Former Presidential spokesperson, Femi Adesina, said that he has no apology for politicians he described as “wailing wailers” when he was in government.
The former presidential spokesman made the comment on Thursday in Abuja at the pre-book launch media conference ahead of the presentation of two books titled: “Muhammadu Buhari. The Nigerian Legacy (2015-2023), edited by Dr. Udu Yakubu and ” Working With Buhari. Reflections of a Special Adviser Media and Publicity (2015-2023)”, authored by Femi Adesina.
He said, “No fence to mend really. If there was something to mend, we will mend it. As far as I am concerned, there is nothing to mend. There is a whole chapter, which I called the Wailing Wailer. That is the title of the chapter.
“How did that appellation come? In the early days of the Buhari administration, you just find out that everything the government did or didn’t do attracted a lot of noise. They thought the more noise they made, the easier they would be heard.
“There was a PDP spokesman then called Oisa Metuh, if it didn’t rain, he would issue a press statement, if it rained too much, he would issue a press statement and all was about Buhari.
“One day I just did a tweet, I said these people, they don’t know they are out of power and they may not get back to power in a long time. I ended that tweet with Wailing Wailer and some people adopted that, they say we are Wailers, he has abused us, so they started calling themselves as Wailing Wailers. If they were the ones who adopted that appellation, what apology do I have? Rather I should accuse them of copyright violation. So, there is no fence to mend.”
He said that he had admired former president Muhammadu Buhari before the call to serve in his cabinet came.
“Before then I have not worked with him and I have no desire to work with him. But when the invitation came to work for him, because he was a man I had admired since he was a military leader, I decided to take up the appointment. I also had a moral issue because I had supported him since 2003 when he ran. I did in 2007, 2011 until he won in 2015.
“He had invited me to work with him, I declined because I was the Managing Director of the Sun newspapers and the president Nigeria Guild of Editors and I didn’t want to leave what I was doing because I was enjoying what I was doing then and want to possibly retire quietly,” he added.
