With the exit of Ajuri Ngelale, who resigned from President Bola Tinubu’s administration as Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, who’s the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to the president, and the cabal can now take total control of the government.
This was the view of Paul Ibe, spokesman to the former vice president, Atiku Abubakar. He described Onanuga as an ethnic bigot following reports of battle for supremacy between both media advisers to the president.
Ngelale was the official spokesman to the president who handled day to day media activities for the president.
Onanuga on the other hand was expected to address only key policy issues and advise the president accordingly.
But the pair clashed frequently with Onanuga often releasing statements without “orders or endorsement” from Ngelale, his superior.
Ngelale had had to refute press statements from Onanuga like in May when he described the statement from Onanuga as “false and unauthorised” concerning the schedule of the president.
There were repeated frictions behind the scene between the pair, with presidency sources saying Onanuga “looked down on Ngelale” and “saw everything wrong to take orders or work under a junior, inexperienced officer.”
Consequently, Ibe rejected the reason that forced Ngelale out of the administration, noting that it had nothing to do with health.
Ngelale had in his resignation letter which he said was submitted to the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, cited the need to “frontally deal with medical matters presently affecting my immediate, nuclear family.”
Apart from being the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity and an Official Spokesperson of the President, he was also the Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action, and Chairman, Presidential Steering Committee on Project Evergreen, huge responsibilities that he was unable to deliver, according to latest revelations.
Ngelale said he took the decision to step down after “significant consultations with my family over the past several days as a vexatious medical situation has worsened at home,” without giving details of who was ill or the nature of sickness, with new revelation that infighting between him and Onanuga and his inability to master the craft of managing the soiled image of the government forced his exit.
Ibe, while reacting a day after his resignation said Ngelale’s exit “won’t salvage President Bola Tinubu’s tarnished image or the dysfunction of his administration.
“Ngelale’s supposed ‘indefinite leave’ is nothing more than a pathetic face-saving ploy,” he said on Sunday in a statement he shared on X/Twitter.
He argued that contrary to claims of medical reasons, his departure is a “result of the same bigotry and parapoism that plague Tinubu’s regime.”
He said the Tinubu administration’s propensity for “deceit” means “they have even lied about the nature of Ngelale’s exit.
“The Tinubu administration’s habitual dishonesty blurs the line between fact and fiction, making truth elusive.”
While emphasising that with “around 15 media aides already on the payroll,” he said there is no need “for a new appointment; any one of them could step in.”
He however stressed that “no matter how much you dress up a shalanga (pit latrine), it remains foul.
“Similarly, no PR stunt can fix the stench of the Tinubu administration,” which has made Nigeria to experience “its worst cost-of-living crisis in decades, with the naira tanking, petrol prices soaring, and food inflation over 40%.
“Insecurity remains rampant, all due to the administration’s incompetence.”
Ibe added that “Ngelale’s exit reveals that Tinubu is no longer in control, leaving the Villa to a cabal aligned with Bayo Onanuga, a figure whose ethnic bigotry mirrors Tinubu’s values more than Ngelale’s measured approach.”