The Christianese, “affliction shall not rise the second time”, is an authoritative declaration of an utter end to extreme suffering and perfectly sums up what Ajuri Ngelale, the recently departed Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, represented to the President Bola Tinubu administration.
It has to be stated, though, that hiring Ajuri Ngelale, a paragon of incompetence and a man with narcissistic traits, as a spokesperson was a self-inflicted injury. It was the first affliction.
It was the equivalent of sticking a loaded AK 47 in one’s trousers. Ajuri came to the job with zero or middling pedigree, having never risen beyond the rank of reporter throughout his eight-year spell at both African Independent Television (AIT) and Channels Television. At the two broadcast outfits, he was sacked for poor work ethic, misdemeanor, disrespect to seniors and inordinate ambition.
In HR parlance, his appointment by President Tinubu would be described as a recruitment error. It was a grave error of judgment by those who packaged him for a job his has no competence, capacity, maturity, and qualifications for. For his wobbling and fum one year on the job, Ajuri was a mere impostor who took a job he couldn’t even comprehend, let alone deliver on.
That Ajuri lasted a whole year during which he was also appointed Special Envoy on Climate Action, another role that requires top-tier intellectual and attitudinal qualifications, is a hint of the chaos and dysfunction that dog the Tinubu administration itself. A properly structured office with less appetite for sloppiness and incompetence would have booted him out within three months. A young man who needed grooming and training himself was appointed to advise the President, a senior government role that requires deep intellect, exposure, and experience he clearly lacked. The headhunters in the Presidency have questions to answer.
Professional Pedigree
The job Ajuri had requires a vast media network and hefty deposit of goodwill. He had neither. He was, therefore, a wrong hire from the first day. An aggregate experience of eight years at AIT and Channels Television is a grossly inadequate preparation for the acquisition of vast media network and the scale of goodwill needed to function on the job.
There is no way such low ranking reporter could muster the clout to manage editors, senior journalists and media owners, who are essential and critical success factor for anyone holding the job of a Special Adviser to the President of any country. Ajuri was a product of conspiracy by those who wanted to peddle influence around President Tinubu and were afraid of having strong personalities and people with professional pedigree and integrity.
It was established that Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Defence, Jimi Benson, sold the idea of Ajuri to Seyi Tinubu. Gbajabiamila was not comfortable having Dele Alake in the Villa because he saw Alake as a stronger personality who has a more respectable and influential relationship with the President. He didn’t want to operate as Chief of Staff under Alake’s shadow and with anyone like Tunde Rahman, who had a closer relationship with the President. They plotted against Alake and Rahman in favour of a yes man. It was like buying a poodle when you need a bulldog.
How Ajuri’s honeymoon evaporated
Ajuri came to the Villa with an agenda different from that of his benefactors. Despite coming out in flying colours at being wretched on his job, Ajuri is no multidimensional fool. While those who brought him wanted to use him for decorative purposes, he also planned to use them to gain access. Ajuri was an outsider in the Buhari administration, where he worked in the office of the Vice President as SSA Public Affairs. Those who served in Buhari’s administration said Femi Adesina, Garba Shehu, and Laolu Akande could not tolerate his insolence and delusions.
He was described as a supplanter, who would go anywhere and do anything to undermine his seniors just to get ahead. The Buhari media and communications managers pushed him aside, and Laolu Akande didn’t give him any room to operate inside the VP office. For the five years, Ajuri served in Professor Yemi Osinbajo’s office, he was not allowed to have a desk in the VP’s office. He operated out of the office building of Niger Delta Power Holding. He was not allowed to even travel for one on any official local and foreign trip with Professor Osinbajo.
Not long after he got his job as Tinubu’s SA Media, he started undermining the Chief of Staff. He would take a memo directly to the President against the established protocol, which is to route any communication through the office of Chief of Staff. Gbajabiamila and his team were upset when Ajuri announced appointment of five aides without their knowledge. He reportedly went to lie to the President that he couldn’t work with the media aides of the President he met on ground because he had no control over them.
He also told the President to allow him have his own team that would be loyal to him. Such level of breach of protocol that is possible only in a fractured Presidency. Ajuri finally nailed his own coffin with his self-promotion agenda of Special Envoy on Climate Change with omnibus powers that effectively took over the entire function of the Minister of the Environment, who was justifiably livid about being made irrelevant in government. Ajuri also executed the Special Envoy scheme without the knowledge of Gbajabiamila, who brought him to the Villa. The Minister of Environment reportedly asked Gbajabiamila why he gqve his job to Ajuri. A flustered Gbajabiamila told the Minister that he knew nothing about the Climate Change job and he only saw the press release like anyone.
It was the teeth given to him by Gbajabiamila that he sank into the flesh of the same man and others who got him the job as a presidential spox. The guys who brought him, seeing that he had gotten too big for his breaches, also decided they were going to take him out. He made it easy for them, especially because he was poor at his job.
When it was apparent that Ajuri had no capacity to deliver, President Tinubu tapped his long term ally, Bayo Onanuga to help shore up the floundering media and communication machinery of the Villa. It was same Chief of Staff that sat on the appointment for over two months to protect Ajuri. It was after the UAE Visa, the New York NASDAQ Exchange fiasco, and many other avoidable errors that Gbajabiamila finally allowed Bayo Onanuga to come on board.
A broke and greedy Ajuri
According to Aso Rock Insiders, Ajuri came to the job with a poverty mentality. His ambition was to make tonnes of money. Having arrived broke, he saw the opportunity as one from which he could end up with money pouring out of his ears. He was said to have told people that he was treated badly by Femi Adesina, Garba Shehu and Laolu Akande under the Buhari administration. He said he didn’t make money and could barely pay his rent in Abuja. He spent every day in office scavenging for money, moving from one head of MDA to the other asking for money.
The quest for money made him turn the office of SA Media to President to one that announces appointments, birthdays, and obituaries for prominent people who allegedly pay him for his services. Traditionally, appointments for Heads of Agencies were announced by the office of SGF or supervising Ministry, but Ajuri turned it to a honeypot. He would announce different appointments that can be announced in one single press release in different press releases in a day.
There was a day he issued 15 press releases from around 3pm to 11pm. Some prolificity. He even went on Twitter to announce that he broke the State House record of the highest number of press releases in a single day. What he broke was his own record of ridiculous and frivolous press releases. For the one year he spent on the job, Ajuri went round collecting money from Ministers and other Heads of Agencies in the name of running the Media and Communication of the Villa without the knowledge of other Media aides.
Ajuri’s insecurity and toxicity
Ajuri was very insecure on the job, knowing that he is not qualified for the role ab initio. To cover his insecurity, he fought that the nebulous title of Official Spokesman of the President should be added to how he was addressed. Not high enough on his own supply, he added Chief to his official communications materials and press releases. He demanded that colleagues, State House correspondents and civil servants must address him as Chief Ajuri.
He wouldn’t accept or read any document where his name is not prefixed by Chief. A man hungry for deference should not been seen offering less. However, he called Bayo Onanuga, a man who graduated from university eight years before he was born, by his first name. Ajuri will probably not pass the qualifying test to work in Onanuga’s company, Independent Communication Network Limited, Publishers of TheNews Magazine, Tempo and PMNews. Onanuga is 30 years older than Ajuri and his father’s age mate.
He set the civil servants in his department against each other. He polarized the State House Press Corps and told some of the journalists covering the Villa never to use any statement issued by Bayo Onanuga as he is the sole and official Spokesman of the President. He gave an instruction to the civil servants in the department never to allow any press statement or release issued by Onanuga to be sent out through State Media Media mailing channels. He was a terror to the civil servants, who were afraid of him because they feared he could engineer their posting outside of the Villa.
He was constantly reporting other Presidential media aides to the President, Seyi and Chief of Staff until they all got tired of him and told him to mind his own business.
The final Straw
It was clear that Ajuri came to the government to pursue his own agenda. His five years at the periphery of the Buhari’s government gave him a helicopter view of government and how government platforms can be used for personal gains. He applied himself in that direction. Where he did not apply himself was his job, which he saw only as a means to make money by the shipload and one for glamour. Aso Rock Insiders said when President Tinubu was ready to offload him because of his spectacular failure on the job, he thought that, as a father, he needed to give him a soft landing. This was the reason he allowed his proposal for Special Envoy job. Instead of promoting national interest, he was promoting himself to international interests for personal gain.
As a Media Adviser, he also forgot that his job is to promote the principal and his agenda. However, he was promoting himself in the media without restraint and paying millions for front page picture placements. Ajuri knew that his time was up over a month ago. He started moving around, begging for interventions that would lead to the retention of his job. He was initially given a choice to pick between SA Media and Special Envoy on Climate Action as it was no longer tenable that he would hold two senior positions.
Knowing that it is the SA Media job that can keep him inside Villa, he opted to drop the Special Envoy job. By the time he was ready to retain the media job, the boat had sailed. Nobody wanted him for the media job again because he is clueless at it and has the charisma of a plank of wood.
- Mohammed Gambo
