Buhari’s Aide, Broadcaster Clash Over Collapsed National Power Grid
The fresh collapse of Nigeria’s national electricity grid has resulted in exchange of words and insults between an aide of President Muhammadu Buhari and a broadcast journalist, Sandra Ezekwesili.
The national grid, which collapsed for the umpteenth time on Monday, has seen individuals and businesses taking to social media to groan about how they’re incurring higher energy costs and how the rising cost of diesel has not helped matters.
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Ezekwesili, who is the host of current affairs radio programme ‘Hard Facts’ on Nigeria Info 99.3FM, had criticised the Buhari administration over the fresh power grid collapse and how it has worsened epileptic power supply in the country.
“The way the national grid keeps collapsing under this admin, you would think it was one of those men who trekked from Lagos to Abuja to welcome Buhari.
“Every single thing this administration campaigned on, they’ve failed to deliver and some of them, they’ve made worse. Insecurity, poverty, corruption, power, the economy, you name it, they’ve failed at it,” the Lagos-based broadcaster had tweeted on Tuesday.
But quoting statistics from the Nigeria Electricity System Operator, President Buhari’s special assistant on new media, Tolu Ogunlesi, faulted the journalist over her remarks.
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Ogunlesi reeled out figures to show that grid collapses in the country have declined from 42 in 2010 to four in 2021, noting that the decline “suggests increasing grid stability. Which doesn’t mean we still don’t have major grid issues, but maybe we’re headed in the right direction.”
The presidential aide admonished the broadcaster to “help us with some kick-ass journalism here” adding that “There are journalistic responsibilities that cannot be evaded in the name of bants.”
Ezekwesili, however, scolded Ogunlesi for allegedly trying to justify the current grid collapse by making comparison to what was obtainable about seven to ten years ago before the Buhari administration came to power.
Their argument quickly degenerated into insults with Ogunlesi saying “a thin-skinned journalist isn’t a good look”, while Ezekwesili described the presidential aide as an “agbaya” which in Yoruba loosely translates to a useless older person. Below are some of their exchanges.
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