President Bola Tinubu’s Special Advisor on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has disclosed what he thinks what ‘sent’ to him by Obidients after he was grilled in an interview by popular journalist Mehdi Hasan.
Recall that Bwala, after that high-profile interview with Mehdi Hasan of Al Jazeera, was on the end of a lot backlash online after he kept denying video evidences in which he, prior to Tinubu’s 2023 switched from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress, called him a drug lord, corrupt, and unsuitable to rule.
Citing reports from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, Hasan also questioned Bwala on Nigeria’s worsening security situation. Bwala acknowledged that he lacked information to refute the statistics.
However. Bwala has revealed that he had to go for a throat surgery after the interview because he felt like something could have been thrown at him by Obidients.
Bwala revealed the information on News Central’s “60 Minutes with Mr. Kay” on Friday, April 10, as monitored by ENigeria Newspaper.
“Eight days after the interview with Mehdi Hasan, I underwent surgery on my throat. I don’t know whether it is the ‘Obidient’ people that threw that African thing, but in any case, I’m back and strong,” Bwala said.
The presidential advisor called “Obidients”, whom he thinks are only social media users, of putting their political allegiance ahead of the interests of the country.
“I know the environment I come from; it’s an environment where there exists a species of ‘Trojans’ of social media called the ‘Obidient,’ who do not care about the national interest or the security of Nigeria and will do everything possible to achieve the aim of their hero, no matter the cost,” he stated.
Bwala defended his performance in the interview, characterizing Hasan’s strategy as hostile journalism intended to undermine the administration. He claimed that the first fifteen minutes were devoted to his prior criticisms of President Tinubu during his time in the opposition, which he admitted but tried to put behind him.
He continued by saying that he cautioned Hasan not to keep asking the same questions, but the interviewer persisted, leading Bwala to refute certain claims.
“Repeatedly, I admitted to them. I even said I had said more than what he mentioned, but I asked that we move on to the purpose of the interview.
“What Mehdi Hasan did was what we call opposition-style journalism, where you play the role of the opposition. In that interview, Mehdi sought to elicit information from me to discredit the government, but he could not,” he said.
