Long before his disastrous Al Jazeera outing, presidential spokesman, Daniel Bwala had convinced himself some of his Villa colleagues have always had it in for him since he was invited to ‘come and chop’ in the Tinubu administration after ceaselessly attacking it as opposition spokesperson. Some lunch can lurch and awoof (freebies), they say, dey run belle.
Bwala was so certain he has always had a target on his back that he confided in a couple of sympathetic ears around the power corridors that not only was he being undermined by colleagues in the collegiate media arrangement projecting Mr. President, but that they have been going as far as sponsoring negative stories about him in the mass media, to make him a drag on the administration’s messaging.
While he didn’t provide evidentiary support to back his allegations, the rush with which Nigerian mainstream media especially columnists and commentators have been outdoing themselves to hang him out to dry after the interview fiasco, would suggest what the Yoruba will describe as “hand-touching-hand situation. Did someone somewhere actually outsource his grievances against the voluble fellow?
When suspicion is suffocating but evidence is scant, Yoruba race will tip the scale in favour of the yet-proven, with “o jo gate, ko jo gate, o fi ese mejeji tiro gate gate”, (hey, how does one correctly capture this in English)? The closest effort would be “if it is looking like it, then maybe it actually is”. There is a reason proverbs belong to the elders.
The assumptive conclusion above, isn’t difficult to reach. Bwala, by his calling as a public relations practitioner, regardless of who he is projecting, is assumed a member of the Nigerian media/PR confra, and don’t they say dogs no dey follow chop fellow dogs. Yes, not all the knives that came out for the interview were for Bwala; Hasan the interviewer also “collected” here and there but the Nigerian media community simply took their own to the Golgotha and literally fed him to the dogs. For whatever is his sin, I personally sense an overkill and seeming deep closet hatred from quarters that couldn’t come out swinging against him, now going through hirelings and friends doing the savagery for old time sake. They should let Bwala breathe.
I have never met Bwala but he has a persona that can easily annoy and breed hatred towards his person. Maybe he does it on purpose to appear a tough customer to deal with and the desire to clip him, possibly drove Hasan to those extremes. Personally, I abhor his combative, pompous style and the moment he started doing what the Yoruba will describe as the opposite of “awo lu ma te” (a stranger not falling into disgrace being boundary-conscious), when he joined the presidential media team, I sensed trouble for him. Yes, he demonstrated poor judgement and low native intelligence at entry point by declaring self the main spokesperson, but does anyone really believe he just woke up to go rile those on ground before his coming, with some abrasiveness? I doubt. Someone must have told him he was the main man after Ajuri’s exit, but his poor understanding of human relational got him burnt. The Holy Bible admonishes the one in enemies’ midst to watch and pray. For Bwala, the president’s old nemesis to be appointed ahead of those that worked “head and neck” to elect the president, there should be no assurance of any kind, including presidential, that should get him swaggering into the job the way he did and it is just fair that he collected anyhow for behaving anyhow. After the presidential public reproach of his anyhowness upon resumption, (the Yoruba will say o tele basu basu) has presumably put him in his place, still making him a marked man within the system, would amount to complex on the part of others. Is he likely a threat to some, over there or some can’t live down the anger of him being positioned as their equal or even over and above them, despite forever on the president’s side, including when they had to protect him from Bwala’s darts as opposition spokesperson?
If something appears precarious, my people would admonish checking the superstructure. The amukun (lame) proverbial sloping load in the Villa media fiasco, wobbled from the father (the president) who is using a bean cake to mop the rivulet of tears from multiple wailing children. Even in chiding Bwala for trying to punch beyond his weight class when newly hired, the supposed adult in the room was still gaming the emotions of his men, naming a tripartite media team; working a collegiate system and still without a clear leader! It means he is being deliberately polarizing, for whatever reasons. Of course, if you refused naming a captain for a ship, it would be rudderless!
But the style isn’t strange to his orbit, especially those who grew politically with him in Lagos. They told me the style is known as “parallel”. One of them said “Bola Tinubu will never send you on an errand without paralleling it”, meaning at least one other person is on the exact errand for him! At times, it is said they could be three, depending on what he plans to achieve. Learnt the style is meant to ensure nobody holds him to ransom on any matter. But as insightful and resourceful as the idea, or even result-oriented, it doesn’t appear to be serving the Villa media purpose. If someone thinks some fellows have put a target on him, he will surely fight back to stay “alive”. While Bwala certainly fumbled the interview with needless denials (in a preserving internet age) and embarrassed syntax deconstruction and deployment (which could happen to any fidgeting liar sweating under the armpit), his immediate colleagues not rushing to his defence is the clearest indication the Villa media team is sick and both the diagnosis and prognosis point in the direction of one man as the virus and the cure; President Bola Tinubu.
When I see a problem, I like tracing the root(s); so one doesn’t leave leprosy to treat scabies. I sought to understand how the president’s media team functions. Learnt that in principle, Oga Bayo Onanuga, who has succeeded in imposing himself on the void left by Ngelale’s inglorious exit, should be the clearing house for the kind of approval that landed Bwala in London and Al Jazeera’s lair. But in practice, it is reportedly a disparate world where everyone can secure his own approval once the disposition is right (I’m actually trying to micromanage words here). So no one in the real sense of it, regulates anyone! It is the world of Tinubu’s “parallel” logic!
Though I don’t gamble (not even lucky dip or promo), I can wager that the Bwala Al Jazeera embarrassment is just a trailer for a multiple-seasoned movie that an uncle of mine who though a redeemed pastor, will chronicle as “won ni le wo tan” (endless drama), especially when the president’s re-election campaign is fully throttled. If you want to scare a dog off bone, it won’t matter even if you are the owner. A man feeling undone and hard done by, could fight anyhow. Remorse for fighting wildly and blindly, won’t be a priority when trying to salvage. If the president who without doubt is the architect of the problem, will listen, it is in his best of interest, to fine-tune things quickly. His “parallelism” philosophy may spectacularly fail him at crucial moments.
I have seen Bwala trying to salvage what is left of his relevance after Mehdi put it in tatters, by taking a baseball bat to the media platform and his nemesis. I hope he is equally looking in the mirror and promising to be better than the him that went to London to disgrace self and his employer who also deserved the humiliation. Beyond personal humbling, Bwala is also being blamed administration-wide for setting the narrative back, considering the argument that before the nonsensical London “intervention”, the media team was close to putting the torrid tale about the president’s alleged cloudy past, in the past, to focus on the gains of his undeniably excruciating reform agenda. The overriding sentiment around the power corridors is that he should be grounded if his service will be retained. Now, thanks to Bwala, stories about killer squad, bullion vans, billions spent on vote buying, massive election rigging and the Chicago affairs, are all back in play, even before the commencement of campaign and I say, serves the president right. Many want Bwala cancelled but I doubt the president will go beyond pulling his ears as long as those pulling strings for him, still have the president’s ears. Government is about interests converging at convenient points. A minister was deemed dull on the job but he is an untouchable because of the gatekeeper that donated him to the Tinubu administration. Somewhat, he seems to be coming alive in recent months.
For those slaying Bwala for jumping ship, the reality is that “come and chop” didn’t start with him and won’t end with him and his kind like Reno. Sunday Afolabi as interior minister famously ribbed his former gubernatorial boss, Bola Ige for accepting to be minister in Obasanjo’s first term cabinet. Of course, Ige was too pungent to allow such snide slide. Both are late now. The man who invited both to “come and chop”, though Afolabi would be deemed to have worked for his appointment for ensuring the nomination and eventual election of Obasanjo, is still being Ebora Owu at official 89 years. Life isn’t always a “parallel”. Hopefully Bwala has been cured of his hubris and even our Father in heaven, is God of multiple chances. Like the prodigal son, Bwala’s own should embrace him.
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