Presidential Media Chat: Is Tinubu Playing Possum With Nigeria's Raging Hunger Plague?

By: Olufemi Orunsola 

As a well-cultured Yoruba boy, groomed to understand basic etiquettes guiding generally accepted standard behavioural norms of Omoluabi, one may be left in a state of schizophrenia after listening to or watching the Presidential Media Chat broadcast by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the night of Monday 23rd December, 2024 in line with a Yoruba proverb that says "Enu Omo ko Gba Iya Pa Idi Mo", meaning it's out of place for a youngster to take responsibility for telling his mother, who sits carelessly, thus exposing herself, how to comport herself appropriately.

First, as a Development Communication (DEVCOM) advocate and expert, I have always been critical, taking a clear position against the monologue mode of communication media handlers of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who have scripted him to adopt in his official communication with Nigerians on crucial issues of national interests since he assumed power in year 2023. 

The serial use of National broadcasts style by Mr. President was a capital NO for me. This I have made known via many of my previously published opinion articles.

Therefore, when out of the blues, at a time, when Mr. President, having travelled down from Aso Rock in Abuja to Lagos for Christmas, and many people believed he was technically done with official duties for the time being, announced he was having his premier Presidential Media Chat, I was personally elated and encouraged by the significant shift in his official communication style from the regular monologue style of national broadcasts where he would just come and read up a professionally written script to Nigerians to address salient issues without leaving any room for questioning and feedbacks which are crucial for effective communication exercises. 

In this regard, I owe no one any apology for my open commendation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his new media handlers. They have done just the very right thing and at the right time too, considering the recent spate of palliative distribution stampedes, avoidable deaths and injuries to vulnerably hungry Nigerians spreading through the country like wild fire inside harmattan.

However, the old devil is a liar as far as the audio quality of that Presidential Media Chat is concerned. Many Nigerian Netizens who probably watched the Media Chat last night must have been taken aback with the poor audio signals that greeted the broadcast. 

Imagine the old devil, doing that to the very first Presidential Media Chat by the President of Africa's most populous country! To think that such a poor audio quality of transmission was coming from a Presidential broadcast purportedly beamed live by Africa's largest television network, the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) further increased the tone of anger, trepidation and relative frustration as I constantly rewired myself to ignore the mechanical noise during the Presidential Media Chat in order to concentrate on the chat which obviously has a well structured composition of high profile journalists in place. 

Again, I find it commendable that the handlers of the President thought it prudent to feature Dr. Reuben Abati, from the Arise TV media group, generally known for criticizing President Tinubu's government, into that Presidential Media Chat room. 

Indeed, Dr. Reuben Abati did a yeoman's job and really nailed the assignment with his frank, forthright but mature stance. He started that conversation by asking a question on the burning issue making waves in the country - reason for the serial stampedes rocking the country!

Away from these basics of the Presidential Media Chat, a proper focus on the message, without necessarily vilifying the messenger convinces me that given the tone and command of answers to crucial questions thrown at him, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is indeed, a self-coordinated leader who possess a sound mind and leadership vision of his own, and not just another puppet king, been merely manipulated from the background by some faceless cabals. Anyone who really knows where Nigeria is coming from may appreciate that realization too. 

No controversy. Leadership is about vision, passion and determination to get certain things done the right way, at the right time to get the right outcomes that will be in the interests of the common good of all stakeholders in the ultimate analysis.

That Nigeria could have a leader who will engage with the popular media system to openly discuss the state of affairs in the country after several years of the absence of this crucial component of development in the communication equation of the country is quite soothening for me even though Mr. President left some of us with personal reservations and yet-to-be answered questions at the end of the Presidential Media Chat. 

Hence, my earlier postulation that a careful engagement with the Asiwaju Tinubu's premier Presidential Media Chat leaves me in a state of divided personality (Schizophrenia) considering the fact that the President's stance sparks of the passion of a medical doctor who is on duty to treat a badly injured patient who in a sense, appears to be so dispassionate about the pains, pangs and cries of the patient as he administers medical treatments to the wound in line with the Socrates Oath taken by him on the one hand, but ethical responsibility behoves the medical doctor to refrain from damaging the patient's psyche by using wrong sets of words on the patient during the treatment process.

While watching the Nigerian President fielding real, unsugar-coated questions from the media gave me incredible joy, one is forced to ask if President Tinubu was actually playing opus with the probably unprecedented degree of hunger, I mean first degree hunger, ravaging the Nigerian masses at this auspicious time in the anals of the country's history of austerity. 

Tinubu's response to the salient question on the spate of serial stampedes in the country associated with distribution of palliatives by well meaning individuals, foundations and the church leaves one in doubt if Baba is actually in the know that although he has had a long history of giving out palliatives and giving cash outs to loyalists for the past twenty five years as he rightly claimed in his response, merely fingering poor organization as the cause of the serial stampedes amounts to playing possum with the people's plight in the hand of palpable, dire, existential species of hunger now eating deep into the fabrics of the country.

Suffice to refresh memories of readers that the phrase "Playing possum" which means to act in denial of a reality or to feign ignorance has its roots in the animalia. It's traceable to a marsupial species alien to Africa but native to Australia and the America called Opposum or Possum as the case may be. 

It is a scaly-tailed creature with a pointed head and baring teeth that is often feared for its ugly appearance and nocturnal activities. One of the striking self defense instincts of this rare non-aggressive rat-like animal that almost never carries viruses, goes rabid or gets affected by venoms of snakes, scorpions or other venomous animals is that whenever it is threatened, it slides into a natural state of unconsciousness, an involuntary comatose-like state induced by its extreme fear. An Opposum can stay in that state for a reasonable period of time, releasing even scents that suggests it is actually dead only for it to jump back to life thereafter. 

Again, like the popular Radio Broadcaster and owner of Agidigbo FM, a media partner to Olori Naomi's Wings Foundation that organized the Ibadan Children Funfair, Alhaji Hazmat Oriyomi recently said in his commentary about the Ibadan stampede, many Nigerians are now simply bestial in their manifestation of survival instincts! 

It is unimaginable how bestial and animalistic humans could be and so behave, once they descend too low into the earthly abyss of hunger. Like I said in one of my writings and analysis of the poverty curve in Nigeria, when policies of government push people to the lowest ebbs of survival, literarily taking away access to legitimate income or MONEY from the MASSES, what you get are a deprived people who behave like ASSES! It's just the bitter truth and sad reality to grapple with!

Having this sociological and psychological understanding of the peculiar mess in which Nigerian masses are currently enmeshed therefore, I totally beg to disagree with Mr. President that the root cause of the serial stampedes experienced by Nigeria in recent times is poor organization by the organizers of those humanitarian, philanthropic gestures. That argument does not add up nor align with natural order.

In fishery for instance, if you, as a fish farmer, who has stocked your pond with fishes, fail to feed the fishes for a while, the natural survival instincts of the animals are let loose as the fishes will begin to feed on themselves for survival!

Ask poultry farmers the same question and let them narrate their experiences with the chickens in the poultry. 

I have been a piggery farmer for years. I have seen my pigs done unimaginable things to one another once we, the owners of the pen fail in our duty of feeding them!

It is quite pathetic that one has to use these analogy of the animal farm to drive home this bitter home truth about the real root cause of current waves of stampedes in the country - raw hunger that provokes the masses to literarily behave like asses! That's the naked truth and open secret! 

Given this backdrop that it is generally believed that the current pervasive hunger in the land that made people to hit the streets in protests in August under the #EndHungerNow protests was the aftermath of some government policies, Chief among which is the fuel subsidy removal, many Nigerians who are deep thinking have trepidations about the realization of the insistence of Mr. President that "Tax Reform has Come to Stay".

Although, Mr. President did the needful to clear the air of doubts, fears and worries of Nigerians about his new tax reform policy by saying that the new policy "is pro-poor", many people are still afraid of the possible depth of poverty the implementation of the tax reforms may further plunge an already impoverished masses in Nigeria in the new year. 

In this respect, President Tinubu, who spoke impressively, glowingly and dispassionately like an astute management consultant of a leader during the maiden Presidential Media Chat needs to do more to further enlighten Nigerians on how in effect, the tax reforms will affect the poor masses and the rich alike. 

Tinubu's analogy that the tax reform is like a baker who wants to bake a bigger cake so that everyone's share of the cake corresponding gets bigger may not be a sufficient defence or apologetics for the tax reforms in the eyes of hunger-ridden Nigerians.

The salient questions of who is the government taxing to get the flour, get the sugar and all the other ingredients for baking that cake really counts Mr. President Sir!

On the whole, for the first time in a long time of an entire lifetime, I personally feel proud to have a Nigerian President who took it upon himself to open up a veritable channel of communication of the state of the nation deploying the instrumentality of the Media, the fourth realm of government, answering the hard, salient, national existential questions. While we may not be totally satisfied with all his responses and positions, President Tinubu has actually earned my respect and commendations for this significant shift in communication style capable of helping his administration crush the hurdles of leadership alienation from social realities orchestrated by bureaucratic formations usually built around the office of the President. I look forward to having more Media Presidential Chats in the new year!

May God Bless Nigeria with a new lease of life as Mr. President pursues his Renewed Hope Agenda in the new year 2025! Amen!

Olufemi Orunsola, a Development Communication (DEVCOM) advocate and public affairs analyst is the Publisher/Chief Executive Officer, Open Television Naija (OTN) News, a multimedia online media platform.

He writes from Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria.