Bayo Onanuga, a veteran journalist and presidential media adviser, has ignited a firestorm with his dismissive remarks about hunger and insecurity in Nigeria. On a television program last week, Onanuga declared, “I don’t see the level of hunger people are talking about,” and suggested media coverage of kidnappings and terrorism is exaggerated. His words have struck a nerve, echoing a long history of public figures who have lost touch with the suffering of ordinary Nigerians.
Onanuga’s comments are a stark departure from his past as a fearless journalist who fought military autocracy. In 1992, he resigned from African Concord magazine rather than apologize to General Ibrahim Babangida for a critical cover story, declaring journalism’s duty is to cause leaders sleepless nights. Now, as an adviser to President Bola Tinubu, he dismisses the plight of the very people he once championed.
The Yoruba caution against mixing tetè, an edible vegetable, with dagunró, its harmful counterpart. Onanuga, once a defender of the people, now appears to have confused the two. His advice that civil servants earning ₦70,000 should take “side jobs” violates Nigeria’s Public Service Rules, and his claim that hunger is a media fabrication belies the reality of soaring food prices and widespread poverty.
This is not the first time a Nigerian official has been struck by Olúbọbọtiribọ, the god of the mouth. Umaru Dikko, a minister under Shehu Shagari, famously said he couldn’t believe Nigerians were hungry because they weren’t eating from dustbins. Colonel David Mark declared “telephone is not for the poor.” First Lady Oluremi Tinubu recently suggested women start frying akara or roasting corn to cope with economic hardship. Each remark was met with outrage, yet the pattern persists.
Onanuga’s fall from grace is a cautionary tale. The same fire that consumed Tafawa Balewa, who dismissed Western Region violence as contrived, now threatens the Tinubu administration. As Festus Adedayo writes, the graveyard of political power is filled with those who failed to propitiate the mouth deity. Onanuga, once a hero of the press, now stands accused of stabbing the Nigerian people in the back.
