Atiku’s aide tackles Bwala over Al-Jazeera interview outing

Phrank Shaibu, a spokesman to former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has taken a swipe at Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication over what he described as Bwala’s attempt to re-write history following his interview on Al Jazeera.

Bwala, a vocal opposition figure against the ruling party in the early days of President Bola Tinubu before his appointment by the president, mounted a strident defence in favour of the president and his administration during the interview in a posturing many believe was in sharp contradiction to his days before landing his current appointment.

His defence of the President whom he widely and severally criticised in the past was followed by another statement which the aide to Atiku, the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Candidate in 2019, said he read with ‘a mixture of suppressed disgust and embarrassment.’

While Bwala denied ever accusing the president and his associates of threatening his life during his days as an opposition figure on Al Jazeera, Shaibu said his camp is in possession of evidence of Bwala’s allegation against the president.

A statement signed by Phrank Shaibu, Senior Special Assistant to Atiku Abubakar on

Public Communication on Saturday, read in part: “We remain in possession of his message requesting that the Atiku Media Team issue a press statement claiming that President Tinubu and his associates were threatening his life. He was quite insistent that we amplify that narrative at the time. We declined deliberately because we recognised it for what it was: a frivolous and opportunistic attempt at political theatre, consistent with his long-established penchant for turning politics into a marketplace where loyalty is traded like a commodity.

“He should therefore spare Nigerians the moral lectures about courage and conviction. The record speaks for itself.

“His attempt to recast the Mehdi Hassan interview as some heroic act of intellectual bravery is equally amusing. Anyone who watched that exchange objectively saw something quite different. The interviewer methodically dismantled the talking points he came armed with and exposed, one after the other, the contradictions between his past statements and his present posture.

“Bwala was confronted with his own words about President Tinubu — statements he once made with remarkable certainty — only to retreat into the tired refuge that “it was politics.” But it is both wicked and morally bankrupt to dismiss matters of grave national consequence as mere politics. The wastage of thousands of Nigerian lives to insecurity over the past two years cannot be brushed aside with that cynical refrain. To trivialise such human tragedy as “politics” is nothing short of wickedness, an admission of abysmal failure, and sheer madness.”