PMB’s health: Gloating is of no value

It’s incredible how easy it is to cheat our people. Although we know that this is the land of the 419, we’re still gullible - easily falling for the wicked designs of our compatriots and neighbours.

When I was chief press secretary, many people called to confirm if the First Lady was offering jobs after payment. Of course I didn’t need to ask her, because I knew it was not true.

Even yesterday a friend asked me if it’s true that the president’s wife is giving loans after sending five account and phone numbers. I’m getting tired of answering the same questions. So here are a few lessons.

If someone asks you to bring money before giving you a job, he’s either a 419 or he’s not in a position to give you that job. Either way, run away from him. Have you ever seen a CEO who needs your money before giving you a job? Feel free to add the Peace Corps under this category.

If you receive an offer from a First Lady, a minister, commissioner and other big shots on social media, don’t bother to confirm, it’s a lie.

IIf your relative comes to you that someone has offered him a great opportunity but needs some money. Know that he’s fallen prey to 419 devils. Even if you trust this relative, don’t trust his judgment in this case - don’t give him a kobo.

If someone sends you a link to a website where you can make money, but you need to make a payment before using the website, don’t click. The following websites where you can genuinely make money don’t require payment before registration: Fiverr.com, clickbank.com, etc.

If someone advertises international jobs or scholarships and leaves a Nigerian number to call, stay away. You should be careful of all job adverts with phone numbers. The usual practice is an email address or website address for further information.

I also requested friends on social media to add their own lessons. Following are their contributions.

If you get a text message from a GSM network provider, congratulating you in learnt an enduring lesson on the day General Sani Abacha died. It was June 8, 1998, and death had laid its icy hands on the maximum ruler, and the scepter had fallen from the grip of the king.

was deputy editor of National Concord, the newspaper owned by Basorun M.K. O Abiola, the man Abacha not only inveigled out of his mandate as democratically elected President, but whom he had also locked up in military gulag for five years.

Mr Dele Alake, who was to become Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Lagos State for eight years, was editor, but he had travelled on the fateful day. So, the lot fell on me to produce the newspaper, as the deputy editor. Dr (Mrs) Doyin Abiola was Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief.

Naturally, on a great news day like that, an editor would leave his office, and be on the shop floor, ensuring that the newspaper was swiftly produced. Time was of the essence, if you would partake in the harvest of sales the next day. So, I was in the computer room downstairs, editing the news stories as they were typed at the speed of light. It was there that Dr Abiola met me, as she prepared to go home about 7 p.m. She said something that both baffled and amazed me:

“Editor, no gloating. We have every reason to rejoice that Abacha is dead, but no gloating. Just present the news as professionally as possible. Don’t gloat!”

I thanked her, and she left. Her instruction continued to ring in my ears, and was followed to the letter. Those who read National Concord the next day would recall that there was no sense of triumphalism, no newsman’s orgasm of any kind, in the treatment of the story. Just professionally done. “Don’t gloat!” winning a promo prize when you never participated in any, don’t bother to cross check, it is a scam.

If anyone calls you asking you to guess his name or showing disappointment that you didn’t recognize his voice, know you are most likely talking to an unintelligent scammer. That method is so outdated only the unintelligent among them still use it.

If a caller said he was working in either PHCN or NNPC and had just been transferred out of Abuja and needs your help with a business but you cannot recall meeting him, don’t go any further, you are talking to a scammer.

If among the requirements for your job interview the text message says to bring HSE certificate and to call a number in case you need help getting it, it is a scam. Don’t be too eager to get a job.

Members of the National Assembly don’t print their business cards on a deskjet printer (the colour runs when wet) and they don’t cut the cards with scissors, leaving an uneven edge. Besides, the NASS website has

Did Doyin Abiola have reasons to instruct her newspaper to preen and gloat about Abacha’s death? Every. He had given the impression that he would take over power, and hand over to Abiola, who had won the June 12, 1993, presidential election, which the military annulled. Instead, he locked the man up in solitary confinement. Doyin did not see her husband for five years. Also, Abacha had shut down Concord Press for about two years, causing the company grave economic afflictions. Under him, Kudirat Abiola, one of Doyin’s mates, had been murdered, shot down in the streets, allegedly on the orders of the state. And many more evil deeds. Dr Doyin Abiola had every cause to waltz, and do a jig, at the death of Sani Abacha. But she did not. She even told her editor: “Don’t gloat!” I never forgot, and will never forget that lesson. It is human, and it is also divine.

Between January 19 and March 10, of this year, President Muhammadu Buhari was away in London, first on routine holiday where he would do normal medical checkups, and then, it became a medical vacation, in which he had to ask for an indeterminate number of days. Yes, who is he or she that never falls sick, let that person cast the first stone. As the President frankly confessed on his return, he had never been that sick in his life. Human, just human. Presidents, kings, queens, potentates, wealthy people, are also human, aren’t they? They itch as well, and scratch as hard. Sickness, not only death, is often a leveler among all mortals, young, old, poor, rich, dull, brilliant, ugly, beautiful, everybody.

And we know what attended the President’s medical sojourn from certain quarters in the country. Wild news. Hate news. Rumour. Evil thinking. Even, gloating. They did all kinds of photoshops, and spewed all kinds of evil stories. They everyone’s names. If in doubt, ask for the constituency he represents or his senatorial zone then check it on the NASS site.

National Assembly members don’t beg for money.

That fella who claimed to have come to the office close to your own for interview carrying a folder with credentials in it is a scammer. So is the lady who said she came to see her uncle in Abuja ‘but met his absence’ and somehow doesn’t have the transport fare back.

Lesson thirteen: Another variant is the well-dressed guy in suit who starts by saying, ‘Sorry passed round outright wickedness on WhatsApp, and those of us who debunked their evil tales became enemies. They tried to tag us with all kind of labels, saying we were liars and deceivers.

When President Buhari spoke with me on phone from London on February 25, I was elated, and issued a press statement, detailing our conversation. Many Nigerians, good people from a great nation, who could get hold of my phone number, called. They would ask if truly we had spoken. Once I confirmed, they broke into tears of joy, crying like babies. They brought tears to my eyes many times. Till this son of hate, a purveyor of evil and tragedy, called. He identified himself as Jude (I decide to withhold his other name for now). He said: “Mr Adesina, you claim to have spoken with President Buhari. When are you going to stop this political deceit? How can you speak with a man who is long dead, and you are deceiving the public that he’s still alive?”

I didn’t argue with the man. I held my peace, let him finish his orgy of evil, and calmly cut off the phone. Then, on March 10, the President returned. Ecstasy and pure rapture from good Nigerians, who had been praying and supplicating unto God. Mai Gaskiya was back. The honest man had returned. Ramrod straight, man of integrity. He had been spared by God, and restored to us. Oh, glory!

Did you listen to that short speech that President Buhari read on his return? Did you listen to his off the cuff remarks? Was there any gloating? None. Did he rub it in on those who had peddled evil news, fake news, hate news? No. That is maturity. That is how to be the father of a country. And I remembered Dr Doyin Abiola: “Don’t gloat!”

Do you know what some other people would have done in the same circumstance? to disturb you’ before telling you how he doesn’t have transport fare and needs just 400 to complete it. There’s also the one who waits some distance while you use the ATM. After you withdraw cash, he walks up to you and pitches his scam.

Any purported government job advertised through a website without .gov.ng TLD extension (e.g. customs.gov.ng or finance. gov.ng) is a fake job. No genuine government agency or parastatal uses .com or .net domain extension now for security and identity reasons. The same goes to email addresses, if you are asked to send CV to yahoo or gmail email address, put it at back of your mind that you are liable to be duped! Also, there are many fake websites that look like government websites, they are phishing websites, so be warned!

Have you ever seen a CEO who needs your money before giving you a job? Feel free to add the Peace Corps under this category

Even when the source is proven to be “real” in the e-world, confirm the owner(s) of the account(s) where transfer will be made from several options available in internet banking facilities. And if possible pay in batches or piecemeal as it is better to accrue more service charges than to to lose your money.

Consult experts in the field and trusted friends/colleagues. Most importantly, pray as much as possible before taking decisions and implementing. They would have taken evil minded people to the cleaners. But not President Buhari. They would have made snide remarks about peddlers of hate news, calling fire and brimstone to fall upon them. But not our President. He would have been justified if he did so. The Good Book says, “He that digs a pit shall fall into it. He that rolls a stone, a stone will roll back at him. He that breaks the hedge, a serpent shall bite him.” So, President Buhari would have been justified, if he gave evil people some jabs. But he did not. What a heart!

Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.

How did that Jude Somebody feel when the President returned? He even bears Jude, a Christian name. How embarrassing! But he was full of bile, in the gall and throes of bitterness. May God forgive him. Amen.

From March 10, when President Buhari returned, purveyors of evil have disappeared. Vanished! Utterly transmuted, like Brother Jero, in that work by Wole Soyinka. Even on social media, where they had held sway for many weeks, they evaporated. Like a beaten dog, they had their tails between their feet, and ran for cover. But should we rejoice? “Don’t gloat!”

There is nothing we have, that we did not receive from above. So, why boast? Why gloat? Rather, we should be thankful. The President has thanked millions of people who prayed. And they continue to pray. God, please, spare Baba for us. Let him take us to the Promised Land. Where is that Jude Somebody? I kept his number. I feel like calling him, saying “How now?” But I shouldn’t do it. And I won’t do it. Because I remember Dr Abiola’s instruction: “Don’t gloat!”

Adesina is Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari