According to an adviser to Atiku Abubakar, President Bola Tinubu hired around 15 media aides with the express purpose of spreading false information as a state policy and diverting Nigerians’ attention away from the severe suffering that his administration had inflicted upon them.

Phrank Shaibu, Atiku’s special assistant for public communication, claimed in a statement on Sunday that the false information about the United Arab Emirates easing its visa ban was only the “tip of the iceberg”.

He pointed out that Tinubu has always conducted himself in this manner, even when he was governor and party leader.

“From information available to us, Bola Tinubu is set to push propaganda to overdrive as he heads out for the United Nations General Assembly.

“He will claim to have attracted foreign investments amounting to $100bn but will fail to provide key details. It is all propaganda. It is all a load of baloney.

“In India, he claimed they had received pledges of over $14bn just as his predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari, claimed in 2018 that he had secured pledges of up to $6bn. This is nothing but audio investments.

“Last month, the NNPC claimed to have obtained a loan of $3bn with which it would help stabilise the naira.

“We raised the alarm that it was all a ruse to deceive Nigerians. Now, we have been justified as the naira is now approaching $1/N1,000 on the black market.

“After his trip to the UAE, Tinubu claimed the visa ban had been lifted immediately. Now, they have shifted the goalpost after the UAE authorities revealed that the news was false. This is the sort of embarrassment Nigeria will continue to attract in this season of balablu.

“The report by FTSE revealed that Tinubu’s so-called FX unification policy was failing and Nigeria was degraded from frontier market to unclassified.

Having failed to bring economic rebirth, he has now recruited over 15 media aides instead of recruiting more economic experts.

“His list of media aides include: Ajuri Ngelale (Special Adviser Media and Publicity); Tunde Rahman (SSAP Media); Tope Ajayi (SSAP Media and Publicity); Abdulaziz Abdulaziz (SSAP Print Media); Otega Ogara (SSAP Digital/New Media);  Segun Dada (SAP Social Media); Nosa Asemota (SAP Visual Communications); Sunday  Moses (PA Videography); Taiwo Okonlawon (PA State photography); Moremi Ojudu (SAP, community engagement southwest); Tanko Yakasai (SAP, community engagement northwest); Chioma Nweze (SAP, community engagement southeast)., Abiodun Essiet (SAP, community engagement north-central); Abdulhamid Yahaya Abba (SAP, community engagement northeast); Emmanuella Eduozor (SAP Multimedia content production). This is apart from the minister of information and others appointed in the ministry to drive the propaganda agenda.”