ALEX CHUKWUEBUBE C.
Not many people were happy with the appointment of the Special Adviser and Spokesperson to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Policy Communications, Bwala Daniel. There is no doubt that lawyer, public speaker and former Spokesperson to People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) 2023 presidential flagbearer, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar faced stiff opposition, especially prior to the day he was announced as an appointee of the Renewed Hope administration. It was a very thick plot which has refused to abate even till this day.
The Borno-born public affairs analyst, Daniel Bwala, brilliant, sager, eloquent, and known for his finesse in the art of communications has over the years carved a niche for himself. Not many are able to see what an asset he is except with those who are discerning. Thankfully, President Tinubu also renowned for his penchant to discover talents belongs to the latter group – he has a knack for discovering eggheads – and in the case with Bwala, he did not miss it too.
Prior to his appointment, Bwala had worked tirelessly for then Asiwaju Tinubu’s candidacy at the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primaries held on June 6, 2022. For those who have followed his activities very keenly, he did work his arse off canvassing for Tinubu as the better candidate for the ruling APC among other presidential wannabes (sic). He was everywhere possible – social media, traditional media, carrying Tinubu’s candidacy on his head like a lanky man struggling to sell a piece of Gala in the ever-busy Lagos traffic on a typical sunny day.
It got to a stage when the powers that be back then from the north plotted an abracadabra with a northern presidential candidate to succeed Muhammadu Buhari. Then Senate President, Ahmed Lawan was packaged as Buhari’s preferred candidate by the Abdullahi Adamu-led All Progressives Congress (APC). Man did not even give a hoot about his own region. He stuck his neck and stood with Asiwaju Tinubu through thick and thin. Victory came and what happened, happened. It could have been anybody.
In this country, Nigerians saw how founders of prominent Pentecostal churches provided their pulpits as campaign platforms because of the M-M ticket. And for a man who considered his people as endangered species of many decades, akin to other minority Christians from the north, he could not have acted differently. Albeit, arguably too, emotion may not have a place in politics. However, every homo sapiens has got emotions in them and it will at some point play its part no matter how careful one is.
Mr. President today did display emotions at some point. It is incontrovertible that his emotions were high when he made that historic statement of EMILOKAN in far-away Ogun State. He knew the odds were against him. The establishment. The party. Power brokers and even many of his mentees were very much against his ambition. So, emotion is part of human idiosyncrasies. President Tinubu knows this quite well. He is a master in the game after all. So, when Daniel Bwala left to join the opposition candidate, Atiku Abubakar of PDP, he (Tinubu) did not take it personally. He knew it was all politics.
As a man that is always futuristic, Tinubu knew he was going to win the presidential poll. Of course, he said it. “We will vote (during the election) and we will win.” Those were his exact words during the campaigns. He also knew what capacity Bwala had (and still has). He knew he needed him badly in his government. And as a political strategist not given to emotions when it comes to getting results, he needed a Bwala working closely with him. When the opportunity presented itself on Bwala’s visit after he assumed office, President Tinubu did not mince words before inviting him to work for his government on this first visit.
Bwala’s first visit to President Tinubu opened ‘flood of’ other visits while even still in the opposition. A very rare opportunity some of his cabinet members did not even have. He met him in France. He met him in King of Saudi Arabia among other meetings he had with him in the State House. This overtly did not go down well with many of his appointees, especially those in Tinubu’s communications team in the Villa and particularly with the exit of then Special Adviser on Media & Public Affairs, Ajuri Ngelale who took leave of absence on medical ground.
Their worst fear came like a tornado when on November 14, 2024, Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Information ad Strategy announced Bwala as the Special Adviser, Media and Public Communications (State House). There on, envy, enmity, jealousy, and rivalry deepened ever after. Today, Bwala works in Mr. President’s communication team but largely as a ‘lonely Londoner’ – a one-man ‘mopo’ so to speak. It became even more evident recently when he had to go to the United States in the midst of the propaganda of a non-extant Christian genocide.
Sadly, and very distastefully, with all the accolades and encomiums coming the way of Daniel Bwala in the way he has so far diplomatically engaged the international media platforms to push back the wicked narrative amplified by the reprobates – IPOB and their United States accomplices – the Republican congressmen and women over the fake narrative, they find it difficult to escalate and spread his engagements across media blogosphere, as if Bwala were working for himself, but not a principal that brought all of them together.
Today, not even a single member of Mr. President communications team engages or shares Bwala’s interviews with international media outfits. Meanwhile, it is this same Bwala who has been taking bullets for President Tinubu across all platforms while they bury their heads behind their various cocoons, drawing monthly salaries and other official perks. Bwala is treated like a persona non grata, but in all of these shenanigans, man does not seem bothered. He is one always a happy-go-lucky dude.
Whether on not they like Bwala, history will be kind to him as one-man battalion pushing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope agenda as a true hierophant.
ALEX CHUKWUEBUBE C.