{"id":95012,"date":"2025-09-09T22:15:56","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T22:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=95012"},"modified":"2025-09-09T23:44:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T23:44:05","slug":"95012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=95012","title":{"rendered":"Presidential spokesperson allegedly pressures journalist to delete Tinubu criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A WhatsApp message allegedly from Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga has stirred controversy after he privately urged a prominent journalist to delete social media posts critical of President Bola Tinubu.<\/p>\n<p>The journalist, who had referred to President Tinubu as a &#8220;criminal&#8221; in reaction to his recent comments during a speech in Brazil\u2014where the president claimed \u201cthere is no more corruption in Nigeria\u201d\u2014revealed the exchange publicly after receiving no objection from Onanuga.<\/p>\n<p>In the message sent on August 26, Onanuga argued that the journalist had misunderstood Tinubu\u2019s remarks, which he claimed were limited to improvements in the process of foreign exchange access, not a blanket claim about corruption in Nigeria.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"c0KzC1qTvI\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/2025\/09\/08\/dss-pressures-x-corp-to-ban-sowore-over-tweet-targeting-president-tinubu-activist-pushes-back-citing-constitutional-rights\/\">DSS pressures X Corp to ban Sowore over tweet targeting President Tinubu \u2014 Activist pushes back, citing constitutional rights<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;DSS pressures X Corp to ban Sowore over tweet targeting President Tinubu \u2014 Activist pushes back, citing constitutional rights&#8221; &#8212; Everyday.ng\" src=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/2025\/09\/08\/dss-pressures-x-corp-to-ban-sowore-over-tweet-targeting-president-tinubu-activist-pushes-back-citing-constitutional-rights\/embed\/#?secret=aa24jbfzNN#?secret=c0KzC1qTvI\" data-secret=\"c0KzC1qTvI\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou truly misfired,\u201d Onanuga wrote. \u201cI will advise that you delete the contentious post.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The journalist fired back, accusing Onanuga of attempting to police public interpretation of a public statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am surprised that you consider it appropriate to dictate to citizens like me how to interpret what is already in the public domain,\u201d he replied, adding that critics of Tinubu often face harassment by state agencies and political thugs. \u201cYour request reflects not only poor judgment but also the mindset of the principal you represent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He noted that his decades-long relationship with Onanuga\u2014dating back to the days of Tempo, The News, and PM News\u2014may explain the spokesperson\u2019s decision to send a private appeal. However, Onanuga did not respond to a request for consent to make the exchange public.<\/p>\n<p>The incident raises broader concerns about freedom of expression under Tinubu\u2019s administration, especially in a climate where critics allege increasing intimidation by security agencies.<\/p>\n<p>The Presidency has yet to issue an official statement regarding the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A WhatsApp message allegedly from Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga has stirred controversy after he privately urged a prominent journalist to delete social media posts critical of President Bola Tinubu. The journalist, who had referred to President Tinubu as a &#8220;criminal&#8221; in reaction to his recent comments during a speech in Brazil\u2014where the president claimed \u201cthere [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":95014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[5339,170,56],"class_list":["post-95012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-onanuga","tag-sowore","tag-tinubu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/95014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}