Former Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Reuben Abati, has harped on the need for spokespersons to be good managers of information.
Abati, said this Abeokuta on Monday, on the sidelines of the 2015 annual lecture of the Ogun State Correspondents’ Chapel, Nigeria Union of Journalists.
According to him, many journalists failed to understand the nature of his job and wanted him to react to certain national issues which were delicate.
Abati said he was aware that journalists, including those who covered the State House in Abuja, complained that he sometimes did not take their calls whenever they wanted to get his reaction.
Explaining his position, Abati stated: “Once you are in government, you are no more a journalist. It’s just like a royal court; the king does not go out there, he sends someone to deliver his message to the people. You are an agent to a principal.
“The job of a government’s spokesman is delicate and sensitive. If you are a careless spokesperson, you will blow up a country. It is not everything that a hunter sees in the bush that he talks about.
“But my colleagues, the journalists, still wanted me to talk as Abati, the columnist or Abati as a panelist in Patitos Gang. Loquacity is not an asset when you are a government’s spokesman.”
However, Abati, in his lecture, appealed to media owners and practitioners to keep tab of the economic policies of government as it affects them.
“We must prioritise issues of economic diversification. We must be interested in economic policies; we must acquire the skills to interrogate and analyse economic policies and we must interrogate people at the helm of affairs so that we can be crusaders of a good society,” the Ogun-born media practitioner said.
He urged journalists to ensure that they consistently put government officials on their toes for delivery of campaign promises.
Abati further criticised President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government for trying to do away with some polices and projects of the Jonathan administration, which he said put Nigeria on the path of sustainable development.
Commentaires