By Kolawole Ojebisi
There was a heated exchange between Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu, Daniel Bwala, and a popular Arise Television( a Nigerian based global News Channel) anchor, Rufai Oseni, during a live interview on Tuesday, sparking a deluge of reaction from social media users.
The trouble started when Oseni put Bwala on the spot by asking him why he decided to serve in the same government he once criticised.
The broadcaster expressed surprise over Bwala’s sudden transformation from a Tinubu’s ardent critic to the president’s spokesperson.
In response, Bwala fired back, saying, “Don’t ask me questions like I’m a secondary student.”
Meanwhile, Nigerians have on social media decided to weigh in on the matter, with some supporting Oseni’s line of questioning while others criticised Bwala’s response as dismissive.
An X user with @MezieAbi, Mezie Abia, said, “Daniel Bwala is a shameless man who speaks from both sides of the mouth. He’s in the league of Reno Omokri and FFK who can even sing the devil’s praises as long as they’ll have some crumbs to feed on from the devil.
“Daniel Bwala called Tinubu unprintable names on this platform, today, he’s shamelessly defending all the unprintable things he called Tinubu just this yesterday. Reno Omokri called Tinubu a drug lord who must be stopped and even led a protest against Tinubu in London, today, Reno Omokri is defending every single name he called Tinubu just yesterday.
“Femi Kayode called Tinubu names and even mocked Tinubu’s teeth, today, Tinubu is using the same poisonous teeth to cut the National cake for FFK and of course, he still shamelessly swallows the cake. Men with no ounce of integrity.”
In another post directed at Oseni, another user simply identified as Akereyejo (@Palermo_seun) cautioned the Arise broadcaster to uphold professionalism in the discharge of his duties.
He tweeted, “As a journalist, you should be objective in your questions because the goal is to inform the public about government policies. However, he barely gathers any useful information from his interviews, as he is more focused on entertaining his viewers.”
In another post, Sola Ogunlola (@sola_ogunlola) said, “But you know every journalist can’t be slaves to the politicians. Any public office holder that can’t be squeezed is not ready to serve.”
A tweep by AnzehAjose (@anzehnangah) stated that “Bwala’s only response to this was that he was in the opposition, which is why he criticised. He had no conviction in what he said then and has no conviction in what he is saying now. What else do we need to know that these politicians have no principles or ideologies? Selfish people.”
Olanrewaju Michael (@iwologbon) said, “Some things are better left unsaid. The same person he criticised finds him worthy of appointment into an important role, why make it sound like it’s supposed to be a death sentence to take such an appointment? There are other issues to discuss about. Rufai can do better, Fr.”
