Buhari Picks Femi Adesina as Special Adviser on Media and Publicity

There are strong indications that the Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of The Sun Newspaper, Mr. Femi Adesina may have been appointed by the president-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari as his Special Adviser (SA) on Media and Publicity in less than 10 days to the inauguration of his administration.

Adesina’s appointment, though yet to be formally announced, is said to have been concluded but merely waiting for some formality before the official announcement.

It was gathered that the management of The Sun Newspaper is concluding plans to re-organize its management structure following Adesina’s impending departure.

It would be recalled that Adesina was recently re-elected as the President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) for another term of two years, as he was returned was returned unopposed at the 2015 bi-annual convention of the Guild, which held in Lagos by his colleagues, most of whom described his tenure as the “best the Guild has ever had.”

With his new appointment, Adesina also becomes the second person to be so appointed while serving as the president of the Guild of Editors. The first person was the late Mrs. Remi Oyo, who was the SA, Media and Publicity to former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

A prolific writer and tested journalist, Adesina started his career at the Vanguard Newspapers as a features writer before later moving to the defunct National Concord Newspapers. He is a pioneer staff of The Sun newspaper where he became the editor, and later the managing director and editor-in-chief, a position he will be quitting for the new assignment.

As the president Guild of Editors, Adesina fought for the rights and protection of journalists at every event or fora. In one of such events was a lecture organized by the Bank of Industry (BoI) where he advised the bank to find ways of encouraging media practitioners by giving them loans for the purpose of establishing businesses after retirement, pointing out that the media industry cannot afford to have more ‘veteran’ journalists.

In his presentation at the event titled: ‘‘The Media and BOI: Working Together,’’Adesina admonished Bank of lndustry (BoI) to always patronize media houses, saying that they are not charitable organizations.

‘‘When you therefore have businesses, patronize them. If they are good enough for your press releases and other editorial items, they must also be good enough for your advertisements. Build a mutually rewarding relationship, including rendering investment support, as the journalists may require,” he said.

As a testimony to his unparalleled achievement in the Guild, Adesina was named the Editor of the Year by the Nigeria Media Merit Award in 2007.