The role of New Media in modern day governance, cannot be over emphasized as it helps to propagate government policies and decisions in record time to members of the public. Thus, President Muhammadu Buhari, in his wisdom has appointed two young Nigerians, Tolu Ogunlesi and Bashir Ahmad to spearhead the job of promoting and defending the ‘change’ effort of his administration with the help of the New Media.
The announcement of the duo as Special Assistant and Principal Assistant, New Media to the president respectively, came with mixed reactions, but Nigerians generally welcomed the introduction of the both; especially as Tolu is seen as non controversial, unblemished and an extremely good columnist, whose knowledge the president and his team will find useful.
Notwithstanding, many also wonder why the president needs so many hands to promote the works of his administration, thereby controlling the narratives of his performance, when he has informed the nation times without number that he would drastically reduce the cost of governance, despite having in his service the likes of Femi Adesina, Garba Shehu, other recognised New Media paid volunteers and surely millions of self-appointed media aides of the president who are ready to tear down his critics at the slightest provocation.
The government of President Buhari seems to understand that modern day governance requires proper and adequate dissemination of government actions and inaction to the populace. Be that as it may, I would like to add that these propagations must be done with extreme sense of sincerity to speak the truth and nothing but the truth to the citizenry and to accommodate and respect every critic of the president.
These were what men who controlled the media and public image of erstwhile President Goodluck Jonathan failed to implement while serving him. Worst among President Jonathan’s ‘Man Friday’ was Reno Omokri, whose shoes Tolu and Bashir have been appointed to fill. Reno was the former peresident’s Special Assistant, New Media.
On Twitter, Reno blocked many young aggrieved Nigerians who would criticize his boss, especially a good number of those who had less than 2,000 followers on twitter without room for interaction with them. This path, Tolu and Bashir must not tow. Unlike Reno, these two, must interact with aggrieved Nigerians intelligently and make them understand the direction of President Buhari’s policies with an attempt to win them over with superior arguments, rather than building a fence against them with the block or mute button.
Also, Reno deviously attempted to implicate former CBN Governor now Emir of Kano, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as a sponsor of the dreaded Boko Haram sect. Using a pseudo, Wendell Slimlin, an American in an attempt to deceive Nigerians. With the help of the use of digital footprint, Mr Windell was busted as Pastor Reno Omokri. In the course of their duties, both Tolu and Bashir would surely be faced with temptation to drag some members of the opposition in the mud, this they must desist from.
Without mincing words, the job of Media Aides to the President generally won’t be smooth for the duo, as Nigerians would frustrate them day and night. Tolu and Bashir must avoid the many errors made by their predecessor, by making sure that they do not employ the service of young Nigerians as e-thugs to attack the President’s critics. They must not promote hashtags with our common resources for unnecessary reasons. They must be courteously accommodative with their critics and their principal’s critics, as the job they have now might become their source of regret when they leave office as assistants to the President on New Media.
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