A five-volume book chronicling the eight years of the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari from 2015 to 2023 will be unveiled to the public on Tuesday in Abuja.
Also, a book, “Working with Buhari: Reflections of a Special Adviser, Media, and Publicity (2015–2023),” the memoir of Chief Femi Adesina, would be simultaneously presented to the public at the ceremony to be chaired by General Yakubu Gowon, Nigeria’s Head of State, 1966–1975, with President Bola Tinubu as Chief Guest.
Former president Goodluck Jonathan and former vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, are also among the dignitaries expected at the occasion to be held at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hotel, Abuja.
Speaking at the pre-book launch media conference on Thursday in Abuja, Femi Adesina, Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to the immediate past president of Nigeria, said the two publications would bring Buhari to Abuja for the first time since he exited office in May 2023.
He noted that his memoir, which he wrote dispassionately, would provide great insights into the life and leadership of the former president.
He noted that the groundbreaking five-volume historical compendium, “Muhammadu Buhari: The Nigerian Legacy (2015–2023),” edited by Dr. Udu Yakubu, is co-authored by over 100 Nigerian scholars.
The book, according to the authors, is “the authoritative, comprehensive, and most definitive story of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari from 2015 to 2023.”.
Recalling how he had to tender his resignation letter at the Sun Newspaper in order to “reluctantly” take up the appointment of Special Adviser, Media, and Publicity to the former president, Adesina said he cried on the fateful morning he was to sign his appointment letter because, according to him, he was stepping into unknown territory.
Adesina said he was, however, fulfilled that he was able to discharge his duties successfully and creditably and that he turned out to be the first spokesperson for a sitting president who has served in that capacity for eight years since his return to democracy in 1999.
He insisted that Buhari was a true democrat and took certain decisions and actions during his administration in the interest of Nigerians, even though those he described as “wailers” did not see anything good during the eight years of the former president’s reign.
He said, “Why did I think I should write about the president I served for 8 years? I will say I knew Buhari long before I came to work for him as an adviser to the media. Before then, I hadn’t worked with the government and had no desire to work with it.
“But when the invitation came to work for him because he was a man I had admired since he was the military leader, I decided to take the appointment.
I also had a moral issue. You know, since he began to run for president in 2003, I have always supported him; in 2007, I did, in 2011, I did, and in 2015, I did, and he won.
Now after he won, he said come and work with me, and I said no, because then I was the Managing Director of the Sun Newspaper and President of the Nigerian Guide of Editors, and I didn’t want to leave what I was doing. I thought I could proceed for some more years and then possibly retire to do some other things.
“So, when I was asked to come into government, though very reluctantly, you will read in the book how, in the morning I had to sign my appointment, I began to cry because I didn’t want it. I was going into what is called Terra incognita (unknown or unexplored territory), a terrain I didn’t know at all.
“So, I came for 8 years, which is unprecedented. No media adviser has served for 8 years in a democracy except the military regime,” he said.
He noted that for the eight years, he worked seamlessly and harmoniously with Buhari without complaint any day, saying what he received from the former president was an accolade and a pat on the back all the time.
Adesina said the book was also an attempt to dismiss some myths and narratives that Buhari’s political enemies have sowed and fed to the Nigerian public, saying he felt that the true narrative needed to be told, which is why he wrote the book for Nigerians to know the real and true Buhari “in flesh and blood” as opposed to conjurations over decades about him.
He said the book is not about the hardware of governance—economic policy, monetary policy, foreign policy, and so on—but rather about the software, the governance, and the man who headed that governance.
He added that a whole chapter was dedicated to the issues surrounding the health of the former president, dismissing insinuations and false social media publications about who the former president was not.
Ambassador Chijoke Wigwe, who is the editorial coordinator of the five-volume compendium on Buhari’s eight years of administration, said Buhari was the most misunderstood president of Nigeria, saying the two publications to be fortuitously presented to the public on Tuesday next week would present a checklist of his achievements across various sectors.
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