In eight years of serving as Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, I saw humanity in different dimensions: the good, the bad and the ugly. Some people were after us morning, noon and night. Implacable.
We were at the mercy of supposedly Christian preachers who were full of bile, malice and malediction. They cursed, saw evil visions, gave prophecies which never came to pass, and whipped up hatred from the pulpit against their country’s leadership. They were akin to Alexander the coppersmith, who Paul the Apostle said “did me much evil.” (2 Timothy 4:14). And like Paul further prayed, “the Lord reward him according to his deeds.”
At a particularly turbulent period during the administration, when my name was everywhere, and the Wailing Wailers and coppersmiths of this world were deliberately twisting and turning whatever I said upside down, calling me all sorts of names for faithfully serving the President, my phone rang. Who was at the other end? Rev. Chris Okotie, Senior Pastor, Household of God Church, Ikeja, Lagos.
I’d known the cleric for a number of years. He had been particularly gracious to a Christian ministry I belonged to, and was also among those upholding me in prayers in my national assignment.
So, on that day, he called me up. “Brother Femi,” (that’s how he usually calls me, and I believe there’s no greater honor in Christendom than to be called Brother or Sister, no matter other titles we parade). “I’m calling to encourage you at a time like this. Please stay loyal to the President. He needs you at a time like this. If everybody betrays him, you must not. You are serving a government you chose to serve, so stay steadfast. Don’t mind the nonsense that some people are saying. We live in a very complex country.”
I thanked Rev Okotie profusely, promising that I would remain with President Buhari all the way. He said God would help me, and went off the line.
That was a Christian preacher who chose to be Christlike, when many others were excoriating the Christians in the Buhari government, saying we were serving a Muslim fanatic and jihadist. “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
There’s a chapter in my forthcoming memoir titled ‘Buhari and a part of the Church.’ There, you will get to read what some preachers did to us, and how they spewed hatred from the pulpit. So very unlike Jesus Christ. Pity!
‘Working With Buhari: Reflections of a Special Adviser, Media and Publicity’ is in print. Sooner than later, you will get to read it, by the grace of God.
*Adesina was Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Buhari, 2015-2023