The Femi Adesina Stories
Femi Adesina has been known by reputation to many people, and even more now that he is Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to President Buhari. Before then, he also held highly visible positions as MD/Editor-in-Chief of The Sun Publishing and President
Femi he has been a professional colleague and friend to me but not a very close one. For example it was only during the preparatory work for this piece that I noticed from the Internet that he likes apala and gospel music. Apala? Hmmm! But my close psychological look of Femi suggests a man who as a child must have been seen by others as being older in wisdom than his biological age. Femi is a stable man, not easily swayed by his circumstances or distractions from his immediate environment.
I have not seen so much encomium showered on a departing helmsman as Femi has received in recent times. That his departure mad some people, adults, cry at the Sun Newspapers is endorsement of Femi’s qualities. I will repeat some of the kind words about him here, but as they say in local parlance, make I talk my own first.
Give it to him: he is calm and extremely humble. Those are qualities that first endeared him to me. I try to be as humble as possible, so I quietly watch out for people who are more humble to learn from.
One such man who floored me was the editor of the Arizona Daily Star Newspaper in Tucson, US, where I was on attachment in the I990s. For that I called him the Real MacCoy. “The real McCoy” is an idiom and metaphor used in much of the English-speaking world to mean “the real thing.”
I had a good taste of Femi’s humility and calmness when I had an issue with one of his editors, which made me stop what I was writing then. He appealed for peace and promised to settle the disagreement. I don’t know how he did it, but he did. Thereafter, he implored me to forget incident and that was it, we moved on.
Also, there was a time I got a text from someone who complained about Femi’s use of his position and column in “a newspaper owned by an Iboman to support Buhari from an opposition party.” When I drew his attention to it, he said he also received the text but he had waved it off.
Femi came to my office a few times, and my I read of him (I read people as hobby) was that of a man wired to be calm, as his stature suggests. He has a calmness that may even be mistaken for aloofness but Femi has no air about him.
When THISDAY broke the news about his Abuja appointment, I congratulated him but he quickly came back with a, “thanks, but it is not official.”
In trying to test my conclusions about his nature, I have read many of the recent pieces on his departure from the newsroom.
Funke Egbemode’s was moving. Funke, a lively writer, is now the MD of New Telegraph. She wrote: “We had just adjourned the management meeting to allow Femi Adesina clear his desk so he could catch his flight to Abuja to see his new boss, the President. As we saw him off to his car, the ‘convoy’ increased. From each floor, more members of staff joined the party of escorts. We all wore the same ‘aso-ebi’, our long faces. We were happy he was going to serve his fatherland but we were sad he was going. But since he must go if he must serve, then go he must. As he got into his SUV, the long-faced crowd surged, preventing him from closing the door. Mrs N. Uche, the GM, Admin took a look at my face and told me not to cry but before I could finish assuring her that I’d cry much much later, she broke down and ran back to her office to cry in dignity. By the time, Femi’s Pajero drove out of the gate, not a few were crying.
Had I ever seen Femi Adesina lose his cool, scream at anybody in anger, correct anybody with harsh words? I can’t, even now, remember.
He led by example, humbly, with no airs. He even refused to change the official car he used as Deputy Managing Director when he became Managing Director. He used the same Mitsubishi Pajero till the very last day. Because there were still managers whose cars he must first sort out
In 26 years, I have worked in half a dozen media houses and I haven’t seen an Editor-in Chief more loved than Femi Adesina... the part I admire most is his cool-headedness, his calmness in the face of provocation, his ability to work endless hours without getting touchy.”
Celebrated journalist and author Mike Awoyinfa, who was his boss sometime ago, also wrote about Femi, describing him as “A good man. A humble man.”
Mike however recalled the two occasions when he had seen Femi’s stability and calmness challenged. “… twice, I have seen him transfigure into an angry man. The first transfiguration was when, as deputy managing director of The Sun, some people below him were try¬ing to undermine him. At a board meeting, he erupted like the impetuous Peter in the Bible. And I was so proud.
The second was when he was contesting to be the President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors and there were pressures for him to step down for another candidate but he would not sell his birthright for a mess of pottage like Esau.”
Well, as intricately wired as his is to be calm and stable, no time and nowhere would those qualities be tested as tempestuously as in the corridors of power in Abuja. But he has to stand for what is right or be swallowed by power mongers.
In the political corridors of power, plots and counter-plots driven by selfish ambition are hatched every minute. There, people literarily use other people’s backs and heads as ladder to reach to the top and for the ears of the boss. It happens everywhere, even in the smallest of companies, in every country, but Abuja is tough.
Also, years of journalism must have taught him that sometimes, sleep is a luxury. Tough job!
According to a profile I found on the Internet, Femi, “an English Language graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, started his journalism career at Radio Lagos where his budding talent as a features writer was discovered. He move to Vanguard Newspaper as a features writer before crossing to the now defunct National Concord Newspaper as features Editor for Weekend Concord and later became the Title Editor.
“He was on the Editorial board of Nigerian Tribune before he was invited to float Nigeria’s premier Tabloid Newspaper, The Sun Newspaper, which was later changed to Daily Sun. Adesina was the pioneer Title Editor of Daily Sun and he was able to turn the new publication into the toast of avid readers of newspapers in Nigeria with circulating figures in excess of 50,000.
He was rewarded with three rapid promotions first as Executive Director, later Deputy Managing Director and eventually the Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of the publication in January 2014.
“In 2007, he was named the Editor of the Year by the Nigeria Media Merit Award. Adesina is a Pastor in Four Square Gospel Church and an executive member of Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship. He has delivered several papers and published books and articles.
“He contested and emerged the President of Nigeria Guild of Editors and has since won a second term bid, a position he held until his recent appointment as the Special Adviser Media and Publicity to the President.”