By Sandy Abah, Abuja
Ajuri Ngelale’s decision to resign his enviable position as Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) did not stem entirely from the “vexatious medical situation in his family”, as he announced, Daily Query can report.
Rather, according to our investigation, it is more likely that his cat-and-mouse relationship with the president’s special adviser on information and strategy led to the sudden and early exit of the Rivers-born half-caste from Tinubu’s office.
As they say in Nigeria, Ngelale’s place in the presidency was obvious to him from the very beginning: he was always an outsider.
The petty quarrel between him and Onanuga over a press release on the path to tow by the president on May 29, 2024 Democracy Day celebration only brought to the fore for the first and momentous time the simmering personal animosities among the president’s information managers.
On May 28, Onanuga had posted on his X handle that the president would address a joint session of the national Assembly on May 29, to mark the 25th year of democracy.
But Ngelale countered the post, saying Onanuga was guilty of spreading false information, especially also because his X announcement was not only false but also unauthorised, as the president’s office was not part of the planning.
The presidential spokesman had said then: “In furtherance of his commitment to delivering good governance, President Bola Tinubu has inaugurated strategic projects across the country. President Tinubu’s administration will inaugurate more transformative projects for the benefit of all Nigerians.
“In view of public commentary concerning the President delivering a speech before a Joint Sitting of the National Assembly tomorrow, May 29, 2024, it is important to state that this information is false and unauthorized as the Office of the President was not involved in the planning of the event.”
However, it turned out that Mr. Onanuga was right: the president did address the joint session of the National Assembly on May 29; he neither made, as an original plan or in addition to the Joint Session address, a nationwide broadcast nor inaugurated any transformative projects as Ngelal had announced.
And Ngelale was right that the president’s office (read Ngelale’s office), was not involved in the planning.
The Joint Session speech was the idea of Tinubu’s powerful Chief of Staff, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, the immediate past Speaker of the House of Resentatives, who leveraged that position and the 100% personal confidence of the president that he enjoys, to plan the session without recourse to the ‘Office’ of the president.
Obviously, Gbajabiamila didn’t want any non-member of the powerful Lagos clique around the president to take the shine, hence the decision to let Onanuga make the announcement and not Ngelale, whom the Chief of Staff and others simply couldn’t care less that they made a fool of and practically shoved under the bus.
Daily Query sources wondered why the presidency kept such vital information about the president’s appearance before the Joint Session of the National Assembly from the Chief Presidential Spokesman?
“What was the point of not letting him know about it or that Onanuga should be allowed to go ahead and announce it?” a source queried. “Did they set out to humiliate him and why?”
Keen observers of the Tinubu Presidency say Ngelale’s exit was only a matter of time anyways; it had been expected perhaps even from the very beginning, they told Daily Query.
An informed watcher of the politics of Tinubu’s presidency in Abuja, the FCT, said in a chat with Daily Query: “Apart from the outsiders, the gate-crashers if you will, you know, the Bwalas of this world, only Ngelale was an insider who did not belong to the Lagos clique managing Tinubu’s presidency’s information and communication. How could he speak for the king wolf if he is not a wolf?”
“Tinubu’s appointments have shown the president as the chief tribesman who is uncomfortable in the midst of non-Lagos crowds,” the analyst added. “Just check the trips that Tinubu makes and who goes with him. Practically everyone who is entitled to travel with the president in the new travel arrangement belongs to the Lagos clique. If I may put it that way, this presidency is a key testament to the final triumph of the tribe in our politics and leadership.”
Ngelale announced his resignation in a letter he submitted yesterday – Friday, September 7 – to the Chief of Staff to the President, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.
Speaking on his decision, Ajuri said: “On Friday, I submitted a memo to the Chief of Staff to the President informing my office that I am proceeding on an indefinite leave of absence to frontally deal with medical matters presently affecting my immediate, nuclear family.”
“While I fully appreciate that the ship of state waits for no man, this agonizing decision — entailing a pause of my functions as the Special Adviser to the President on Media & Publicity and Official Spokesperson of the President; Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Action, and Chairman, Presidential Steering Committee on Project Evergreen — was taken after significant consultations with my family over the past several days as a vexatious medical situation has worsened at home.
“I look forward to returning to full-time national service when time, healing, and fate permit. I respectfully ask for some privacy for my family and I during this time.”
Sources who spoke to Daily Query on the development described Ngelale as “a smart young man who knew he just couldn’t swim in a crocodile-infested lake and come out alive.”
“His decision to leave when the ovation is still loudest was the wisest anyone in his circumstances could have taken,” they surmised.
