By Promise Adiele
In the last few days, Nigeria’s media spaces have been inundated with the catastrophic appearance of Mr Daniel Bwala on Al Jazeera TV. Bwala is the Special Adviser to Mr. Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication. Since his last encounter with renowned journalist and TV personality Mehdi Hasan on Al Jazeera, Nigerians, including members of the ruling APC, have been mourning. To say that the outing was disastrous is to put it mildly. Beyond Bwala’s personal ridiculing and debasement, the head-to-head encounter encapsulates a national disgrace and the wretched image of the current government. While posturing to speak for Tinubu and his government, Bwala ended up degrading Tinubu and his government. One thing is clear from the interview — it is boldly inscribed in the stars that Bwala is shameless and dishonorable, just like many defenders of the current macabre procession in Nigeria, which we all like to call a government. There is no doubt that Bwala is irredeemably intertwined with Dolos, the famous Greek god of lying and deception. In Greek mythology, Dolos was often assisted by Pseudologoi, the Greek god who embodies the spirit of lying and denial.
The Biblical Daniel will momentarily renounce his name to reject the Daniel Bwala character in Nigeria. Even Ananias and Sapphira, the famed falsehood and denial personages in the Bible, will turn green with envy at the emergence of Nigeria’s Daniel Bwala. His feeble, disingenuous statement after the scandalous outing on Al Jazeera affirms an innate propensity for idiocy and unrepentant mien. Before the whole world, Bwala confirmed that he didn’t know when his principal, Bola Tinubu, was born. He simply affirmed the narrative that Tinubu’s age is unknown. Perhaps Nigeria is the only country in the world with a president whose age is shrouded in mystery and whose people do not know, including his PA on Policy Communication. It is quite symbolic of a deeper malaise in the Nigerian polity where lies and deception reign supreme in the corridors of power. In today’s essay, I will not dwell on the interview and all of its humiliating undercurrents. I will dwell on something more profound and positive about Daniel Bwala.
I want Nigerians and the world to appreciate Daniel Bwala as a prophet. Although he may not have developed his prophetic instincts, the signs are there that he may have missed his divine calling. Everybody missed one calling or another. There were indications in our formative years that we would have toed a different part from our current profession. One day, while explaining the prophetic motif in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to final year students, a student argued that Calpurnia, Caesar’s wife, would have been a good prophet if she was inclined towards that spiritual vocation. Recall that Calpurnia precisely foretold Caesar’s death in one of the most accurate prophetic assertions in history. Yet she was not a prophet. Perhaps, it is the same twist of fate that led Bwala to abandon his prophetic calling to study Law. If he had become a prophet, he might not have become the national caricature that he is today. Bwala would have become an oracle that interprets the future with precision only comparable to the Delphic oracle or the Ifa oracle.
Why do I think Bwala missed his prophetic calling? Every statement he made before joining the Tinubu train is as accurate as daylight. I do not care if he denies them because it is obvious the fellow is afflicted with the spirit of lying, denial and a compulsive predisposition for manufacturing falsehood on an industrial scale. You may think all you want about Daniel Bwala but you cannot joke with his gift of prophecy. On October 5 2022, Daniel Bwala prophesied through his official X handle that “If you want another 4 years of super inflation, poverty, insecurity, and misery, vote APC and Emilokuns.” That prophecy by Bwala has come to pass in one of the most accurate manifestations of reality. No one knows whether he consulted any medium to predict the future. No one knows whether he fasted and prayed. But right now, we know that Bwala was divinely inspired to prophesy with compelling accuracy.
Today, just as Bwala prophesied, Nigerians are suffocating under constricting inflation and poverty. Insecurity, for which Tinubu asked Goodluck Jonathan to resign, has almost destroyed Nigeria forcing the US, under Donald Trump, to bomb terrorist enclave on Christmas Day in 2025. Nostradamus must be turning in his grave at the emergence of someone with prophetic abilities that rival his reputation. At a time when prophets are in short supply, Nigerians must beg Daniel Bwala to return to his first love instead of personifying deception, falsehood, and denial while extending the frontiers of personal and national disgrace. On November 25 2022, Bwala again issued a prophetic statement thus “The human brain is unique and miraculous. It works and functions optically 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year, UNTIL YOU JOIN APC, THEN IT STOPS WORKING.” That prophecy was a timely statement warning Nigerians to desist from supporting the APC because the party has innate proclivities to convert a sane person into a lunatic.
When that prophecy came, Nigerians dismissed it as a mere political statement from the opposition. But it was a statement inspired by supernatural forces. It is obvious to all terrestrial elementals that Daniel Bwala’s brain has stopped working since he joined APC. Unfortunately, many people do not understand prophecy and the things of the spirit. On December 23 2023, the Daily Post Nigeria reported that Daniel Bwala said “Even if you give Tinubu 30 years in office, nothing will work.” It was a prophecy well-articulated and delivered to a bemused nation following Tinubu’s ascension to power. Events in Nigeria in the last three years since the government came to power have vindicated Daniel Bwala. The country continues to gravitate towards unhindered economic and socio-political tragedies. Instead of castigating Bwala following his grotesque showing on Al Jazeera, we must appreciate his prophetic muse and encourage him to develop his talents.
Let us spare ourselves the trite narrative that he made those statements when he was in the opposition camp. Such cognition is not only insensate but shows a retarded mindset of prolonged paralysis. The statements were definitive, delivered with certainty and conviction. That the statements have come to pass shows a rare talent which Bwala accommodates in his psychosocial and spiritual spaces. Unfortunately, Bwala jettisoned his prophetic abilities for a plate of porridge at the master’s table. The supernatural elements that bestowed him with that gift of prophecy may be punishing him with the current international disgrace and humiliation. Once supernatural essences choose you as a mouthpiece and you reject them, they are always implacable in revenge. It remains to be seen if the supernatural elements that bestowed Bwala with the gift of prophecy will punish him further for refusing to carry out their divine assignment.
Bwala’s sterile defence of what transpired between him and Mehdi Hasan reveals him as a reprobate character condemned to damnation. It is a falsehood of impudent dimension for any sane soul to suggest even for a second that Mehdi Hasan did not give Bwala any time to respond to the questions. Because Bwala’s convictions were built on the vanishing illusions of unsteady, fake government promises, he had no immediate, intelligent answers to the questions on international television. The blood of Nigerians who died through insecurity, the blood of Nigerian soldiers slaughtered in the hands of terrorists all rose to testify against Daniel Bwala on that day. It was not because Mehdi Hasan excavated his past, it was more because he could not properly articulate his thoughts given that his own prophecy caught up with him. Of course, Mehdi Hasan gave him all the time in the world to respond to the questions. But each time, he floundered abysmally in the face of facts.
His glass of water analogy stands as one of the most illiterate displays of logic in human history. As if raising the glass of water was not enough, he accompanied it with grammatical infelicities which can make a kindergarten flinch in disgust. I was ashamed when he raised the glass of water the second time and Mehdi scolded him like a school boy to drop the glass. While exercising his prophetic prerogative, Daniel Bwala, through his official X account on July 17 2024 commented about Mehdi Hasan thus “Only Mehdi Hasan on the planet, that I find ruthless in demolishing Piers Morgan’s manipulative journalism. That guy is a terrific debater. Sweat-less flow of thoughts, deadly fact-checker, mastery of rhymes, deep knowledge of the issues. His book “How to win every argument” is a bomb.” It is unforgivable that Bwala will turn around now to say anything negative against Mehdi Hasan. I have no doubt in my mind that Bwala would have done well as a prophet and it is not too late for him to return to that spiritual calling instead of advertising himself as a vomit-swallowing, incurable, unstable, falsehood-peddling, denial machine.
Dr. Promise Adiele is of the Mountain Top University. He can be reached viapromee01@yahoo.com; X: @drpee4
Views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Ikengaonline.
