Late President Yar’Adua’s spokesman speaks on strategic miscalculation as a senior special adviser

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- Segun Adeniyi speaks on his miscalculation as the spokesman to late President Yar’Adua

- Adeniyi revealed that he would have been more effective if he had a cordial relationship with the former lady Turai Yar’Adua

- The former spokesman added that the fact that Yar’Adua did not want to talk about his health was a serious challenge to his work

Former spokesman of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Olusegun Adeniyi, on Monday, October 23, said he would have been a more effective spokesman if he was closer to the first lady Turai Yar’Adua, The Cable reports.

NAIJ.com gathered that Adeniyi, while speaking at a conference which the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) organised for the chief press secretaries to the governors of the 36 states said the fact that Yar’Adua did not want to talk about his health posed a serious challenge to his work.

Adeniyi who serves as the current chairman of the editorial board of ThisDay Newspapers, advised press secretaries to study their bosses and know how to approach them.

He said: “I was a spokesman to a man who did not like to talk about his health and that was a major challenge.

But looking back, I believe I made a strategic miscalculation. I told myself I was not going to deal with the wife, so I stayed off the first lady, I was not very close to her and I am still not close to her.”

“But looking back, I believe I would have been more effective if I was close to her, because I knew how close the two of them were. So, in trying to work with your boss, try to study the person. Studying the person also means studying the people around him that will help you to do your job.

“Osita Izunaso, who was then spokesman to the then Senate President Evans Eweremem, once told me a story of how he was worried about a story which was all over the media, and he went to see his boss to get him to react. He said the man looked at him and said ‘get out of here’. I thought I employed a press secretary, I didn’t know I employed CIA’. If he had studied his boss, he would have known how to approach the man.

“The moment your boss begins to suspect you even when you are doing the correct thing, there is no way you can be effective. Like I said, studying your boss also means studying those around him, who are the people close to him that can help you. Like I said in the case of my boss, if I had tried to be close to the first lady, I mean to his wife, I probably would have been more effective than I was.”

The former spokesman told the press secretaries that they would not know their principals until they start working with them.

“But regardless of how you got the job, I can tell you, you don’t know your boss until you begin to work with him. And to know him you need to study him, know what puts him off and what he likes, what is the best and what you believe will help him do the job because basically, you are there to help him," he said.

Adeniyi further advised them not to inherit the enemies of their principals, adding that they should build a team as they could not do the work alone.

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In a previous report by NAIJ.com, Adeniyi who served as senior special adviser to late president, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua revealed that former president, Goodluck Jonathan was the architect of his own defeat in the 2015 presidential election.

In his book titled ‘Against the Run of Play’, Adeniyi had quoted Jonathan as saying the US and UK were responsible for his defeat in the 2015 presidential election.

Adeniyi said the former president had no one to blame as he failed to follow the advice given to him by his allies.

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