The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has opened up that he recently had throat surgery shortly after his widely talked-about interview with Al Jazeera journalist, Mehdi Hasan.
Bwala shared this during his appearance on News Central’s programme, “60 Minutes with Mr Kay,” on Friday. During the interview, he also reacted to the online reactions and heavy criticism that followed the interview.
“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,” he said.
He also took a swipe at a group of social media users he called “Obidients,” saying they are more interested in political loyalty than the interest and security of Nigeria.
“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,” Bwala stated.
Speaking further, the presidential aide defended how he handled the interview, saying Mehdi Hasan used an aggressive style of questioning.
“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.
Bwala explained that a large part of the interview focused on things he said in the past against President Tinubu when he was still in opposition, which he admitted but said he wanted to move away from.
“In the first 15 minutes, he started by asking me to answer questions relating to things I said about President Tinubu when I was in the opposition.
“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,” he said.
He added that he even warned the interviewer when the line of questioning continued.
“He continued doing it, and at a point, I warned him that if he kept going in that direction, I would deny it. He continued, and that was why I kept denying,” Bwala said.
