Richard Elesho
Many do not envy Ajuri Ngelale, the young and urbane Special Adviser on Media to President Bola Tinubu. Nigeria is a country where many people without requisite training, character, and cognate experience lay claim to be information managers.
The advent of social media and the ubiquitous embrace of citizen journalism have further whittled down the sphere of professionalism in the industry. Thus, as he struggles to discharge the duties of his big office, Ngelale is the focus of public scrutiny. Not a few self-styled experts are in a hurry to assess his performance, the way a cane-wielding headmaster beats an erring pupil to line.
Ngelale has recently come under flak over his reportage of the president, with some people accusing him of spewing outright lies and propaganda as he attempts to publicise the activities of his principal. His critics and implaccable foes in their chronicle of his professional gaffes list in their dossier, the purported $600 million seaport infrastructure deal between Nigeria and Danish shipping giant, Maersk, among many others.
Ngelale, had in a statement last Sunday, 27 April, 2024 disclosed that Chairman of A.P Moller-Maersk, Robert Maersk Uggla, reaffirmed the company’s decision at a meeting with President Tinubu on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy for Development in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. An excited Ngelale quoted Uggla as saying, “We believe in Nigeria, and we will invest $600m in existing facilities and make the ports accommodating for bigger ships.” The deal is expected to be a major boost to the nation’s newly conceived blue sea economy.
The investment will serve as good augmentation to the one billion dollars the Tinubu administration plans to pump into port construction in parts of the country.
What passed for an innocuous update and his enthusiasm to report the efforts of the president to woo foreign investors towards injecting life into Nigeria’s ailing economy, however, became controversial days later. The Public Relations unit of the investor disowned the deal. Lloyds List, a global data and analytics website with maritime bias, published the twist quoting a source at Maersk: “No such agreement is in place, and no deals have been signed,” a terse statement was quoted. It acknowledged that “Maersk has been present in Nigeria for 35 years and, as a global provider of logistics services, we remain committed to develop opportunities for growth to people, the port sector and businesses locally. To this extent, it is natural to have an ongoing dialogue with the administration.
“However, we are not able to comment on any investment talks,” the company said. The so-called denial is all that Tinubu’s enemies require to call for Ngelale’s head. Traducers of the president’s media team have accused them of incompetence and deliberate falsehood to mislead and hoodwink Nigerians about the performance of the government.
The presidency has responded with facts and unassailable video evidence to prove its convictions and liberate members of the public. A trending video captioned “caught on tape…” shows that Maersk Terminals Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Keith Svendsen had earlier in February conveyed this intention to Nigeria’s Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Doris Uzoka-Anite, at a meeting about the multi-million dollar investment. Svendsen, reiterated Maersk’s commitment to investing more in Nigeria, and had outlined plans to allocate an initial $100 million, with an additional “half-billion dollars” ($500m) earmarked for port investment in Lagos. The Riyadh narrative was an affirmation of that commitment. Nothing more, and it can not be anything less.
The company may have become circumspect because it is in the process of rendering its first quarter financial report to its stakeholders. Since no documents have been signed to back it up, it would have been inappropriate to brag about the dream mega portfolio. Lloyd’s List alluded to this in its report that the “management is in a regulatory quiet period, limiting what they can say publicly about the company’s activities.” One must situate the so-called denial in that light.
While reacting to several media reports that Maersk denied such a million-dollar investment in Nigeria, Tinubu’s Special Assistant on Social Media, Dada Olusegun, said the company hasn’t denied the FG’s statements. Olusegun, with the username @DOlusegun on X.com, wrote, “The media’s headline choice sparked controversy, not Maersk’s. Maersk hasn’t contradicted or denied the Federal Government of Nigeria’s statements.”
For the president’s media handlers, the Maersk’s controversy has its positives. It is a lesson on how not to report executive affairs. Yes, a public communicator needs to be prompt, but he must also avoid the ever-present temptation of hasty judgement in whatever form it may appear. This is particularly so for Ngelale, who has received a barrage of condemnation before.
Remember the United Arab Emirates visa-lifting drama and the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations, NASDAQ Bell claims. Not minding the fact that his pitfalls are usually linked to events that take their roots in foreign lands.
At 37, Ngelale is among the youngest minds in the president’s team. President Tinubu, his employer who has been a media entrepreneur himself, must have identified specific strengths in the young man before entrusting him with his present assignment. In a way, indeed, Ngelale represents the youth demography and a renewed hope of the “not too young to run” mantra. He cut his media dentition in reputable broadcast establishments and has not done badly in his previous public sector outings. Who says he can not excel in his current assignment? Certainly, it is too early to throw him under the bus.