Special Assistant on Digital Media Operations to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Eta Uso has on Saturday called out President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media, Bayo Onanuga and the rest of the President’s Communications team over their observed and rather amplifying obsession over former Vice President and Presidential Candidate of ADC, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“Bayo @aonanuga1956, I have watched your obsession with HE Atiku gradually overwhelm your responsibility as a presidential spokesman.
“At this point, I genuinely wonder whether your principal is still Bola Tinubu or whether HE Atiku has quietly become the full-time subject of your official assignment.
“We gave you a policy argument. Instead of engaging it intelligently, you reached for “veteran presidential candidate” and recycled a claim your colleague had already pushed.
“That is not wit, Bayo. That is what happens when the argument has run dry but the microphone is still on,” Eta said via his verified Twitter handle.
“We have already answered the substance. I suggest you read the response carefully before repeating the same talking point with a fresh yet weak insult attached to it. Presidential communication should require slightly more effort than adding sarcasm to yesterday’s memo.
“You occupy the office of presidential spokesman. Your job should be to explain and defend your government’s policies, not to behave like the administrator of an opposition fan page. Yet HE Atiku raises an issue and, almost on cue, you and your colleagues abandon Tinubu’s record and begin another group discussion about HE Atiku.
“That is not you setting the agenda. That is you surrendering it to us.
“And I find that particularly amusing.
“If HE Atiku can announce one policy idea and send the Presidency into a full day of rebuttals, insults and emergency history lessons, then neither you nor I should pretend there is any confusion about who is driving the national conversation.
“The irony is that you appear not to notice what you are doing. The more you make a weak attempt at mocking HE Atiku, the more you amplify him. The more you mention him, the more Nigerians discuss his proposals. You have somehow converted the Presidency’s communications office into free publicity for the very man you are trying to diminish,” he further said.
“So please, Bayo, keep going.
“At this rate, I may soon have to thank you personally for your contribution to our campaign.
“HE Atiku raises the issue. You react. Nigerians debate it. That is agenda-setting. And right now, Bayo, you are helping us do it,” Eta concluded.
