Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari special adviser, Femi Adesina, has disclosed that the president will not request any newsmen to "kill" stories for him.
The presidential aide said instead of doing that, the government will rather encourage journalists to write stories that will critically study the workings of the administration and provide it with the way forward.
Adesina revealed this at a dinner held for him and other presidential spokespersons by the online publishers.
Also hosted by the publishers were Garba Shehu, presidential media aide and Laolu Akande, vice presidential assistant on media.
As stated by Adesina, the first thing Buhari told him when he took office was: “Always tell me the truth.”
He added: “The President told me: ‘Please do not fail to argue with me.’”
Adesina said Buhari has promised to lead an open and transparent government so much that he would have nothing to hide and would have no cause to want to ask for any story to be “killed”.
Adesina noted that the only thing he asked is that for any news item, the presidency should be given the opportunity to state its side before being put in the public domain.
“There is a saying that one bad coin can spoil hundreds of other coins," he stated.
“My advice is that you should not allow any of your members to use the platform to malign innocent people.
“You should also find a way of sanitising the social media practitioners who just sit in their bedrooms to churn out news without professional touch.”
Also speaking, Shehu appreciated onlie publishers for the support they gave him when he handled the media and publicity department of All Progressives Congress presidential campaign council as director.
He said the campaign was the poorest in terms of resources, “but the richest in terms of people’s goodwill. And the online publishers were the greater part of that process.”