Emmanuel Bwala
By Abdullahi Yelwa
Barrister Daniel Bwala recently unveiled himself before the Villa Press Corp as the Presidential Spokesperson at a rather brief and uneventful ceremony.
Many saw the appointment coming. The growing post election affinity between President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the former spokesperson for the Atiku Presidential campaign, had for long stirred suspicion and premonition that something was afoot.
Since the swearing in of President Tinubu, there had been snipets of PR activities, suggesting a new realignment between the two. Severally, Bwala had spoken as the unofficial spokesperson of the Villa, commenting on issues considered too politically sensitive and weighty for the official Spokesperson of the President, Bayo Ananuga to partake.
Now it has been made official. He has been appointed the Special Adviser, Media and Public Communications to the President for State House.
When Bwala suddenly decamped from APC to the PDP in the run to the 2023 Presidential election, many had viewed his action with suspicion, especially after reports emerged that he had had a brief meeting with Tinubu abroad.
He nonetheless, immediately found his way into the inner circle of Atiku’s presidential campaign, flying abroad with Atiku and actively engaging in critical strategy sessions.
Bwala went on to be an effective Atiku attack dog against Tinubu. When he was ditching Tinubu for Atiku, he had chosen a then potent political sentiment to justify his action. The APC had at the time decided on a Muslim-Muslim ticket for the presidential contest.
This decision had erked the sensibility of many Northern Christians who believed that the VP position should have gone to one of them in the spirit of the tradition of fair religious balancing of the presidential ticket.
Leading Northern Christian politicians, like the former Speaker of the House Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara and former Secretary to Government of the Federation, Engineer Babachir David Lawal had left the APC in protest.
Bwala is, however, yet to explain to the nation what had changed to justify his return to Tinubu’s fold, with the Muslim-Muslim presidency still in place in the Villa.
His appointment, as expected, had drawn sharp criticism, especially from within the Tinubu political family. Many of them have wondered why Bwala who had during the campaign referred to Tinubu as drug Baron, unworthy of Nigeria’s highest office, should be engaged as a presidential spokesperson by President Tinubu.
Mr Jesutega Onokpasa, a leading member of the Tinubu inner circle and a “BATist”, has expressed outrage over Bwala’s appointment, describing it as an act of betrayal from President Tinubu.
“It’s such a shame, you stabbed all of us in the back,” he said, referring to President Tinubu.
He further alleged that Tinubu had betrayed his arch supporters. “You attack Yahaya Bello, you attack Rufai, you abandoned Fani Kayode,” he queried.
Bwala has come to his new office with multitudes of controversies and baggages, most of them about his past.
At personal level, he had built a public affairs imagery of being unreliable and often self serving. For instance, there are many in the Atiku campaign who, regardless of his attacks on Tinubu during the campaign, considered him as a Tinubu mole planted in their midst.
Again, the appellation of “former spokesperson to the Atiku campaign”, regularly used in reference to his relationship with Tinubu, inadvertantly serves as a constant reminder of his betrayal of both Tinubu and Atiku.
There’s also the big elephant in the room in the Tinubu media ecosystem. The power struggle that ended the tenure of his predecessor in office, Ajuri Ngalale may still end his tenure if he fails to read the handwriting on the wall or attempts to contest power and influence with Bayo Onanuga.
While his link with Tinubu may be purely personal and tactical, Onanuga’s is institutional, deeply rooted in the Southwest dominance of the Nigerian media. Though it may be politically correct to have people from other ethnic groups, like Bwala and Ngelale occasionally handling press affairs for Nigerian leaders, the Yorubas have long considered it a right, moreso now that a Yoruba man is President.
From Doyin Okupe in 1999, spokespersons to the Presidents of Nigeria: Oloremi Oyo, Segun Adeniyi, Ima Niboro, Reuben Abati, Femi Adesina and now Dele Alake, are all from the Southwest.
Bwala must also deal with the competition that may come from the office of Special Adviser to the President for Media and Public Communications, located in the Ministry of information, Mr Sunday Dare.
Bwala’s appointment, however, have its own supporters. The former majority leader of the Senate, Mohammed Ali Ndume, has praised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for appointing Daniel Bwala as Special Adviser on Media and Public Communications, describing it
as a rare “demonstration of large-heartedness in leadership, a quality that is difficult to find in many leaders today.”
Ndume, however, advised Bwala to seek forgiveness from the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, whose appointment made him leave the APC because he is a Muslim.
“You should also learn from Sunday Dare and Onanuga who are long and loyal associates of Tinubu who always defend the policies of Mr President without being abusive and offensive.”
Though Bwala at his unveiling had pleaded that his appointment should be about the President and President only, his past had made his new portfolio mostly about his own person and past.
As much as he wished his past utterances, especially against his now new employer, to remain in the real of the past, the past sometimes can be a boomerang that often returns to sender.
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