‘Rat Invasion Story’ Was Fabricated To Distract Nigerians From Buhari’s Ill-Health Conversation, Says Garba Shehu
Garba Shehu, former presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, has admitted that the now infamous story of rats invading former President Muhammadu Buhari’s office at the Aso Villa was a carefully crafted media spin to divert public attention from concerns about the president’s health at that time.
In his newly launched book, “According to the President: Lessons from a Presidential Spokesperson’s Experience,” Shehu reveals how he deployed a bizarre but effective distraction tactic at a time when Nigerians were increasingly questioning whether Buhari was physically and mentally fit to govern.
It would be recalled that former President, Buhari, had returned to Nigeria on August 19, 2017, after spending nearly three months in the United Kingdom receiving medical treatment.
His prolonged absence had sparked nationwide speculation about his capability.
Upon return to the country, Buhari’s media handlers stated that he would be Buhari would be working from home instead of his official office. In the public eye, this raised red flags about his actual condition and capacity to resume presidential duties.
Faced with a media frenzy and a skeptical public, Shehu said he had to act fast.
In Chapter 10 of the book, titled “Rats, Spin and All That,” he writes about how a casual conversation about cable damage in the President’s office led to a calculated media maneuver.
“In the few hours after the president’s return, I picked up a conversation in the Chief of Staff’s office, where someone speculated that rats might have caused some damage to the unused office cables,” Shehu recounted.
“As the pressure mounted from reporters demanding an explanation for why the president wasn’t resuming work from his office, I leaned into that speculation. I told them that rats may have eaten and damaged cables and that renovations were ongoing.”
“I got calls from several journalists, including from BBC Hausa, asking what kind of rats we had in the Villa,” Shehu said.
“To get them off my back, I invoked memories of the notorious rats of the 1980s that came with the rice armada from Southeast Asia — rats that could allegedly eat anything.”
While some Nigerians laughed off the explanation, others accused the presidency of covering up the president’s true health status. Yet, Shehu says his mission was accomplished.
“At a later meeting, Minister of Information Lai Mohammed and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo asked why I had gone with that story. I told them it was intentional. I wanted the conversation to shift away from the president’s health. In my view, that spin worked,” he wrote.
However, Shehu noted that both officials disagreed with his assessment, saying the distraction had fallen flat.
Buhari spent a good part of his time as Nigerian president travelling overseas for medical treatment with concerns raised severally over his constant absence from leading the country when he was the President.
