I was deliberately misquoted for eight years – Femi Adesina

• Adesina noted that after he got acquainted with the antics of the media, he was able to outgrow it by not letting such affect his job as the presidential media aide
• Adesina said his principal actually felt some things the administration did, could have been done better

Femi Adesina, former Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, to the erstwhile president, Muhammadu Buhari, stated that he was misquoted for eight years while serving under the past administration.

Adesina made the statement at a media chat organised by the Association of Veteran Journalists in Osogbo, Osun State, on Wednesday,

He noted that after he got acquainted with the antics of the media, he was able to outgrow it by not letting such affect his job as the presidential media aide.

Adesina stated that the “media section” purposely wanted to make him an “enemy of the public.”

“My biggest challenge during the eight years that I served with former President Muhammadu Buhari was the fact that a section of the media deliberately quoted me out of context.

“I eventually grew out of it and got used to the antics. Even while I had a television interview, it was turned upside down in the papers deliberately to make me an enemy of the public, but I outgrew it and it did not affect my duty throughout my tenure”, he said.

Meanwhile, Adesina said his principal actually felt some things the administration did, could have been done better.

The ex-presidential spokesperson said before Buhari left office, he had a two-hour chat with him, during which he asked all manners of questions.

According to him, during the interview session, he asked his principal what his regrets were, and Buhari expressed regret that certain things should have probably been done in another way.

Although Adesina did not state Buhari’s regret, he however said “There is no living human being that will not regret certain things. It is one of the questions I asked the president.

“Before we left office, I sat with him for about 2 hours and I asked him every question under the sun and when we finished, he asked what I gave to Chief of Protocol that he gave so long a time with him. There was no question I didn’t ask him. There were things he (Buhari) felt could have been done better.”

Defending some of the actions taken by the administration, Adesina, who said naira redesign policy, though exposed Nigerians to hardship was not totality a bad policy as it enabled the country to have reduction in crime, especially kidnapping and curbed manipulation in the 2023 polls.