The Presidency has come out to clear the air behind the controversy of how President Goodluck Jonathan’s interview with the Cable News Network (CNN) was organized, saying that they were entirely the private initiative of an American public-relations firm, Fleishman-Hillard, and it did not cost the federal government a dime.
This came as a reaction to a story in the Leadership Newspapers on Thursday, in which they quoted online news site, Premium Times as saying that Fleishman-Hillard Inc had admitted that it arranged the CNN interview for Jonathan at the cost of $40,000 and not the $60,000 initially fixed for the exercise.
Curiously enough, Leadership did not quote any figures from the online news site, as the report by Premium Times was silent on who paid for the interview.
A source in the Presidency, who pleaded for anonymity as he was not authorized to speak on the issue, said that the reports were inaccurate as the all the interviews Jonathan had with CNN were organized directly with the network and not through any agency.
“It is ridiculous for anybody to say that the federal government spent one dollar to facilitate CNN interview with President Jonathan. No government official has paid any firm to help the government facilitate any interview for Mr. President. The story is false, malicious and designed to tarnish the image of the president. All the interviews Mr. President had with CNN in 2010/2011 were all arranged by the president’s media department,” he said.
He shed more light on the role of Fleishman-Hillard in the whole issue, saying it were some friends of the president in 2011 who approached a Nigerian firm to assist in arranging a series of events for the president while he was attending the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
He added that, while it was this company that brought in the US firm as consultants, the entire arrangement, however, fell through because there was no provision in the president’s schedule to accommodate the programme drawn up by the outfit.