Bwala’s Al Jazeera Interview Global Embarrassment – Moghalu

Former presidential candidate and political economist Kingsley Moghalu has described the recent television appearance of presidential spokesperson Daniel Bwala on Al Jazeera as a major embarrassment for Nigeria and the administration of Bola Tinubu.

Bwala appeared on the programme hosted by journalist Mehdi Hasan on Al Jazeera, where he defended the Nigerian government’s record during a debate before a live global audience.

The interview took a dramatic turn when Bwala rejected his claims while he was in the opposition and questioned and in so many instances rejected polls on Tinubu’s administration’s failure, killings and insecurity in the country.

Reacting to the interview in a statement on Sunday, Moghalu said the exchange reflected poorly on Nigeria internationally.

“The Daniel Bwala interview with Mehdi Hasan on AlJazeera’s Head to Head program was a disaster of gargantuan proportions for Nigeria as a country, for President Tinubu’s administration, and for Bwala himself,” he said.

He added that while the episode had implications for multiple actors, the least significant impact was on Bwala personally.
“Of these three, the last is the least important, because Bwala’s track record speaks for itself,” Moghalu stated.

According to him, “The interview made a spectacle of Nigeria, not just because of the reach of the program globally, but also the format in which there was a global audience in the room itself,” he said.

“What will EACH of those people think about Nigeria after such a fact-based shredding of the country’s leadership and its performance?”
Moghalu said the episode highlighted what he described as deeper problems within Nigeria’s political culture.

“It was a sad commentary on Nigeria’s political culture in which there are no beliefs, no policies, no ideology, just crass opportunism and the battle for political power,” he said.
“Turn-coatism is ‘it’.”

He added, “The fact that Bwala, given his record, is sent out to speak for the President of Nigeria on the international stage says much about the standards by which the government in Nigeria recruits people for specific roles.

“In that universe ‘loyalty’, fleeting though it may be, is all that counts. Competence doesn’t. Mediocrity reigns.”

The former presidential candidate further questioned the practice of appointing individuals who had previously strongly criticized an administration but later defected politically.

“Why appoint former attack dogs of the political opposition as spokespersons and ambassadors for the administration simply because they have ‘defected’?” he asked.

“The baggage such individuals carry — especially when they did not simply espouse principled opposition that may later change, as sometimes happens in politics, but rather used incendiary and personalized attacks on President Tinubu — renders such persons lacking in credibility in representational roles.”

According to him, “Bwala was left trying to eat his words with bare-faced lies,” Moghalu said.
He suggested that the government could find more credible individuals to represent it publicly, even in the face of criticism over its performance.

“I think there are people who could be far more credible spokesmen and women for Nigeria’s government, even with all its underperformance in governance,” he said.

“At least, the discussion will focus on the actual track record of the government, not on the government spokesman’s prior condemnations of that track record.”

Moghalu said, “It was a sad day for our country,” he said.

“I’ve received several calls from friends from various countries around the world. All were in shock and felt sorry to see Nigeria placed in such a spot.”

Moghalu emphasized that, “So many people are waiting and hoping for when our country will ‘wake up’ and take its rightful place under the sun,” he said.

“The citizens of Nigeria are brilliant, hardworking and respected all over the world, breaking barriers and achieving feats in various spheres.”

He lamented that, “The government and incompetent governance of Nigeria by its politicians remains a sorry tale.”