A man posing as Senior Special Assistant (Political Matters) to President Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock Presidential villa, Abuja, has been disowned by the Special Adviser to the President on media and publicity, Femi Adesina.
The man whose name was given as Gideon Samani, issued a statement yesterday to the effect that President Buhari is shy around women and was published by a national newspaper today.
Samani was said to have attributed such shyness as being responsible for a few slots Buhari has so far given to women in his government.
Reacting, Adesina described such description of the President as totally fallacious.
“The subsequent attribution of the supposedly “low number” of female ministerial nominees to President Buhari’s alleged shyness around women is therefore baseless and a figment of the imagination of the said Mr. Samani, who was falsely described as the Senior Special Assistant (Political Matters) to President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The assertion by the alleged Presidential Aide that President Buhari is “very shy dealing with the opposite sex” because “he has been interacting mostly with men,” was received by the President with shock and consternation.”
Adesina made it clear that there is no Senior Special Assistant, Political Matters, in the office of the President for now “and Mr. Samani who was said to have spoken as the Representative of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation at a public function yesterday, is not an aide of the President.
“Mr Samani is certainly not an official spokesman of the President. Therefore, he could not have spoken on behalf of President Buhari, who is the President of all Nigerians, men and women alike.”
The Presidential spokesman stressed that Buhari has a wife, many daughters and female relatives whom he loves dearly.
Adesina then asked, how then could President Buhari, who had a mother that he adored, be shy in the company of women, to the point of allegedly not appointing them into public offices, on account of not being comfortable in their company.
“Nigerian women can be assured that the President holds them in the highest esteem and will always give them due consideration in the discharge of his official responsibilities.
“The statements attributed to Mr Samani are untrue and unauthorized. They should therefore be disregarded.” [myad]
