Daniel Bwala: The Lollapalooza At The Golden Age 

Tributes To A Crackerjack, An Image-Maker Extraordinaire

Fate brought us together in 2019 when on a national assignment through the Nigeria Diaspora Voting Council (NDVC) under Prince Ade Omole’s ascendancy. You were at the National Assembly, the Red Chamber precisely in the office of the then Deputy Senate President (9th Assembly), Senator Ovie Omo-Agege.

While tasked with the enormous responsibility of combing the entire length and breadth of the Assembly Complex to garner support for the Diaspora Voting Bill at both chambers, I was fascinated beyond viva voce by your readiness and your willingness to provide instantaneous help even at one call with not too much introduction. That singular action, for me, is bizarre judging by the character of most politically exposed individuals with such aura. It melted my heart. Your simplicity is beyond description.

As fate would have it again, analogous to what I can only describe as divine arrangement, I approached you barely 2 years later. In 2021, when cloud had started gathering for the 2023 politicking, I led a support group canvassing for a Tinubu presidency. The Nigeria Diaspora for Asiwaju (NDA), a foremost and one of the most prominent groups alongside the Tinubu Support Group.(TSG), Tinubu Support Organisation (TSO), BAT Vanguards amongst others was everywhere rooting for Tinubu presidency. The NDA was an idea birthed by the duo of Prince Ade Omole and Mr. Akin Lee Badeji headquartered in the United Kingdom. I was appointed to lead the Nigeria country office.

As the then National Coordinator, I convened a national discourse to x-ray what a Tinubu presidency portend for the Nigerian nation. I contacted you alongside four other Progressives to be part of that project. In a rather astonishing turnout, you accepted to speak in support of then Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu even when the handwriting on the wall (as it were) clearly showed your region – the North did not want a Tinubu as Buhari’s successor.

You’d go on from that moment to damn all the consequences and canvass, vigorously, for a Tinubu presidency. Up until after the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Primaries, you were everywhere sweating for (now) President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR. I recall also how you were invited to join the forces engaged in the subterfuge to push for a certain former Senate President from the North East as the APC flagbearer. You opposed the idea and stuck your neck for a Tinubu presidency against all odds. From then on, we established a relationship which, today, has blossomed beyond nuncupative by the grace of God.

Your kinda politics is extremely rare in Nigeria. Akin to your principal – Mr. President who long before becoming the country’s numero uno wielded influence so gargantuan as to get things done for people even from the opposition; you share similar attribute with Mr. President. While working with the opposition during the 2023 campaign, a corollary of the unavoidable happenstance, you were getting things done for members of the APC. If I did not know of anyone, I am a living example. But I knew a lot who benefited from you while you were on sabbatical from your home – your party. You are so humane, so detribalised!

My love for you increased when, despite your bitter experience with the APC leadership from 2014 through 2023, you ne’er severed your relationship with party leaders and members. I knew how you kept your relationship with very many of them. You would always tell me, ‘Omogbolahan, relationship is key regardless of political inclination’.

There’s no doubt of the fact that your metier as a legal luminary is a benison to both country and humanity. It is therefore not flabbergasting that you are a member of the Lincoln Inn, London, licensed to practise as a lawyer in King’s county. Not many Nigerians enjoy such privilege. And over the years, you have been a plenipotentiary of high repute, promoting the image of the country. Only recently, you were called upon to observe the United States of America’s 2024 Presidential Election. That spoke volume about your cosmopolitan nature and your sapience and sagacity recognised by international community.

When your appointment was announced, I had no iota of doubt in my mind that you’d be so appointed despite the several orchestrated stratagem and jiggery-pokery. Your principal knew the herculean role you llayed during the primaries – the toughest and most strenuous in Nigeria’s political history. And I am cocksure Mr. President will sit back today, recumbent, and full of smiles for his insistence on bringing you on board.

As the Special Adviser/Spokesperson on Media and Policy Communications to the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic, your fiercest critics can attest to your competence, capacity, and capability to shape the narrative. Little do they know that you have not even done 10% of what you have in stock for Mr. President. As idiosyncratic of your personae, you remain a sine qua non to any project you put your mind to because you give it your all.

Dear leader, my boss, and my nonpareil, as you mark a golden milestone on your earthly sojourn today, it is my prayers that the next 50 years will be full of indescribable supernova and uncommon cum avalanche breakthroughs for you and your entire family. You will excel to the chagrin of naysayers and misanthropes. And you shall ne’er experience a better yesterday.

Happy birthday Sir!

OMOGBOLAHAN L.A BABAWALE
Convener/National Coordinator
The Think-Tinubu Initiative (3TI)
officialczar2@gmail.com