Daniel Bwala’s Ibadan Media Round: A “Misadventure” That Is Causing Governor Makinde A Headache || Sola Abegunde
I have just finished reading the reaction of Sulaimon Olanrewaju to Daniel Bwala, president Tinubu’s Adviser on Media and Policy Communication.
Olanrewaju is Governor Seyi Makinde’s Special Adviser on Media.
Honestly, Mr. Olanrewaju has always been an interesting fellow, sometimes, controversial.
It’s been some time that I heard of him doing his job. Infact, I thought he’s gone on a sabbatical leave.
The last time I saw anything from his office was when he and other Government officials were falling upon each others to defend the very damaging allegations of the receipt of a sum of 30 billion Naira in respect of the Bodija explosion. A sum of money they claimed is kept safe in a controversial Bank account.
Perhaps, I should ask, is the 30 billion Naira still safe?
Their defence fell flat at that time because of the contradictions that kept coming from Olanrewaju and others, but like I asked, I hope the money hasn’t grown wings because we haven’t heard anything about it from the Government since that time.
Since that controversial episode, I never heard from our friend until Daniel came to unsettle his Boss in Ibadan.
Daniel Bwala appeared on some Radio stations in Ibadan in the course of the last weekend and he reinforced what some of us have been saying over the years.
As I said, I have read Sulaimon Olanrewaju’s reactions to the issues raised by Daniel Bwala during his Media engagements in Ibadan and I will puncture Olanrewaju’s points one by one.
According to Olanrewaju, Daniel Bwala was in Ibadan because of the assumption that the presidency is worried about Tinubu’s sagging popularity in many parts of the country.
As at the time Mr. Olanrewaju was concocting that very narratives, I am sure he never considered the fact that there were governorship, National Assembly and State Assembly by-elections slated for the weekend.
If he had and he is smart enough, perhaps, he would have waited for the outcome of those elections before he concluded that the popularity of president Tinubu is sagging across the country.
Interestingly, those elections held across the different zones of the country and the All Progressives Congress, APC, president Tinubu’s political party won in all but the one in Rivers state.
Worthy of note is the fact that the Allied People’s Movement, APM, the political party under which Governor Seyi Makinde is seeking to challenge Tinubu in 2027, scored a miserable 59 votes in the whole of Ekiti state during the last Saturday governorship election!
So, where is the statistics in support of Olanrewaju’s opinion that Tinubu’s popularity is sagging anywhere?
Olanrewaju also said that the APC had a good showing in the presidential election of 2023 because Seyi Makinde supported Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the time.
That is his opinion but he did not tell us the specific nature of support Makinde rendered.
Is it that the Governor of Oyo state publicly declared support for Tinubu anywhere?
The truth is that the alignments of 2023 favored Makinde more than it favored Tinubu.
There is a particular point which Mr. Olanrewaju raised and which I will require him to clarify further.
He said that there are unfounded allegations of media attacks veiled as objective interventions and engineered protests with a view to rousing the people against his Principal, Governor Seyi Makinde.
What exactly is Olanrewaju implying here? I am curious because he didn’t give specific circumstances and I think with his wealth of experience, he ought to have done better.
If he is talking about unfounded allegations, I hope he is not talking about the unresolved 30 billion Naira allegation by the former Governor of Ekiti state, Ayodele Fayose?
If that is what he is talking about, how else is an allegation supposed to be founded and talk of engineered protests, is Olanrewaju talking about the protests by the victims of the Circular Road corridor or the protests by the likes of Very Dark Man and others?
Those are the protests that took place in Oyo state recently.
Is Olanrewaju saying that President Tinubu and the APC are behind those protests or what?
When VDM and his Group known as the Ratels visited Governor Seyi Makinde at his private residence in Ibadan, in the midst of the latest protest, Governor Seyi Makinde publicly declared that if he is not in government, he would have been on the streets protesting.
Where was Olanrewaju when his Boss was making that comment?
Honestly, there is so much confusion in the government of Seyi Makinde.
How could the Governor be saying to protesters, look, I understand your points. If I am not the Governor of the state, I would have been on the streets with you to protest and on the other hand, the spokesperson of the same Governor is telling us that the protests were engineered to discredit his Boss?
Engineered by who?
Now, let’s ask Mr. Olanrewaju, what is president Tinubu’s special interests in the Circular Road to have warranted him to engineer the affected residents to protest against the Governor?
Such thoughts are fit only for the mediocre.
Governor Seyi Makinde must have been very uncomfortable with the facts that Daniel Bwala released about the monthly allocation, most especially, to the 33 Local Governments of Oyo state.
When we raised those issues before now, they said we don’t have facts to support our claims but they can not validly challenge Daniel.
The attempts to present Daniel Bwala’s media engagements as one conceived mainly to discredit Governor Seyi Makinde can not hold water.
As Presidential spokesperson, the gentleman, Bwala, holds the duty to explain the policies of the president to the people.
As a Lawyer, Daniel knows that the whole country is the Constituency of his principal for the purpose of the presidential election.
So, what is wrong in him doing his job in a way he considered to be more effective?
I give Bwala the credit for taking his assignments beyond his comfortable office in Abuja and reaching out directly to the people through the Radio across the States of the Federation.
How many times has Olanrewaju been on Radio to answer to the litany of questions we have been asking his principal?
Has he not been hiding in his air conditioned office all this while?
What is wrong in him going to appear on Radio stations located around Ogbomoso and Oke-Ogun to explain the steps Governor Seyi Makinde has been taking to secure the release of the abducted victims of Oriire Local Government?
I am surprised that Olanrewaju confirmed that he knew that Bwala would be at 3 different Radio stations in Ibadan, but he chose to monitor him only on a particular station, on a particular program, anchored by a particular broadcast journalist who has benefitted immensely from his Principal.
We are not surprised at all that Olanrewaju only had the time to monitor Daniel Bwala on that particular Radio station and on the particular program.
That has always been Olanrewaju’s comfort zone on the few occasions he appeared on Radio and I’m sure he and his Principal must have been rattled by the performance of Daniel Bwala on that program.
I will like to quote Mr. Olanrewaju verbatim here, to expose his hypocrisy.
Concerning Isaac Brown, the journalist who hosted Daniel Bwala on Fresh FM, Olanrewaju said, ” the broadcast journalist was of the opinion that the presidential aide had come to Ibadan to market his principal and regale the people of Oyo state with what the man entrusted with the management of the country’s human and material resources had done to improve the life of the average citizen over the past 37 months”.
He continues, “…so, he tailored his questions towards unearthing the achievements of the president but Bwala had another agenda…”.
Now, if you consider the above quoted paragraphs carefully, you will want to ask if Olanrewaju and Isaac Brown combined to prepare the questions that would be put to Bwala on the program.
If not, how does Olanrewaju know that Isaac Brown was mainly concerned about the achievements of president Tinubu alone?
In Journalism, there are no straight jacket ways of conducting interviews.
Media interviews are supposed to be interactive. They are not a quiz competition.
I find it difficult to believe that Olanrewaju actually expected Daniel Bwala to be led to a slaughter slab through premeditated questions.
I think the problem with Olanrewaju and his principal is the fact that Daniel Bwala broke down the Constitutional responsibilities of the different tiers of Government.
In Nigeria, we have three tiers of Government, namely, the Federal, States and Local Governments.
Sadly, Governor Seyi Makinde does not believe in the existence of Local Governments and I think that is the reason they are not comfortable with the facts placed before the public by Bwala.
The monies from the Federation Accounts are shared on a monthly basis between the three tiers of Government.
The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has therefore assigned responsibilities for each tier of Governments and that is exactly the point Daniel Bwala was making.
If Governor Seyi Makinde had been releasing the monthly allocation for the 33 Local Governments in Oyo state to them to cater for the Constitutionally assigned responsibilities, we won’t be having problems with primary education, primary health care, rural infrastructures and to a large extent, security.
That is the point the presidential spokesperson was making.
That is why he said boldly, that, on a monthly basis, each Local Government in Oyo state have been receiving a minimum of 600 million Naira.
I am surprised that throughout his worthless essay, Olanrewaju didn’t speak to this facts. He didn’t deny the fact that the 33 Local Governments of Oyo state have been receiving this kind of huge monthly allocation.
I read his watery defense that the Local Governments allocation in Oyo state are being spent to pay salaries and pension of different categories of civil servants.
Now, I will challenge Mr. Olanrewaju to ask his Principal to publish the details of the monthly allocation received by him since he became Governor in 2019.
He should also publish details of the salaries, pensions and other deductions from the Local Governments monthly allocation.
Governor Makinde should also provide detailed information about the IGR and VAT for the 33 Local Governments from 2019 to date.
Let us look at the figures, let us do the mathematics and confirm whether what Governor Seyi Makinde has received could only take care of salaries, pensions and deductions as Olanrewaju would want us to believe.
I say here boldly that his Principal, Seyi Makinde would never dare to provide these information.
I also see that Governor Makinde’s spokesperson dissipated so much energy to misinterpret the provisions of section 162 (6),(7) and (8) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
I am surprised to see that Governor Seyi Makinde’s Special Adviser on Media thought that the provisions of the above quoted section and sub section of the Constitution will avail his Principal who have been making illegal withdrawals from the State Joint Local Government Account.
I am sure Mr. Olanrewaju has never sighted a copy of the Financial Memorandum for Local Governments not to talk of reading same.
If he had he would have known that the section of the Constitution he quoted does not empower his Principal, Governor Seyi Makinde to illegally spend Local Governments funds in the name of ” collaboration” with the Local Governments.
Lagos is a reference point of development today, mainly because successive Governments in that state are allowing the Local Governments to function.
I look forward to the publication of the details of the income and expenditures for the 33 Local Governments from 2019 to date.
If Mr. Olanrewaju will persuade his Principal to do this, then, we can have further conversations.
However, I must round up by saying that Mr. Olanrewaju should consider the strategy of Daniel Bwala as worthy of emulation.
Sola Abegunde.