Atiku’s Camp Slams Bwala, Alleges Presidential Aide Claimed Tinubu’s Associates Threatened His Life

Chuks Okocha in Abuja 

The Media Office of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has launched a scathing attack on Daniel Bwala, a spokesperson to President Bola Tinubu, describing his recent political posturing as “opportunistic merchandising of allegiance.”

In a statement issued yesterday by Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the camp alleged that Bwala had previously approached them with a request to manufacture a false narrative against the current administration.

The Atiku camp further mocked Bwala’s role in the presidency, questioning the credibility of a government that “hires its former fiercest critic as its media dry cleaner.”

Shaibu contended that rather than cleaning the government’s image, Bwala’s public defences have only served to tear it further.

Taking a swipe at Bwala’s professional and linguistic precision, the statement also mocked the presidential aide for grammatical slips during his public appearances.

“It is always risky when a man who cannot count water begins to count his arguments as facts,” Shaibu added, referencing a specific linguistic error made by the lawyer.

The Atiku team warned that Bwala cannot rewrite his political history through “rhetorical detours,” asserting that “history keeps receipts.”

He noted that the team deliberately declined the request, labelling it a “frivolous and opportunistic attempt at political theatre.”

”We have read the latest statement issued by Daniel Bwala in the aftermath of his rather embarrassing interview with a mixture of suppressed disgust and embarrassment — not for ourselves, but for the sheer enthusiasm with which he parades falsehoods as though repetition could somehow elevate them into truth.

”Bwala’s sudden discovery of courage and rhetorical flourish is rather amusing, especially from someone whose political trajectory has been defined less by conviction and more by opportunistic merchandising of allegiance.

”Since he now appears eager to rewrite history, it is necessary to refresh his memory.

”We remain in possession of his message requesting that the Atiku Media Team issue a press statement claiming that President Tinubu and his associates were threatening his life. He was quite insistent that we amplify that narrative at the time. We declined deliberately because we recognised it for what it was: a frivolous and opportunistic attempt at political theatre, consistent with his long-established penchant for turning politics into a marketplace where loyalty is traded like a commodity.

”He should therefore spare Nigerians the moral lectures about courage and conviction. The record speaks for itself”.

Atiku’s aide said Bwala attempted to recast the Mehdi Hassan interview as some heroic act of intellectual bravery is equally amusing.

”Anyone who watched that exchange objectively saw something quite different. The interviewer methodically dismantled the talking points he came armed with and exposed, one after the other, the contradictions between his past statements and his present posture.

 ”Bwala was confronted with his own words about President Tinubu — statements he once made with remarkable certainty — only to retreat into the tired refuge that “it was politics.” But it is both wicked and morally bankrupt to dismiss matters of grave national consequence as mere politics. The wastage of thousands of Nigerian lives to insecurity over the past two years cannot be brushed aside with that cynical refrain. 

”To trivialise such human tragedy as “politics” is nothing short of wickedness, an admission of abysmal failure, and sheer madness.” Shaibu stressed.

Atiku’s aide said that Bwala struggled visibly to reconcile those statements with his current role defending the same administration he once criticised so vigorously.