~ Aisha Osori Details Deep Personal Embarrassment Watching Bwala Represent Nigeria
Aisha Osori, prominent Nigerian lawyer, author, and Director at the Open Society Foundations’ Ideas Workshop, has spoken out after sitting through the Al Jazeera interview of Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communication, on Mehdi Hasan’s Head to Head, aired March 6, 2026.
In her statement titled Shamelessness as Politics, Osori described the experience as “embarrassment, shame, kunya”, explaining that none of these examples capture the scale of deep, personal embarrassment she felt as part of the panel.
“Within minutes, I felt a chill. Then I felt hot. Then back to cold…hundreds of pinprick-like sensations over my body…a semi hallucinatory haze upon me,” she wrote.
She criticized Bwala for trivializing the insecurity that has cost many lives, including attacks like the Kaiama massacre in Kwara State, and for disgracing the government he represents, showing “clearly what the Tinubu administration thinks of Nigerians and our collective efforts at accountability.”
Highlighting the absurdity of some of Bwala’s responses, Osori recalled when he was asked repeatedly “why, why, why?” and responded: “because Y has a long tail and two branches.”
She said the moment left her wishing she could “enter the ground,” while the audience fell into uneasy silence.
Osori questioned why President Tinubu would appoint someone like Bwala, noting that “loyalty and obeisance matter more than aptitude or integrity” in the administration, and emphasized that in such a political climate, shame is the first casualty.
She concluded that while Nigerians may laugh, cry, or meme Bwala’s performance, the hard questions about the future of Nigeria should focus on Tinubu and the political culture he perpetuates.
