I had throat surgery after Al Jazeera interview — Daniel Bwala

President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has disclosed that he underwent throat surgery eight days after his widely criticised interview with Al Jazeera journalist Mehdi Hasan, dismissing online attacks on his performance while defending his conduct during the encounter.

Bwala made the disclosure on Friday during an appearance on News Central’s 60 Minutes with Mr Kay, where he also took aim at supporters of the Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, whom he accused of placing partisan loyalty above national interest.

“Eight days after the interview with Mehdi Hasan, I underwent surgery on my throat. I don’t know whether it is the ‘Obidient’ people that threw that African thing, but in any case, I’m back and strong,” he said.

He described the online community known as “Obidients” as political mercenaries indifferent to Nigeria’s wellbeing. “There exists a species of ‘Trojans’ of social media called the ‘Obidient,’ who do not care about the national interest or the security of Nigeria and will do everything possible to achieve the aim of their hero, no matter the cost,” he said.

On the interview itself, Bwala characterised Hasan’s approach as deliberate and adversarial, arguing the journalist failed in his apparent objective. “What Mehdi Hasan did was what we call opposition-style journalism, where you play the role of the opposition. In that interview, Mehdi sought to elicit information from me to discredit the government, but he could not,” he said.

Bwala acknowledged that the opening stretch of the interview was dominated by questions about his past criticisms of President Tinubu, made during his time in the Peoples Democratic Party before his 2023 defection to the All Progressives Congress. He said he repeatedly owned those remarks but urged the interviewer to move the conversation forward.

“In the first 15 minutes, he started by asking me to answer questions relating to things I said about President Tinubu when I was in the opposition. Repeatedly, I admitted to them — I even said I had said more than what he mentioned — but I asked that we move on to the purpose of the interview,” he said.

He added that his subsequent denials were a deliberate response to what he considered persistent and unproductive questioning. “He continued doing it, and at a point, I warned him that if he kept going in that direction, I would deny it. He continued, and that was why I kept denying,” Bwala said.

The interview had triggered immediate backlash when it was released on social media, with clips spreading rapidly on X and critics describing Bwala’s outing as an embarrassment to the Tinubu administration. Hasan had confronted the presidential aide with video evidence of past statements in which he described Tinubu as a drug baron, corrupt, and unfit to govern — remarks Bwala initially denied before the footage was produced, drawing fresh ridicule online. The Al Jazeera journalist also pressed him on Nigeria’s worsening security situation, citing figures from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, to which Bwala offered no data-backed rebuttal.