Top inside sources close at Presidency have described as false, claims by an online news medium that the Nigerian Government paid a United States (US) public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard, the sum of $40, 000 to facilitate interviews with US Cable News Network (CNN) for President Goodluck Jonathan.
The Presidency source said the idea was purely a private initiative that has nothing to do with either the Presidency or the Federal Government as the Media Department of the President has been solely responsible for all interview arrangement with local and foreign media.
“Any foreign firm claiming to have either been hired, engaged, contracted or paid directly by the Presidency of the Federal Government for any interview arrangement is not true as no such arrangement exist,” a source knowledgeable with media arrangement in the Presidency said.
The source who does not want to be named as he is not authorized to speak on the issue said all the interviews Mr. Jonathan had with CNN in
2010/2011 were arranged directly with CNN and not through any agency, adding that, “if such even exist, it will purely be a private arrangement.”
The Presidency source said “it is ridiculous for anybody to say that the Federal Government spent one dollar to facilitate CNN interview with President Jonathan”.
“No government official has paid any firm to help the government facilitate any interview for Mr. President. The story is false, malicious and designed to tarnish the image of the president,” the source said emphasising that “all the interviews Mr. President had with CNN in
2010/2011 were all arranged by the president’s media department”.
Recalling the involvement of Fleishman-Hillard with the government in the whole issue, the source explained that some friends of the president in 2011 approached a Nigerian firm, to help arrange a series of events for the president while he was attending the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. It was this company that brought in the US firm as consultants. The entire arrangement however fell through because there was just no room in the president’s schedule to accommodate the programme drawn up by the outfit.
According to the source “I can vividly recall that the said firm waited for a couple of days to see the president but they could not and at the end of the whole thing, they were not even able to schedule any activity for Mr. President. The entire arrangement was a private arrangement and had nothing to do with the government.”
The source lamented that ” a few individuals who see nothing good in government are those peddling this rumour. Whatever happened with Fleishman-Hillard was entirely a private initiative”.