Minister of Communication, Abdul-Raheem Adebayo Shittu is a distinguished lawyer besides being a politician. But not many know that his first love, the course he first applied to read, was Mass Communication – through which he had hoped to ultimately become a journalist by profession. The revelation on how he missed the opportunity of becoming a journalist was made by Barrister Shittu himself, when he formally met journalists specialising in reporting and covering the Information and Communications Technology industry in Lagos on Monday February 8, 2016. He was giving some background to why he was three hours late to the event, which was originally scheduled for 3.30pm. Here are his comments:
I applied to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, which was then the only university admitting people through prelim to read Mass Communication. Unfortunately, I was not admitted and that was what saw me out of journalism; otherwise, I would have been a professional journalist today because that was my first love.
My coming to Lagos was supposed to be a two day event; today and tomorrow. We were to end it tomorrow about 5pm.
Unfortunately, a lot of things have changed because the Senate insisted that we must appear to defend our budget tomorrow by 1 o’clock. That affected all our arrangements and we had to rush a whole lot of things and that partly explains our lateness to this place.
When I came in, the first thing I did was apologise, though informally. I am now again apologising formally. I know you have a lot of engagements but you had to wait for me out of love for me or probably out of the realisation that the job I have to do is everybody’s job; it’s your job. I am there on behalf of you and on behalf of all Nigerians; if I fail, I will collect my salary but the job will remain undone.
So, please, appreciate that coming here late is not due to disrespect for the gentlemen of the press but because of the exigencies that we have several masters all over the place. The National Assembly gives orders and it is easy for us to be blackmailed because they told me frankly that if I don’t come, I should not blame them if my budget gets messed up.
What do I do in that circumstance?
So, bear part of the burden of having to be summoned tomorrow against previous arrangements. I am here for Nigeria; you are working for Nigeria and I am working for Nigeria. We have a mutual duty to continue to make sacrifices for the greater good of our country.
Once again, I apologise for coming late.