The tyranny of television (3)

In the encounter with Agbakabo, the latter, upon noticing a certain posturing from, Oseni said: “I am not in court. Don’t cross examine me. I won’t accept that”. Agbakoba had insisted that he was invited for an interview and not to stand trial, pointing out that while he acknowledges the role of journalists in holding leaders accountable, media engagements should be conducted with calmness and mutual respect. Agbakoba’s remarks naturally triggered widespread reactions on interview ethics in the Nigeria media, especially in the television sub-group.

In the other encounter, Oseni in an obviously impolite manner howled at the Isreali Ambassador: “Do Not Interrupt Me”. He made that remark just at the point Mr Freeman wanted to continue with his own responses following a question by Oseni but apparently, the ambassador did not realize that the latter was not done yet. Let us see how one commentator, Mary Efombruh, who watched the show, reacted to that: “Rufai had practically finished speaking. With the number of pauses he took, anyone could reasonably assume there was room to engage. Even if he believed there wasn’t, his tone and body language came across more as someone trying to attack rather than engage… It sounded less like a request and more like an order. Oseni … appeared to be trying to show the ambassador that he understood the subject and could sustain the discussion for longer”.

Read Also:Four days after attack by constituents, Osun Rep member distributes televisions, grinding machines

The commentator then asked: “Why invite a guest and then speak more than the guest? If the intention is to dominate the conversation and draw conclusions alone, then it might as well be a commentary without a guest present. The way Rufai shouted at the ambassador not to interrupt while he himself was doing most of the talking, made it seem like the goal was not an exchange of views but simply to shut the conversation down and arrive at a certain predetermined conclusion”. Of the over three thousand comments that followed that report on the face-off between Oseni and Freeman on Facebook, less than ten were in Oseni’s defence.

Incidentally just the previous day, Thursday March 5, 2026, Doha-based television house, Aljazeera, uploaded an interview it had with the Special  Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communications, Mr. Daniel Bwala, on its popular show, Head-To-Head, hosted by a veteran broadcaster, Mehdi Hassan. The controversy generated by that appearance is so well known that it is needless going into details of the reactions that followed Mr. Bwala’s outing here. In summary, Nigerians, generally, are of the view that Mr. Bwala performed abysmally during the interview.

In the words of one fellow, Nigerians “roasted” Mr Bwala. But, I came up with a contrary view that Bwala showed brilliance and that rather than crucify him, he should be commended for putting up courage in the manner he took some of the questions directed at by Mr. Hassan. Not unexpectedly, I was similarly roasted by over forty people that commented on my article on Facebook. As I write, I am still seeing comments.

Still, I stand by the view I expressed on Bwala’s interview and would even go ahead to add that much of the comments on both Bwala’s outing on Al Jazeera and my own humble opinion had partisan and political undertones. I give just one illustration with the comment by one fellow who was an appointee in the immediate past administration in my state, Imo. Wrote he (names withheld): “Most of you in the APC have lost your shame in the market place. It’s unfortunate that an intellectual like you is saying this because you are serving in a criminal government”. Those conversant with the politics of Imo state since January, 15, 2020 would have no difficulty in understanding where this very commentator is coming from.

Needless to say, it is unfortunate that a section of Nigerians failed to look beyond partisan prejudices in their appraisal of Bwala’s outing; to see that his interviewer, Hassan, was extremely hostile and that he, Bwala, would have still come out badly bruised no matter how brilliantly he performed. Interestingly, most of those who praised Mr. Hassan for inflicting a heavy blow on Bwala and the administration he represents are those who have been complaining about the likes of Rufai Oseni here at home.

Fortunately, a ray of patriotism came from the direction of the highly vocal Segun Showunmi, former spokesman to ex-Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. Mr. Shownmi described the interview under reference as “a public ambush.” According to him, “what viewers witnessed was not a serious interview. It was an attempted public ambush”.

Further highlighting the hostile posturing of the interviewer, Mr. Showunmi added: “Question were framed less as inquiries into governance and more as a prosecutorial trap. Responses were repeatedly interrupted before they could develop and clarifications were brushed aside”.

Showunmi drew attention to one point which, in my opinion, ought to be stressed in order to underscore the lessons that are inherent in these recent episodes; whether from Mehdi Hassan’s Head-To-Head on Aljazeera or from Rufai Oseni’s The Morning Show on Arise Television. He says: “The craft of interviewing …. requires the ability to ask questions while still allowing the guest to articulate answers. Intellectual confidence should permit disagreement without descending to open hostility. That commitment was glaringly absent”.

Even so, more interesting stories are coming up concerning that matter. Bwala has accused Aljazeera of injecting the clips of things he said about President Tinubu when he was in opposition into the interview before uploading it. He further claims that the interview was conducted sometime in February 2006 but was only uploaded on Youtube on March 5, 2006. Besides, the interview, Bwala further claims, lasted for one hour and nineteen minutes but that only forty nine (49) minutes of it was published. He says that at no time during the recording of the interview was he shown any clip of things he said when he was working for Tinubu’s opponents. Apart from demanding that the entire interview be aired, Bwala says he has asked questions far and wide and has been told by those who are supposed to know that it is unethical to inject what was not part of an interview and then go ahead to publish it.

This is an interesting development especially because the reactions of  many Nigerians to what they saw revolved mostly around that part of it where Bwala denied things he said in the past even after the clips had been replayed for him. Nobody knows what Aljazeera will say but if it is true that they never played those old clips for Bwala during the recording of the interview, then that was most unfortunate. What will be even more disheartening; if the allegation turns out to be true, will be the fact that we fell completely for such a scam.

While we wait, it is perhaps pertinent to ask: Who has ever witnessed a live media interview (not a court of law) where the interviewee is told, “you called Mr A. a thief”; he denies it but the interviewer says, “wait, let me play you the video where you did so”. Then he fetches the video and it is played. Where on this earth is that type of journalism practiced? 

We have a handful of Mehdi Hassans here in Nigeria. Apart from Oseni, another vibrant television show host, Seun Okinbaloye, of Channels Television, also is fond of doing more of the talking and stopping his guests half way in their responses on his popular POLITICS  TODAY show.He once told a guest to say, in thirty seconds, what he would do to solve the problem of insecurity and bad economy in Nigeria if he is elected president. Thirty seconds?

I have come across a video on Facebook where Mr Rufai Oseni was dancing with a rider that he has been vindicated. Vindicated? On what account? Please let us not go there. Rather, the Bwala saga should encourage some of our own T.V show hosts to repent. The proprietors of our TV houses should also watch the way things are going. There is a growing convergence between conventional television in our country and the ubiquitous social media. Already some observers now characterize some television shows as mere content creation. They may be wrong but such a perception is disturbing.

This article is not intended to be a mimograph for a journalism class; neither do I think that Mr. Showunmi, even if he were a doyen of journalism, himself, intended to teach anybody his or her job on television. I believe that at the stage where the world is today, there are elementary principles in public engagement which nobody ought to attend a journalism school to understand.