Femi Adesina, special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, has disclosed that he took a pay cut to join the current administration.
Appealing to Nigerians not to lose hope in the government, the former managing director of The Sun Newspaper said he is not immune from the hardship in the land.
He attributed the economic crisis to mismanagement on the part of previous administrations, but said very soon, the people would have course to rejoice.
The presidential aide said his principal had not forgotten the promises he made during the campaign period.
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Adesina said this in an article entitled: ‘After Ye Have Suffered A While’. It was published on the back page of The Sun.
“Here comes the preacher. What does he want to tell us? Doesn’t he know that we are hungry, and the din of hunger makes one deaf to reason? The rumble in our tummies, as the worms compete for the little food left there, will surely be louder than what anybody can say now. True? Not exactly. Come, let us reason together,” he wrote.
“Father Ejike Mbaka, that fearless priest of the Catholic church, gave an illustration recently, which I believe was not revealed to him by flesh and blood. There is hunger in the land, with people severely famished. And there is ululation, loud enough to deafen the deaf all over again, and wake the dead from his eternal sleep. The wailers are wailing so loud, as if Bob Marley had resurrected with his band, the Wailing Wailers. But hear Fr. Mbaka: somebody came, looted your kitchen, carried away all the food.
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“He did not even leave you crumbs to console yourself with. And then comes another person, trying to replenish your pantry, trying to restock your kitchen. And then you begin to shout; we are hungry o, we are hungry o, to the point of distracting and discouraging the new man. Who should you rather wail and rage against? The man that looted your kitchen, of course.
“That is the exact similitude of the position of Nigeria. There is hunger, lack, and deprivation in the land. But is it a death knell? Not when the kitchen is being restocked, and we will soon feed till we want no more.
“I am on a national assignment that has cut my legitimate annual income by one third, so when there is hunger in the land, I go hungry too. Well, almost. When people talk of lack of money, I penny-pinch, too.
“Well, almost. Let nobody think those in government are insulated from what is happening in the country. At least, those who have truly come to serve. But those precious promises hold true any day. ‘In the days of famine, my people shall be satisfied.’ ‘The young lion may lack, and suffer hunger, but those that trust in the Lord shall not suffer any good thing.’”
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6 comments
Good preaching from “Past” Femi Adesina. You talk like one of the true full blooded “progressives”. To feel the pain of the masses, they are always taking certain percentage “cut” in their salaries. Liars! We will rather let you all have your salaries in ten folds but forfeit your allowances. Then we will know that you have the interest of the masses at heart.
How much is Mr President’s salary per annum in the first instance? It is less than what you guys use to entertain girl/woman friends in one month. However, your allowances per week are several times the annual salary!
If you truly want to sacrifice for the Nation, let’s hear that you (I mean all of you) are giving up your allowances and not salaries that are peanuts in the first instance.
Any supposedly world class team of footballers that are worth their onions will move in to the field of play, dominate the game and score some good goals to the admiration of the fans. It will be unfortunate if such supposed world class team will enter the field, unable to control the ball and full of inaccurate passes only to be referring to how badly the disbanded team had played. The fans will have no option than to keep reminding them that “if the old covenant was faultless, there wouldn’t have been the need for the new”.
Kindly get to work and stop this trading of blame. The blame trading was good enough to bring you in, Nigerians are expecting credible performance and nothing less. Shikena
In spite of General Buhari’s pedigree as a former military dictator,most of us were persuaded to support him due to the sterling performance of APC in Lagos and Edo states,under the stewardship of the inimitable Fashola and Oshiomole, respectively. We were cock sure that Buhari would use the fabled APC magic wand to revamp the economy, in spite of the declining prices of crude oil in the global market. APC, no doubt, is populated by egg heads who can think out of the box. I doubt if Buhari listens to these credible fellows that constitute the think tank of this great party. I expected Buhari to hit the ground, running, but the reverse is the case. As a writer, I always identify with true progressives, and has never being swayed by primordial sentiments. There is certainly a disconnect between Buhari and the APC think tank. Femi Adeshina should be bold enough to point out this fact to his boss. Apportioning endless blames on the discredited leadership of cluless Dr, Jonathan,will distort the APC roadmap to revamping the tattered economy. We need to exorcize the ghosts of PDP, from the national psyche, and forge ahead. Its time to really think out of the box, and fire cabinet members who are not in syn with APCs socialist oriented manifestoes. Once the populace are hungry, something urgent and concrete must be done to arrest the disturbing situation before it gets out of hand. The consequences of a revolt by a hungry populace could be unimaginable. Erasmus NDULUE, Poet
Well, we are all waiting. It just seem to me as if Mr President is less concerned about what ppl are going thru . he should simply come on air and address the nation as regards the happenings. They want to be sure he knows they are suffering, he is aware of the famine and that he is working on ending it.
FEMI, publish that your income for us to see the analysis as a true progressive.Words of mouth not enough on this.Show us fact and figures !
Nigeria is not worth dying for. Why? Because the country does not give a damn; whether you live or die, it does not care. Whether you live or die, it is not bothered. Whether you eat, it cares less. Whether you go hungry, it does not matter to her at all. In Nigeria, everybody is O.Y.O: On Your Own – every man for himself, God for us all. Don’t expect anything from government, because government does not exist. Don’t think anybody cares about you because you simply do not exist. Therefore you are expendable and dispensable, simply because you are Nigerian…Nigeria is taking her last breath, killed by religion and ethnicity; killed by parochialism; by clueless leadership; by pedestrianism and narrow-mindedness; by terrorism; by greed and rapacity. – Femi Adesina, July 2012.
@ Walestical I quite agree with you. While I don’t doubt that what Femi Adesina might be true how does hut salary cut commensurate to the conditions more than 90% of Nigerian are subjected to. In the first place the meager income of the common man was inadequate before now some have even gone totally without salary for months yet these people have families. So one cannot but agree with Latty who says Buhari and I add that members of his cabinet might not care truthfully about the masses…nonetheless though our leadership over the years has won us the tag of the most corrupt nation in the world I still say Nigerians are the most patient set of people in the world our resellience is bested by none.