How Tinubu’s Aide, Daniel Bwala’s international media interview has embarrassed Nigeria – Atiku’s Media Team

By KEMI KASUMU

In the statement, the group accused Bwala of attempting to “rewrite history” after what it described as an “embarrassing” interview with journalist Mehdi Hasan. The team claimed the interview exposed contradictions between Bwala’s past criticisms and his current defence of the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The Atiku Media Team has issued a strongly worded statement criticising presidential spokesperson Daniel Bwala following his recent international media appearance and subsequent remarks about opposition figures.

In the statement, the group accused Bwala of attempting to “rewrite history” after what it described as an “embarrassing” interview with journalist Mehdi Hasan. The team claimed the interview exposed contradictions between Bwala’s past criticisms and his current defence of the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

According to the Atiku Media Team, it previously declined a request from Bwala to issue a statement alleging threats to his life from President Tinubu and his associates. The group said it rejected the request because it considered the claim “frivolous and opportunistic.”

The statement further criticised Bwala for dismissing earlier remarks about the government as “politics,” arguing that serious national issues—particularly insecurity and the loss of lives—should not be trivialised.

During the interview referenced in the statement, the Atiku Media Team said Bwala was confronted with past comments he made about Tinubu before joining the administration. They alleged he struggled to reconcile those criticisms with his current role defending the government.

The group also accused Bwala of responding to criticisms from civil society organisations and governance monitors by dismissing them as “fake news,” rather than providing evidence to counter the claims.

While Bwala had reportedly said he was willing to appear before interviewers anywhere in the world to defend the government, the Atiku Media Team argued that the issue was not the number of media appearances but the substance of the arguments presented.

Bwala, a former critic of Tinubu who later joined the administration as a spokesperson, has been involved in several public exchanges with opposition figures since assuming the role.

In the statement titled “Weep not for Bwala, Weep for Nigeria” and posted on X handle Paul Ibe, it said, “We have read the latest statement issued by Daniel Bwala in the aftermath of his rather embarrassing interview with a mixture of suppressed disgust and embarrassment — not for ourselves, but for the sheer enthusiasm with which he parades falsehoods as though repetition could somehow elevate them into truth.

“Bwala’s sudden discovery of courage and rhetorical flourish is rather amusing, especially from someone whose political trajectory has been defined less by conviction and more by opportunistic merchandising of allegiance.

“Since he now appears eager to rewrite history, it is necessary to refresh his memory.

“We remain in possession of his message requesting that the Atiku Media Team issue a press statement claiming that President Tinubu and his associates were threatening his life. He was quite insistent that we amplify that narrative at the time. We declined deliberately because we recognised it for what it was: a frivolous and opportunistic attempt at political theatre, consistent with his long-established penchant for turning politics into a marketplace where loyalty is traded like a commodity.

“He should therefore spare Nigerians the moral lectures about courage and conviction. The record speaks for itself.

“His attempt to recast the Mehdi Hassan interview as some heroic act of intellectual bravery is equally amusing. Anyone who watched that exchange objectively saw something quite different. The interviewer methodically dismantled the talking points he came armed with and exposed, one after the other, the contradictions between his past statements and his present posture.

“Bwala was confronted with his own words about President Tinubu — statements he once made with remarkable certainty — only to retreat into the tired refuge that “it was politics.” But it is both wicked and morally bankrupt to dismiss matters of grave national consequence as mere politics. The wastage of thousands of Nigerian lives to insecurity over the past two years cannot be brushed aside with that cynical refrain. To trivialise such human tragedy as “politics” is nothing short of wickedness, an admission of abysmal failure, and sheer madness.

“He struggled visibly to reconcile those statements with his current role defending the same administration he once criticised so vigorously. When confronted with documented criticisms from credible organisations regarding governance failures, he resorted not to evidence or argument but to the lazy dismissal of calling them “fake news.”

“At several points, the interviewer’s persistence reduced his defence of both his principal and the government’s record to a series of evasions and rhetorical detours. What Nigerians witnessed was not the fearless demolition of hostile journalism he now imagines, but the uncomfortable spectacle of a spokesperson struggling to reconcile shifting loyalties with inconvenient facts. In truth, the interview tore through the carefully constructed narrative he attempted to present and left both his arguments and the government’s talking points in tatters.

“Bwala boasts about being willing to appear before any interviewer anywhere in the world. But the challenge is not appearing on every television platform across the globe; the real challenge is defending the indefensible. Even if he were granted a prime interview on Heaven Times, the arguments he would carry there would still collapse under the weight of their own contradictions — half-baked, half-foolish, and wholly unconvincing.

“How does anyone credibly defend a government that has turned forgery into an instrument of statecraft and gathered around itself a nest of professional forgers? And what kind of government hires its former fiercest critic as its media dry cleaner? Predictably, Mr. Bwala did yesterday what he has always done — he did not clean the garment; he tore it.”

Paul Ibe