Daniel Bwala, the spokesman for Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the February 2023 presidential election, met with President Bola Tinubu in Paris, France.
“It was a pleasure to meet with the father of the nation President Bola Tinubu in Paris today (Monday),” Bwala post on X (formerly Twitter).
“He continues to share his thoughts and demonstrate his passion to lead Nigeria out of the woods.”
Bwala’s Monday visit occurred about three weeks after he visited the President in Aso Villa Abuja.
Bwala, a rabid critic of Tinubu, the then presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had said his decision to now support the ex-governor of Lagos State, who won the February 2023 presidential poll, does not mean he betrayed Atiku.
He had described as absurd, criticisms trailing his sudden-found support for Tinubu whom he flayed during the 2023 politicking process.
In July 2022, Bwala, then an APC member, dumped the ruling party when Tinubu announced his running mate as ex-Borno governor, Kashim Shettima. The lawyer and politician faulted Tinubu for his choice of a Muslim as himself as a running mate and quickly joined the campaign train of Atiku, a Muslim and ex-Vice President, who chose a Christian as running mate in the person of ex-Delta governor, Ifeanyi Okowa.
Bwala was one of the very vocal and unsparing spokespersons of Atiku during the campaign that culminated into the last poll.
However, the lawyer shocked Nigerians on January 10, 2024 when he met with the President at the Aso Villa in Abuja, Nigeria’s political capital, and declared his unalloyed support for him.
Bwala has since attracted a scathing string of criticisms with many questioning his political ideology but the lawyer said “even ideology, you have the right to change ideology”.
The lawyer had said his job as Atiku’s spokesman during the last campaign was that of a salesman with the sole responsibility of selling a product and demarketing competitors. Bwala, who made a sharp U-turn, said he never said Tinubu wasn’t fit to be Nigeria’s President, adding that now that Atiku did not win, Tinubu is okay for the job.
He had also said the President did not promise him any appointment in his cabinet during Wednesday visit but he would be willing to work with the President in any capacity offered him in the interest of the Nigerian people.