President Buhari To Appoint U.S Based Journalist As Osinbajo’s Spokesman (Photo)

Even the V.P doesn't even have the right to choose his own spokesperson.
President Muhammadu Buhari is set
to name a former North American
Bureau Chief of The Guardian, Laolu
Akande, as a Senior Special Assistant
to lead the media and
communication unit in the office of
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo,
PREMIUM TIMES can authoritatively
report today.
People familiar with the president’s
plan said Mr. Akande’s appointment
would be among several others to
be announced Monday or Tuesday.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt that under
the present arrangement in the
presidency, there would be only one
presidential media and
communication office but that
individual appointees would be
given separate responsibilities.
Mr. Akande would be deployed to
work with Mr. Osinbajo, our sources
said.
It is not clear whether the journalist
has returned to Nigeria to take up
the appointment. He could not be
reached on his U.S. telephone on
Sunday.
He was however in Nigeria in May
to cover the inauguration ceremony
for his media agency, Empowered
Newswire. He returned to the U.S.
shortly afterwards.
Mr. Akande, a pastor, was a former
editor of Saturday Tribune. He cut
his journalism teeth at The Guardian
in 1989, and was a foundation staff
of The NEWS magazine.
He moved to the United States in
1997 after agents of then dictator,
Sani Abacha, began harassing him
over perceived critical stance of his
paper (Saturday Tribune) to the
administration.
According to his brief bio on the
website of the CANUSA, a Christian
organization for which he works as
executive director, Mr. Akande is
regarded as “the longest serving
African correspondent at the United
Nations, and the only Nigerian
journalist so far to have interviewed
a sitting American president in the
White House when he interviewed
former President George W. Bush.
“He has also exclusively interviewed
American folk hero, General Colin
Powell, as well as billionaires like
Microsoft founder Bill Gates and
Donald Trump and several African
leaders and presidents.”
An adjunct college professor, Mr.
Akande worked with leading
American newspapers including the
Philadelphia Inquirer, and New York
Newsday.
He worked briefly at the United
Nations as a press officer and later
as advocacy consultant between
2002 and 2004.