The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has claimed that Al Jazeera privately apologised to him over his controversial interview on the network’s Head to Head programme.
Naijaonpoint reports that Bwala said he rejected the private apology and demanded that the broadcaster issue a public statement acknowledging its alleged error.
The presidential aide, who disclosed this during an episode of The Morayo Show published on Wednesday, said the matter was now before a court in England.
“They apologised to me privately. I said they should put it on social media. They said they would not because it would affect their credibility, because it’s not just them, but their mother programmes at the Al Jazeera Network,” he said.
Bwala appeared on Head to Head, hosted by Mehdi Hasan, in March.
During the interview, Hasan confronted him with previous statements, video clips and quotations from his time as spokesperson for former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s presidential campaign.
The interviewer repeatedly referred to Bwala’s past criticisms of Tinubu and questioned why he later became a supporter and appointee of the President.
Bwala denied making several of the statements presented during the interview, repeatedly responding, “I never said that.”
Clips from the interview subsequently went viral on social media and generated widespread criticism and debate over the presidential aide’s credibility.
Speaking on the steps he had taken following the interview, Bwala said he instructed lawyers in England to commence legal proceedings against the broadcaster.
According to him, Al Jazeera acknowledged that its ethical guidelines required it to inform him beforehand that the interview would focus on his credibility, previous criticisms of Tinubu and subsequent political realignment.
“The element of the apology was that they should have told me they were going to interrogate my credibility by asking why I now support someone I previously criticised,” Bwala said.
“By their ethics, they admitted they ought to have told me, and they were sorry they did not.”
He claimed that he consulted several media analysts after the interview, including British broadcaster Piers Morgan through a third party, and was told that the network’s handling of the interview was improper.
Bwala also accused Hasan of editing the pre-recorded interview in a manner that allegedly distorted his responses.
He claimed that the presenter removed an opening exchange in which he acknowledged making critical comments about Tinubu but objected to questions about them because they allegedly fell outside the agreed scope of the interview.
“He took away the opening remark where I told him that I had indeed made those comments against Asiwaju and even said worse things, but that was not what I was invited to discuss,” he said.
“I told him that if he continued on that line of questioning, I would deny them. He removed that part.”
According to Bwala, removing the exchange made it appear that he was denying his previous statements without explaining the context of his responses.
The presidential aide said his lawyers believed the broadcast amounted to defamation of character.
“The case is currently in court. We’re waiting for the verdict because my advisers in England said it is a case of defamation of character,” he said.
