If an elder in Yorubaland is behaving the way President BAT is tinkering with his media team. he would be shamed as agba ti o to ile {divisive elder}, but considering his elderly age, it is beyond me as a true-born Yoruba, to call him names, even if his approbating and reprobating acts fit the remonstration.
In Islam, hypocrisy is known as munafiq and if a polygamist is behaving the President’s way in the management of his aro meta {tripoidal} spokespersons, Yoruba will call him out for being a tule tule {home wrecker}. In Italo {Italy}, a gamer is a lothario, roughly translated a man who behaves selfishly in his relationship with women and deemed irresponsible and unscrupulous. God forbid I characterise the Nigerian leader the Italian way. At least, publicly, PBAT is one-woman man {just as Paul recommended in 1 Timothy 3;2 for would-be Christian leaders} and Pastor Remi has never for once, publicly accused him of some randy rodeo. Even if there were, Yoruba will say ile eni la ti nje ekute onidodo {family secrets better remain in family}. But just saying, the President by his confessed faith can add to Pastor Remi and he undoubtedly has the financial wherewithal, even outside Nigeria’s purse, to maintain a seraglio larger than Solomon’s.
Advancing age and possibly its associative degenerative ailments may be catching up with the President, but he is definitely not known to be sloppy {a sloppy fellow would not outwit a sitting President and a cabal who didn’t want him even when manifesting speech and possible cognition coordination disorder that suggested Alzheimer} and if a pattern is now emerging from what was initially considered a mere clash of hubris and infantilism, then somebody is deliberately not being nice to people he thinks can do him nothing. That assumption has sunk many.
The essence of genuine goodness of heart is best read in how the one up there, treats the one down there, who needs the one up, tp go up, at least a few climb. Between scorn and dignity, it is easy to pick how the President has been treating his media team, regardless of how desperate those adults have also proved, starting with the Ajuri Ngelale/Bayo Onanuga fiasco, and the latest three-mouths-speaking-at-once arrangement because the President feels none of the current trio, including the one who has just served as a minister of the republic for four years, is not responsible enough to be the media face of the administration. How convenient!
To many observers, the latest infra dignitatem from the President to his public-engaging, no-leader media team, is a rebuke and repudiation of the newest addition, the clearly-ambitious and turn-coat; ex-PDP, ex-Atiku defender, Daniel Bwala and the attention-seeking social media brawler should deserve all the ridicule being poured on him since his little misadventure of last week got him demoted in less than 24 hours of Mr. President buying him off the critic rack, to become another Aso Rock vuvuzela. The object, vuvuzela, is described as “an inexpensive injection-moulded plastic shell which produces a loud monotone note”. That should sound instructive to the President the next time he is in the transfer market for those who will articulate his policies, though attack dogs aren’t also completely without value.
Bwala is Canadian by birth and he is likely not to have heard the Yoruba saying, “awolu ma te iwon ara e lo mo” {a stranger who isn’t shamed knows his boundaries}. How do you get into a new workplace the very first day and begin to mark territories regardless of whatever assurances; presidential, first son or first daughter?. There is an ancient hymn “Christian seek not yet repose, hear thy guardian angel say, thou art in the midst of foes, watch and pray”. As a Christian that I assume him to be going by his Daniel first name, there is no way Bwala wouldn’t have sang this very instructive hymn at a point in his fellowship with his Maker but he obviously didn’t commit the warning to heart or misread the smiles around him in Villa, when he went for presidential handshake and photo op. How can he forget that a few months back, he was somewhat a mortal political enemy to the same people he is now mingling with, desperately seeking their downfall and ouster from power, so his then-pay master, could mount the throne. Even in his new you-too-come-and-chop role, did he ever pause to think of many sleepless nights and pains he must have cost the President and his inner circle when he was spinning all his then-master was digging all over the world, to end the presidential dream of his current boss?.
He possibly thinks everything is politics and since they say no permanent foe or friend in politics, all is forgiven and everyone is jolly. That would be disastrous thinking for him. If Bwala must know, he is in both the proverbial and literal lion’s den and can’t be anyhow, though eyes would not be misty for him, if he comes to a grief, worse than Ngelale’s. And to think some media guys who were in trenches with Mr. President during the battle with Bwala-aided Atiku are still loafing and hanging around the power veranda waiting for the Nigerian leader to also do them good. If Mr. President keeps giving the impression that only pesky outsiders should be accommodated, it won’t take much for aggrieved insiders to start pecking. Enemies within are lethal.
There is an exclusive report by The Cable that suggested Seyi Tinubu, rumoured to be prepping for a governorship run in Lagos when his father would be seeking a second and final term as president, recruited Bwala, just as he did, Ngelale, which is ok, especially if he thinks the old hands around his dad, are now sapless. I share his sentiment, but he should have gone for a better version of Bwala’s communication style. It was also claimed in the report that the first son egged him to assert himself from the very first day, leading to the fiasco of the infamous 3Face without a leader. Seyi allegedly gave Ajuri similar matching order, which eventually terminated the Americana. Repeating same mistake with Bwala shows Seyi a poor tactician and maybe a bit unripe to rule Lagos, though he would be eminently qualified if his head is in the right place. Nothing says elephant and its calf can’t trumpet their trunks at the same time, in different directions. Let nobody cite America as a clime where it can’t happen. It is worse over there.
In all of these, I blame the President. Yes, he is the number one salesman of his administration but he certainly knows that everybody is nobody, except if the current arrangement of his media ship having no captain is a deliberate trap, to drown someone.
My hunch says the targetted fellow isn’t Bwala. Evidently, Mr. President is being deliberately divisive with his media team and only him knows what he plans to profit from a headless chicken as it were. How can you want a team not accountable to at least an intermediate leader, despite the somewhat Media/PR excellence of the members; even Bwala. How can you expect something disparate to produce cognate result in an overlapping system. It points to someone being set up to fail. If you say none is qualified to lead, you have deflated everyone.
Now, just a reminder to the President. In 2014 when he was scheming to be Buhari’s running mate before Bukola Saraki and co, briefly sabotaged his Muslim-Muslim dream team, he had caused a statement to be issued out of his Bourdillion residence headlined “Let the best lead the rest”. Therein he stated his desire to be vee-pee, advertising what he thought put him above the rest. Today he is president. Is he now saying no member of his media team is qualified to lead?
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