Bwala bashing on Al Jazeera: What next?

Loud mouths  and talking heads have, over time, seized Nigeria’s political public space, with the connivance of the media, such that they did not only get away with outrageous false claims, they get handsomely rewarded for them.  And this reinforces their sense of value, of self importance,  as they got sought or they seek and got accommodated on prime time TV and radio interview programmes.  The more controversial, the more attractive for programme  anchors and hosts, especially for television with its powerful combination of sight and sound which allow posturing. Sources and journalists are engaged in the synthetic manufacture of news !  So, except  for Bwala’s ability to attract media attention for his controversial statements and posturing, what other criteria recommended him to be the face of  Nigeria’s public governance before the world ? What are his antecedents, apart for being a political maverick ?  Those who suggested and those who approved Bwala for that role should share in the blame for his poor outing. You almost have a sneaky feeling, especially given his apparent inadequacy for that role as a former Tinubu denigrator,  that it could be a setup for a big fall.

As to Bwala’s understanding of the assignment, he probably took it as a joy ride, a bask in the sun. Had he not dominated the national publicity space in the country?  Ebullient, charismatic Danny Boy, looking so well fed,  apparently primed himself for a showmanship performance  on Al Jazeera.  After all,  TV  generally projects more as an entertainment platform.  This dovetails into how well he was prepared, or he prepared himself, for the assignment.  I learnt he had a video of rehearsals  for the assignment. That , to me, is part of the vanity of his persona. Grandstanding !  But information management is a serious matter -  strategic and calculative . It requires ability at critical thinking, analytical perspectives  and sharp reflexes to logically deflect attacks.      

A brief critique of the interview should provide context. (apology to Bwala)  The  odds were stacked against Bwala as he went ‘Head to Head’ with anchor, Mehdi Hasan.  The title of the encounter  - Nigeria :  ‘ Renewed Hope’ or ‘Hopelessness’, is suggestive of a combative engagement, which should have put Bwala on the alert.  But Bwala was apparently blinded by over eagerness for the privilege of being the point man for the big sell of President Bola Tinubu to the world,  to see the banana peel. How saleable is the product ?   While Tinubu, as a product, cannot be dismissed as bad, viewed contextually, Bwala ,the salesman became a disaster because Mehdi Hasan deftly used his past words  where he projected Tinubu as a tainted product, to destroy his credibility as a defender of that same unedifying product – Tinubu.  For instance, on the issue of drugs, Bwala was quoted to have said  there was still cloud over Tinubu in spite of judicial exoneration.  Bwala was reminded that on Feb. 17, 2023 he stated on Channels TV that the two bullion vans which drove into Tinubu’s Ikoyi residence on election eve carried money ‘ ostensibly’ for vote buying, while on Arise TV on March 2, 2023 he said he couldn’t eat for three days following what he perceived as Tinubu’s underserved victory at the polls. Hasan repeated these words of Bwala on live television three times, apparently for emphasis. When Bwala denied his own words spoken on TV, the audience  at the interview session burst into laughter  while Bwala had a sheepish grin on his face.  It was a relentless tackle by the anchor.

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The presidential spokesman was confronted with his claim that Tinubu and his people set up a militia force to snatch  the election and that they even threatened him. He was also confronted by Hasan on his derisive query about  Tinubu’s age.  Bwala’s response was that he said those things while in opposition !  So, is being an opposition spokesman a licence for blatant lies  and outrageous claims ?  The issue of insecurity came up with statistics showing that  more people were killed in 2025 than in 2024, both on Tinubu’s watch, indicating a worsening security situation.  When Bwala dismissed the statistics  on worsening insecurity as a matter on ‘context’, it drew another round of laughter from the audience.  However, in a  manifestation of Bwala’s illogic  in disputation of worsening insecurity, he admitted that government had to relocate thousands of students from  schools in rural communities to the state capitals due to insecurity !   On Tinubu’s claim that there is no more corruption in Nigeria, Bwala, again,  said it was a matter of ‘context’.

Three panelists  were offered  interventions by Hasan during the interview session.  Tunde Doherty , chairman , APC in UK, sought to defend Tinubu on corruption charges, stressing that he was already a rich man, having worked at Mobil oil, before joining politics.  Ayisha Osori, director, Open Society Foundation  rated the Tinubu administration at 1 on a scale of 1 to 10  on security while Aanu Adeoye , a Financial Times journalist, described  Bwala as the type of stomach  infrastructure politician lacking ideological conviction that Tinubu had always succeeded  in co-opting.We can now interrogate the essence of public affairs interview on television, or any media platform for that matter. There are three main types of interview – spot news interview,  feature interview and public affairs interview, which sometime double as issues  or  personality interview, the type ran by Mehdi Hasan on Al Jazeera. It is a source-media contrivance ,  which Prof. Daniel Boorstin defines as a pseudo-event, deliberately arranged  between source and journalist to generate news  or project a perception that would be of interest to the public. Journalists and sources seek each other out , with the initiative depending on who needed the publicity more. So, Herbert J. Gans describes source-journalist relationship, on one plane,  as ‘’resembling a dance’’, a jolly-jolly affair.  Apparently, Daniel Bwala thought he was going for a dance of amity  with Mehdi Hasan. But Gans also says that source-journalist relationship can be ‘’ a tug of war: where sources attempt to manage the news , putting the best light on themselves  while journalists concurrently manage sources in order to extract the information they want’’.  This creates divergent goals for source and journalist which Bwala, apparently, did not reckon with.

Perhaps, it was the Nigerian government that initiated the interview, on the assumption that it was going to be a public relations affair.  That must be why Bwala, whose intent of a media jolly ride was torpedoed,  decried the interview as an  ambush by Mehdi Hasan, for focusing, unexpectedly, on his past statements about Tinubu. Unexpectedly ? That is an infantile defence, coming from someone, I understand, is a lawyer.

It showed that Bwala  was not well prepared for the interview to have expected his past statements on Tinubu to swept under the carpet. . But for the irresistible allure of global exposure, he should have disqualified himself from that interview, given his antecedents.  No doubt,   the Al Jazeera anchor  was relentless in pinning down Bwala to his past words, to the presidential spokesman’s embarrassment.  But then, distinguished American journalist cum columnist, Carl T. Rowan, who later became U.S. ambassador to Senegal, once posited: There aren’t embarrassing questions – just embarrassing answers. It would, however,   seem that Bwala has an ally in Dr. Reuben Abati,  Arise TV  host,  who said Mehdi Hasan’s conduct  in the interview was in bad faith, while an Arise TV  co-host, Rufai Oseni, countered that it was a matter of style. Bad faith?  Was Reuben privy to the terms of  the presidency’s  engagement with Al Jazeera  which Mehdi Hasan breached  ?  Well, maybe it is a matter of  Aso Rock fraternity, after all, Reuben was also at Aso Rock  Villa as spokesman for the Goodluck Jonathan presidency !!! The Bwala misadventure on Al Jazeera was a national embarrassment for the country at the global level. Going forward, critical thinking must precede these critical decisions, and not be made a whimsy paddy , paddy affair. Information management is strategic, especially at the level of the presidency, and should not be given a cavalier treatment. The prestige of a nation could be at stake.  That Al Jazeera interview  was meant to be a persuasive , positive projection of President Tinubu and Nigeria to the world.  

Greek philosopher, Aristotle, postulated  three rhetorical pillars of persuasion -  ethos (source credibility), logos (logic)  and pathos (emotion) - used to influence audience. Bwala’s encounter with Mehdi Hasan on the ‘Head to Head’ programme destroyed  his (Bwala’s)  credibility as a person of integrity to persuasively promote President Tinubu’s image, the presidency and by extension, Nigeria.  One would like to ask  : What next for Daniel Bwala ?  With the negative exposure he suffered on that  global TV platform, Bwala has not deemed it necessary, with  his integrity deficit,  to relinquish his position and the presidency has not considered relieving him of his duties.  It is a waiting game.

However, with the much  touted legendary, large heartedness  of President Bola Ahmed  Tinubu to accommodate and reward some abusers,  Daniel Bwala,  may, in the spirit of the season,  RESSURECT, triumphantly, as an ambassador or  minister !!!  After all, this is Bola Tinubu’s Nigeria !.Dr. Bisi Olawunmi, Associate Professor, Department of Mass Communication, Adeleke University, Ede, is a former Washington Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) and Fellow, Nigerian Guild of Editors (FNGE) Email: olawunmibisi@yahoo.comPHONE (SMS ONLY) 0803 364 7571.   Monday, April 6, 2026.