unique pathway of meandering between political camps without as much as hurting anyone, perhaps, flows from his humble inclinations. As he made known in the book, According to the President: Lessons From A Presidential Spokesman’s Experience, and also on Wednesday at the book launch, his father was a driver!
Garba Shehu’s innate modesty is despite his exposure and upbringing in the North’s elite institution, Barewa College.
Garba Shehu apparently would not go the way of some present political actors in padding his beginnings or lifting his parents above what they were.
The book launch also opened another glimpse to the political persona of Buhari who was unavoidably absent due to his present physical infirmity. The erstwhile Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha, who was repeatedly lapped as the boss of bosses, gave a peep into how Buhari emerged as president.
According to him, the leaders of the alliance that brought forth the APC had taken into consideration the fact that Buhari had consistently scored 12 million votes in past elections. As such, they had an informal agreement to push Buhari forward as the 2015 presidential candidate. He justified the astuteness of the decision in the fact that Buhari eventually scored 15 million votes in the 2015 election, meaning that the other alliance leaders brought in 3 million votes to lift Buhari to victory.
Unfortunately, his narration was, however, muddled up in the reportage of the book launch, as many news reports quoted Boss Mustapha as saying that Tinubu did not make Buhari president. However, Buhari could not have been president without the political perceptions brought by Tinubu and other alliance leaders.
Undoubtedly, one of the most visible contributors to Buhari’s victory who was present at the book launch was Atiku Abubakar, who is undoubtedly celebrated as the author’s first renowned political principal.
It was a sort of irony for Atiku as he kept an unusual silence for most of the ceremony, given the fact that Mallam Garba was his donation to Buhari, the man who not only defeated him in the 2019 presidential election, but also set up, or rather ALLOWED Tinubu to achieve victory in 2023.
It must have been mixed emotions for Atiku seeing his ‘son’ as it were being celebrated by those who ‘did him in’.
It is, however, telling that for all the time he was with Buhari that Mallam Garba Shehu did not for once backstab Atiku, especially in the vicious politicking that preceded the 2019 election. He was loyal to Buhari and also not forgetful of his origin as many political actors and their minions are wont to.
Your correspondent is aware that the Buhari presidency left the bashing of Atiku to Femi Adesina, who served as Special Adviser on Media to Buhari. Though Garba Shehu was older in terms of media experience at the onset of the Buhari presidency, for one reason or the other, Adesina, who was a successor to Shehu as president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE was appointed Special Adviser and the later, as Senior Special Assistant.
It was an arrangement that was bound to breed envy, backstabbing and friction. As journalists know, there can only be one editor in a newspaper. However, because of the personalities of the two men involved there was no crisis and two editors edited Buhari hamoniously for eight years.
As Shehu revealed at the book launch, one facilitator of the harmony that flowed in the media department of the Buhari presidency was Dr Fayemi, himself a former journalist.
Recognising the potential for conflict in appointing two celebrated journalists in the media department of the presidency, Dr Fayemi had called the two of them to his hotel suite after the announcements and given them the sober advice of working in harmony. He told them that they were to act like two men married to one wife! And so for the eight years that they worked, there was no notable report of brinkmanship!
By Emmanuel Aziken
Culled from Vanguard, first published on July 12, 2025