• ‘Tinubu’s presidency has been fair to all parts of Nigeria’

Daniel Bwala is the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication. In this interview monitored on Channels Television, he speaks on Federal Government’s engagement of United States based lobbying firm on Christian genocide reports, recent kidnapping in Kaduna State and the forthcoming 2027 presidential election, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU reports

You have been everywhere talking about this government; is it a difficult job to do to defend the Bola Tinubu administration?

For me, it’s as easy as playing football when I was young because when you are a messenger or a spokesperson, the key thing is that you should know the principal and the message. You should have knowledge of your principal and understand his body language because there are times you will be called upon to react to issues even when you have not yet met him.

But if you have studied him enough and have had considerable time with him, you will have an idea of where he stands at every given time. Let’s talk about this Christian genocide propaganda. It kind of rubs off a little harsh on the people who are victims of what they believe to be genocide against them.

Don’t you think so? Because I engage with the large communities of interest in respect to this field, I can tell you authoritatively that most of the times, when you hear the victims expressing such frustration, they’re expressing what they are told to believe that it is a Christian genocide.

The concern of people who are victimized is to end insecurity. It’s for them not to have their families killed. I just told you about the amplification by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that the killings in Nigeria were more motivated by religious sentiment.

Take for example, you mentioned Yelwata. If you as journalists do a little more of investigation, you’ll find out that there are conflicts in that part of the country that sometimes has been between members of the same clan or community. But the picture portrayed about insecurity in that place is genocide against Christians because it’s convenient to say that because the people in that state are predominantly Christians.

If you apply this same case scenario with a place like Zamfara, where you see killings as well in similar proportion or even more voluminous as that one in this case, why are they not saying that it’s genocide against Muslims? It is still killings and the larger population of those who are suffering there are Muslims. But if you don’t tag a name that will be politically suitable to drive an agenda, then you cannot get international attention.

Is it an agenda that has cost the government $9 million to engage lobbyists?

It’s not even $9 million to begin with. Secondly, it is really intriguing that even the spokesperson of the opposition, who says something before he thinks, came up and said that engaging lobbyists is wrong. He may do well to ask his principal. If there’s anybody who believes in that concept very well, it’s his principal.

Those who have seen the document registered with the Department of State can tell that. But what is the key issue there? The key issue is what we call practice and procedure in the United States. There are partner countries, like the United Kingdom. You look at the State of Israel and most of these advanced countries; they have lobbyists in Washington on behalf of their governments.

In England and the rest of the world is different but in the United States, the way it runs, even with U.S. citizens and government, they still engage lobbyists. All countries that are relating with the United States have lobbyists as well as ambassadors.

Are we getting the bang for our buck and is our money working?

Definitely! The journey started with the presidential directive for me to go and engage with the Western world if you recall. And we achieved remarkable success, which brought us to the table. And in order to further that conversation, it came up with these dynamics.

But before then, it was not like that and we knew it. How did we know? For example, in those days, anything that happens in Africa, the Western media rely on correspondents they have in those countries or sometimes third-party information and they blow it.

It is really intriguing that even the spokesperson of the opposition, who says something before he thinks, came up and said that engaging lobbyists is wrong

And oftentimes, agenda is driven along that line. But President Tinubu in his usual wisdom, felt nobody can tell the story better than us and he said, go and speak to the Western media. And I can tell you, because if you check CNN, Reuters, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, AP, BBC, Sky News, all of them, as soon as we return, because of that engagement, their findings is that they agree with us.

Is the story about the screw driver seller real?

It’s real. He is founder of the International Society for Civil Liberties and Human Rights and it is that organisation that the New York Times referred to. It is that organisation that wrote that report in August and updated it in September. If you are talking about research and reporting, you have to look at data. Look at how the sampling was done.

Look at how the survey was done. Who are the people that provided the source information? He admitted that most of the sources from whom he got the information are people he could not verify. As a matter of fact, as an organisation, its report had little or nothing that came from them.

They were all secondary and third-party sources. And when you look at the same report and his impression about the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Eastern Security Network (ESN), from the first page to the last page, he refused to admit that there was an ESN and that they killed people in the South-East.

As a matter of fact, what he said in that same report is that the killings in the South-East were perpetrated by Nigerian security forces and under the pretext that they are saving the Nigerian people against ESN and that because ESN is affiliated to Israel, so as to draw the sympathy of the Israeli.

That was the report that Ted Cruz referred to. And Ted Cruz was the one that amplified it and got other congressmen to buy into it and it was on that basis that President Donald Trump acted.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs told Nigerians that that the airstrike on Christmas Day in Sokoto was consequent of intelligence sharing and collaboration between the Nigerian government and the United States government. Where are we missing this?

The information provided by Inter-society was not what led to the strike. It was what laid the foundation for the hoax narrative that there is a Christian genocide, which started long ago and then Nigeria was named a Country of Particular Interest. Then we now had to sit down together with the U.S. In other words, we have differences.

You think it’s a Christian genocide. We say it is not. But we have areas of agreement. You are against terrorism; we are against terrorism, so let us leave our differences and focus on where we agree, which is joint fight against terrorism on the basis of which we started to deepen our collaboration.

And you know there was a visit by the Congress delegation. You know there were exchanges in terms of intelligence from both parties. You also know there was money released for Nigeria to help in the fight against insurgency. As I speak to you right now, there is a meeting going on somewhere between the Nigerian delegation and their U.S. counterpart in deepening that.

So, because we developed a relationship with the U.S. after we traveled and came back with the global media engagement, the National Security Adviser (NSA) went and engaged with the U.S. government, which led to the continuous sharing of intelligence with a view to dealing with the situation.

If we paid $4.5 million or $9 million to lobbyists, why was our name on that list, which President Trump released about countries that are facing visa ban?

The thing about lobbying is that just because I engage you as a lobbyist does not mean tomorrow morning you will see all of the results. It’s an ongoing conversation because if you recall, when the congressmen had the series of meetings that they’ve had with different stakeholders, they made their recommendation to President Trump.

You need to deconstruct areas that you think are not suitable to your country. That means the lobbyists are engaging the congressmen who are primarily the lawmakers.

Is it possible that at some point we’ll see ourselves out of that list?

Everything would be dealt with; not even some. Let’s go to Kajuru, Kaduna State. Many Nigerians are very upset over the denial of the kidnapping of 170 people. Is saving face more important than saving lives? That may be wrong.

If an incident occurs and you say no incident occurred is wrong. I think that the best approach is to say an incident has occurred because that word incident is broad. Any information at all that you deny before verifying is wrong. That’s not the approach in communication.

You see, communication is strategy. Any information that is not available to you, the first thing to do is not to deny. You have to leave your options open.

You have to say that we are hearing that incident occurred but we will find out and then we’ll come back to you. But when the denial is first before finding out, you are giving a negative impression of yourself and the organisation you represent.

The National Chairman of APC said the leader of the party in any state is the governor. Where does the presidency stand in the crisis in Rivers State between Governor Sim Fubara and Minister Nyesom Wike?

The President is a product of a political party. You cannot become a president in Nigeria unless you are sponsored by a political party. Thankfully, the political party that the President won the election on is a party he helped to build.

So, he’s not an emergency candidate like Peter Obi, who is looking for a platform but never having to stay. The President understands party structure. He has always emphasized respect for party leadership and structure. The party is the one that speaks on behalf of the ideology for which it can pass. And in APC, the governors are the leaders of the party in the states. In Lagos State, where President Tinubu comes from, he’s a father to the governor. The governor is one of the many prodigies.

The governor is the leader of the APC in Lagos State, while the President is the leader of the party in Nigeria. So, we don’t have an exception to the rule. In APC, the standard practice applies to everybody. So, to answer your question, I agree with the point highlighted by the national chairman that in Rivers State, Governor Fubara is the leader of the party.

Now, you mentioned Wike; he is not a member of the APC, so he can’t speak for party. He may be the leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State because he is a former governor and they don’t have a governor at the moment. But in APC, the leader of the party in Rivers State is Governor Fubara.

In this impasse in Rivers State between Wike and Fubara, many people are asking President Tinubu to wade in again. With impeachment proceedings against the governor, should the President wade in again?

The President believes in the rule of law and a rule-based practice. With respect to party affairs, what the national chairman said is the position the President sticks to because he respects party procedure. Some say Wike has done a lot for the administration, but he was given that privilege.

I mean, we have heard people complain that as a cabinet member, Wike enjoyed more benefit than anything, when you leave a Treasury Single Account and if they are given the resources that he has and unfettered access, they will do more. So, Wike has been adequately compensated. You see, the President believes in compensating people but not at the expense of the interests of Nigeria.

You have to understand President Tinubu. He will give you privilege but not at the expense of what is the right thing to do. Now, when you cross that line, nobody will tell you. So, the matter between Wike and Fubara is already handled. Handled in the sense that you ask the question: Who is the leader of the party? In this case, we say it’s the governor.

If you want the President to travel to Rivers and then carry a microphone and say it’s the governor that will not happen. On the impeachment procedure, it is consistent with the practice of law and the requirement but the governor will deal with it. There have been orders of court that stopped the impeachment.

The party is clear; nobody should stop Fubara from governing the state. That should be clear to everybody. The party sticks with the leaders of the party in their respective state. In fact, the President even respects the right of a state where you have a PDP governor, and maybe, somebody in APC wants to disturb him. He believes that the governor should be allowed to govern the state. That is his disposition. That is his approach.

The sacked National Chairman of Labour Party, Julius Abure says he’s going to appeal the judgment of the Federal High Court against him. If somehow, Peter Obi goes back to the party; will the Tinubu administration be ready for him?

Peter Obi is in the valley of decision. The Labour Party will give its presidential ticket to Datti Baba-Ahmed, so Peter Obi doesn’t stand a chance of getting it. Peter If you look at the last press statement by Baba-Ahmed, does he sound like somebody that would be willing to help Peter Obi return?

I am sometimes saddened by the fact that because our politics permit anybody who says, I want to be president, to be in the news, they always bring Peter Obi when they bring Tinubu. It is a disservice to the President. If you look at the generation of governors President Tinubu trained, all of them did better than Peter Obi.

Babatunde Fashola did better than Obi, the statistics are there. Akinwunmi Ambode did better than Obi, the statistics are there. Babajide SanwoOlu is better than Obi. If Sanwo-Olu comes out to run for president against Obi, he’ll beat him. Obi does not have anywhere to turn to at the moment. I am a Nostradamus in politics. I told you that Peter Obi was going to leave Labour Party.

When I said that, the Obidient Movement was shouting heaven and earth, but he left them. I told them he’s going to try to go to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) because they set a trap and give him the impression he will become vice president. When he came close, he discovered that the position is also not vacant. Obi now admitted that he is in talks with Labour Party. This is the same person, who is saying structural criminality. He went right into that structure. That’s the way he realized he was not going to get vice president’s ticket. They have since moved on.

Somebody is packaging Obi with Rabiu Kwankwaso and it is not going to be in ADC. Obi will not even get the votes he got in 2023. It was not Obi that got the votes; it was a movement that was reacting against the Muslim-Muslim ticket. These same demographics have since learned that Tinubu’s presidency has done more equitable things.