The ambition of Ima Niboro, the feisty Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Nigeria's president Goodluck Jonathan to remain in office ended today as he was sent packing by his principal shortly after Mr. Jonathan concluded the swearing-in of the first batch of ministers today at a brief ceremony at the presidential villa. Mr. Niboro personally confirmed his departure to SaharaReporters this afternoon.
The ambition of Ima Niboro, the feisty Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Nigeria's president Goodluck Jonathan to remain in office ended today as he was sent packing by his principal shortly after Mr. Jonathan concluded the swearing-in of the first batch of ministers today at a brief ceremony at the presidential villa. Mr. Niboro personally confirmed his departure to SaharaReporters this afternoon.
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SaharaReporters broke the news on June 30 of Mr. Niboro's imminent removal from his position by Mr. Jonathan. At that point, Mr Niboro had yet to be officially informed, but instead of accepting the possibility of his being replaced, Mr. Niboro sponsored incendiary counter-reports on the matter from Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. He was there as part of Mr. Jonathan’s delegation to a meeting of the African union.
Mr. Niboro sent those reports to online news platforms sympathetic to him. In addition, he got Daniel Idonor of Vanguard to syndicate a news item entitled “Niboro's office not vacant—Presidency” in what partly played out over 48 hours as an ethnic battle. Mr. Idonor is the Vanguard correspondent at the Presidential villa and Chairman of the State House Correspondents chapel there. He is Urhobo, the same ethnic group from which Mr. Niboro hails.
The now-fired spokesman tapped into that ethnic support by reaching out to the Minister of the Niger Delta, Godswill Orubebe to fight against his removal. Mr. Orubebe is also from Delta, Niboro’s home state.
The nasty media war, in which SaharaReporters was cast as part of a conspiracy for reporting a story, failed to save Mr. Niboro’s position today as he was seen at the presidential villa packing out. It is not known if he will be re-appointed to another position by Mr. Jonathan.
With the removal of Niboro, Jonathan may finally be set appoint Rueben Abati, the Chairman of the Editorial Board of The Guardian, as his new spokesperson. The Senate has already approved 20 Special Assistants for Mr. Jonathan. Mr. Abati faces the intriguing prospects of his speaking for an administration that he has routinely criticized either as both columnist and editorial writer. In recent times, however, he penned a 10-part piece that was seen as conciliatory to Mr. Jonathan.
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