When the epitaph for the Bola Tinubu regime is written, sending presidential spokesman Daniel Bwala to go and represent his boss on Al Jazeera’s Head to Head with Mehdi Hasan must rank close to the top of the most cringeworthy examples of international embarrassment.
While watching Hasan deliver a blow by blow beatdown to Bwala’s unprotected thick skull, I couldn’t help but wonder what motivated the presidential adviser to subject himself to this sort of punishing embarrassment. No one in their right mind would voluntarily agree to step in a ring for nearly an hour with Mike Tyson. But Bwala wasn’t forced to submit himself to this lyrical flogging, as Hasan delivered a serious hiding with a bulala (whip made from cow skin).
One reason for Bwala agreeing to appear must have been typical hubris from Nigeria’s ruling elite, who have become immune from anyone holding their feet to the fire because of chequebook journalism in the country.
It was obvious from the onset that Bwala hadn’t bothered to do his research – something Hasan revels in. If Bwala had conducted a simple Google search, he would have seen videos of Hasan chewing up and spitting out President Muhammadu Buhari and former minister Oby Ezekwesili.
Buhari’s face during that interview about 10 years ago told it’s own story.
Ezekwesili was embarrassed even more by Hasan by the mere fact that Hasan had more time to inflict pain.
By failing to do his due diligence, Daniel Bwala left himself exposed as he went into the lion’s den, an encounter that has since gone viral as a terrible joke. He had no logical answers for questions on insecurity, corruption, the president’s identity and so on. Worst of all, he had no credible answers for his own words when he was a critic of the president’s.
It was pathetic watching him trying the whataboutism that some defenders of criminal politicians in Nigeria usually deploy. Viewers heard there was also crime in London, problems with politicians in the UK and the US, etc.
The putdowns from Hasan and the contempt with which he batted away Bwala’s ridiculous attempts to explain away the dire economic and security situation in Nigeria were only topped by Hasan’s use of Bwala’s previous comments to expose him to ridicule. At one point he was asked “do you agree with Daniel Bwala or not”. The laughter from the audience was more suited for a stand-up comedy show than a political discussion.
Bwala is a laughable embarrassment that epitomises the tragicomedy of Nigeria. A situation in which you have to laugh to avoid crying. This is a country in which the pocket trumps principles, where politics is about “stomach infrastructure” (personal gain) and there is no shame in Bwala’s game of defending the indefensible.
How else would anyone attempt to defend a president that appointed Atiku Bagudu – dictator Sani Abacha’s money launderer – as the minister in charge of budget and planning? Or try to explain away a court in Chicago ordering Tinubu to forfeit nearly $500,000 in his account described as the proceeds of drug trafficking. Or Tinubu’s request for the courts not to release details in his FBI files under a freedom of information request.
Bwala couldn’t even make up his mind whether an increase in deaths from insecurity since the Tinubu regime took over meant that things were getting worse. It was a matter of “context”, he said. The real “context” is actually that he his now living large courtesy of someone he had a long record of criticising, and was now shamelessly trying to distance himself from what he said in the past. At one point, an exasperated Hasan said: “It’s a tragedy I know your words better than you do”.
It’s a bigger tragedy for Nigeria that there are way too many people like Bwala in the country. Nigerians know them well, but still don’t know what to do about them.
