Poor Daniel Bwala. The Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communication was in ecstasy upon being offered a chance to appear on Head to Head, an interview programme on Al Jazeera anchored by British-American broadcaster, Mehdi Hasan. He could not believe his luck that such an opportunity would come on a platter for him to showcase the achievements of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ahead of the imminent campaigns for his reelection in January next year.
Armed with facts and figures, he headed for the interview session, oblivious of what Mehdi, the author of Win Every Argument, had up his sleeve. Unknown to him, his thoughts were on different wave length with those of his host. Bwala had his mind set on highlighting his principal’s accomplishments but soon realised he was in a situation similar to the biblical Daniel’s, the only difference being that rather than being encircled by a pride of lions, he was face to face with one in human skin but no less deadly.
One minute into the programme, the presidential aide’s eloquence vanished, and he gasped for words as Hasan bombarded him with questions from a perspective least anticipated and much less prepared for. Bwala had left home thinking that the interview would be all about his principal but soon found that the session was all about himself. One by one, Mehdi unearthed the some very uncomplimentary remarks Bwala had made about Tinubu while they were in different political camps and Bwala was not only Tinubu’s political opponent but an opposition spokesperson.
In our clime, political culture demands that you run down your political opponent by any means, fair or foul, and Bwala had kept faith with this as a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and mouthpiece of veteran presidential aspirant, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, hauling as much missile as he could at Tinubu and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). In so doing, however, he was oblivious of the fact that we live in a world that is perpetually changing.
After Atiku’s loss of the 2023 presidential race, Bwala had defected to the ruling APC, becoming one of Tinubu’s spokespersons. And to his credit, he has made a good job of defending the the policies and activities of the Tinubu administration at every given opportunity. An appearance on Mehdi’s programme was to be a perfect chance to amplify the high ratings President Tinubu has enjoyed from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other world acclaimed rating agencies.
Unknown to him, an ambush was being laid. A presidential spokesman was being reminded on the global stage about his past statements against the image and reputation of a leader he is now under obligation to market as the next best thing after jollof rice. In the same circumstances, even Adolph Hitler in his oratory prowess would struggle for words. In the end, he returned from the forty-something-minute engagement emotionally damaged.
The easiest defence would be to own up to his past words against Tinubu as a political opponent and make it clear that many of his allegations against Tinubu were fabricated to score political points. This Bwala said he did during the interview but the part was curiously edited out of the skewed version that was aired.
He said: “I have never come across any interview that was conducted after which the TV house, individual or host would go back, take the interview, doctor it, import extraneous videos that were never part of that interview, publish it and tell the world that that was what happened.
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“I have seen many commentaries in the social media saying I was asked the question, I denied and that Mehdi Hasan played my previous comments and I kept denying and denying.
“Unfortunately, that was not what transpired. Questions were asked and answered. Those ones I denied, after the interview ended, Al Jazeera went and did a fresh production of eight minutes version of what they wanted to push.
“In that fresh production, they now went back to research my previous comments and did what they did: cut and join.
“Where in the interview I was asked the question and I answered, since in that interview they did not play the past, what they did now after the interview was over was to go and research comment, picked it and put it on that particular question I answered.”
Be that as it may, the lesson for us all is to be mindful of what we say about others in moments of rivalry or animosity. Times and tide change and, like the famous reggae star Bob Marley said in one of his evergreen songs, your worst enemy could become your best friend and your best friend your worst enemy.
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