Who is afraid of Toni Kan?

BY IFEANYI DIKE

Nigerian twitter is abuzz with news of the appointment of Toni Kan as Spokesperson to the Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

Wailers are insisting that Toni Kan, award winning writer, Public relations expert and media entrepreneur is an enemy of the APC and the president.

But nothing could be farther from the truth. An ideas man and committed Nigerian Toni Kan has never been content to merely criticise. He is a firm believer in the fact that those who criricise must also show how the job can be done better.

When he got tired of seeing a lack of professionalism in the Nigerian online media space he launched sabinews.com (now 1^stnews) to provide an ethical and professional example. That site became the first Nigerian news site to be acquired in Nigeria underlining its success and ethical bonafides.

Sensing a deep need for young Nigerian writers to be published and validated at home instead of abroad, Toni Kan launched thelagosreview.ng to provide a space for young Nigerian writers to be published.

As to charges that Toni Kan is anti-APC and Buhari, many do not realise that when First Lady, Aisha Buhari was being attacked and accused of shutting down the Aso rock chapel, it was Toni Kan who undertook an investigation and wrote a balanced report which summarily put paid to those attacks and they say he is anti Buhari.

Read the article here  where he writes: “Sitting on the chair he has offered me, I take a few more shots and as I rise to leave I wonder where the story about the chapel being turned into a spa came from and what I would do if I was the president and the chapel was sitting that close to my wife’s residence. Knowing myself, I would never allow the chapel or children’s church to sit so close to her bedroom and kitchen and this is a Christian speaking.”

Femi Adeshina once criticized Professor Gambari and today they are playing on the same team.

Garba Shehu used to work as media aide for Atiku Abubakar who is without question President Muhammadu Buhari’s biggest political opponent but today he is one of the president’s most trusted media aides.

How many people realise that Tolu Ogunlesi, one of the president’s media aides got his start in PR and Communications when Toni Kan hired him at Visafone.

The question to ask is this: is Toni Kan qualified to be media aide or not? The answer is a BIG yes.

• M.A and B.A English literature from the universities of Lagos and Jos.
• Best Graduating student both times.
• Magazine Editor at 26
• Fellow of the Civitella Ranieri, Heinrich Boll and Yaddo writing fellowships, some of the most prestigious in the world.
•  Author of 12 books – novels, short story collections, biographies, poetry.
• Multi sectoral experience consulting in Banking, Telecoms, oil and Gas, Energy etc.
• NIPR and APCON certified.
• Former Editor Nigeria Monthly magazine (his first federal government appointment.)

A federal appointment offers an opportunity to serve one’s country at the highest level. Many ministers were PDP stalwarts just three years ago but they are serving. Toni Kan is a man of ideas and action. A change agent he is never content to just criticize. By taking this job, he means to do good instead of sitting on the sidelines and playing arm chair critic. We all have a stake in Nigeria and whether president Buhari or another, the country comes first.