The media office of former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has criticised presidential aide, Daniel Bwala, accusing him of political opportunism and attempting to manipulate narratives about the current administration.
In a statement issued on Saturday by Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, the former vice president’s camp alleged that Bwala had previously approached them with a request to circulate a false claim against Bola Tinubu.
Shaibu said the Atiku media team rejected the request, describing it as an attempt to stage political drama.
“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,” Shaibu said.
He added that the request was declined because it was considered “a frivolous and opportunistic attempt at political theatre.”
The statement followed reactions to Bwala’s recent appearance on the Al Jazeera programme Head to Head, where he was interviewed by journalist Mehdi Hasan.
While Bwala had portrayed the exchange as a demonstration of intellectual courage, the Atiku camp said the interview instead highlighted contradictions in his political stance.
According to Shaibu, the interview exposed what he described as the “moral bankruptcy” of dismissing major national challenges as mere political debate.
He said, “The interviewer methodically dismantled the talking points he came armed with and exposed the contradictions between his past statements and his present posture.
“What Nigerians witnessed was the uncomfortable spectacle of a spokesperson struggling to reconcile shifting loyalties with inconvenient facts.”
Shaibu also criticised Bwala’s defence of the Federal Government’s record on insecurity, arguing that it trivialised the scale of violence recorded across the country.
He said downplaying the deaths of thousands of Nigerians over the past two years amounted to “nothing short of wickedness.”
The Atiku media team further questioned Bwala’s role in the current administration, suggesting that his appointment undermined the credibility of a government that once faced strong criticism from him.
Shaibu stated that Bwala could not erase his past political positions through what he described as rhetorical manoeuvres.
“History keeps receipts,” the statement said.
He added that attempts to defend the administration had instead exposed deeper contradictions within the government’s public messaging.
