Back story of the Tinubu interview, By Azu Ishiekwene

We — a panel of seven — comprising Dr Reuben Abati (ARISE TV/ThisDay), Maupe Ogun-Yusuf (Channels TV), Nnamdi Odikpo (NTA), Jide Otitoju (TVC), Umar Farouk Musa (VOA), Ruth Olurounbi (Bloomberg Information), and I — wished to have this interview stay and for 2 hours for the explanations I’ve defined… That didn’t occur. Hours earlier than the interview, which was postponed from Sunday to Monday due to the tragic deaths from palliative stampedes in several elements of the nation, we lastly settled for 90 minutes. The questions had been fully ours to resolve, and that was what occurred.

Other than Basic Sani Abacha, I’ve met one-on-one with each Nigerian chief since 1992, from Basic Ibrahim Babangida. Nonetheless, I’ve solely participated in a single televised stay group media chat – with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

You probably have met Obasanjo earlier than – whether or not for an interview or the rest – you may agree that he’s a handful and extra. You by no means know what to anticipate with Obasanjo, particularly when he’s in his lair.

I narrowly missed being punched by the previous president throughout an un-televised interview in his Library within the Villa in 2004, for asking why his authorities was letting a political outlaw, Chris Uba, run amok in Anambra State. The mixed effort of presidential aides, the late Remi Oyo and Professor Julius Ihonvbere, rescued me from Obasanjo’s fury.

Are You OPC?

My expertise wasn’t very totally different throughout the stay presidential media chat. I had requested him why he ordered a shoot-on-sight towards members of the militant Yoruba self-determination group, Oodua Folks’s Congress (OPC), which operated primarily within the South West, Obasanjo’s house base.

He was furious. He warned me, on air, that if I had been going to carry the irreverence of my weekly column to the Villa, he would instantly throw me out of the panel. I insisted on a solution, to which he stated, “If you happen to’re a member of OPC, inform your people who I imply what I stated!”

Three Presidents, Completely different Kinds

Presidents Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, and Muhammadu Buhari, whom I additionally met at totally different instances in several untelevised encounters within the line of obligation, had been distinct of their peculiar methods.

Yar’Adua spoke a little bit, measuredly and candidly. Jonathan was mild, felicitous, and weak, and not using a care on the planet. Buhari was taciturn, defensive, and tight-lipped, besides once you touched on a uncooked nerve, primarily round his household or his relationship with Babangida, with whom he has had a captivating Tom-and-Jerry relationship.

I poked Buhari on this mushy spot in an untelevised group interview in 2016. His unusually animated, indignant reply impressed a broadly publicised story that coated The Interview journal, entitled “Why Babangida eliminated me from energy.”

Once I acquired a message on 18 December that I had been chosen for a panel to interview the president, I assumed it could be stay. Not that there’s any journalistic rule forbidding a recorded interview. Among the greatest interviews I’ve examine or seen, from Oriana Fallaci to Larry King, had been recorded. In a more moderen instance, the CNN interview with President-elect Donald Trump was recorded on 25 November and aired on 12 December.

Street to Interview

The Monday televised interview with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu differed in some ways. A number of sources, together with these inside his cupboard, had pressured him to host an interview many instances, however he refused, insisting that the time was not proper and that there was a lot to be finished.

In October, 17 months into his presidency, there was almost an interview on the eve of the deliberate second spherical of the #EndBadGovernance protest. He cancelled on the final minute for private causes.

Once I acquired a message on 18 December that I had been chosen for a panel to interview the president, I assumed it could be stay. Not that there’s any journalistic rule forbidding a recorded interview. Among the greatest interviews I’ve examine or seen, from Oriana Fallaci to Larry King, had been recorded. In a more moderen instance, the CNN interview with President-elect Donald Trump was recorded on 25 November and aired on 12 December.

Reside Or Recorded?

Nonetheless, I hoped the interview with Tinubu can be stay – a degree I later discovered was shared by all panel members – as a result of this was the primary, almost midway into his presidency. If consuming this toad had taken 19 months, it’s higher to eat it massive, for Nigerians to listen to their president partaking them unfiltered.

The selection of stay or recorded can typically be tough. Like Ebenezer Obey’s well-known story within the music of the Journeyman and his Donkey, you may’t please everybody. Some need it stay as a result of it permits spontaneity and will typically be a window to the persona of the interviewee. Others desire a stay interview for traps to catch the interviewee of their unguarded moments, which is why others oppose it.

The Panel

We — a panel of seven — comprising Dr Reuben Abati (ARISE TV/ThisDay), Maupe Ogun-Yusuf (Channels TV), Nnamdi Odikpo (NTA), Jide Otitoju (TVC), Umar Farouk Musa (VOA), Ruth Olurounbi (Bloomberg Information), and I — wished to have this interview stay and for 2 hours for the explanations I’ve defined.

That didn’t occur. Hours earlier than the interview, which was postponed from Sunday to Monday due to the tragic deaths from palliative stampedes in several elements of the nation, we lastly settled for 90 minutes. The questions had been fully ours to resolve, and that was what occurred.

Some of us have been upset that the interview was not stay and, to make issues worse, not a brawl. One gentleman, clearly with a heavy coronary heart, stated, “I anticipated my seniors on the job to rattle the President.” I get that. One other was not even within the interview. He geared toward me as an alternative, saying that regardless that I’m an Igbo man (which I’m not), I didn’t put on a crimson cap (which I’ve by no means worn) due to an “inferiority advanced!”

His solutions had been fascinating. He described Wike as a performing minister and an excellent man. He stated it twice, slowly however louder and with a hearty laughter of approval the second time. In response to the Supreme Courtroom’s judgement on native authorities autonomy, he stated, “There are not less than two ideological views on that. The factor is that the structure created the native governments, and there isn’t such a factor as ‘unfunded mandate.’”

To Lower Or Not?

It’s the character of recorded interviews — and this one was no exception — that not all the pieces is aired. Twenty questions had been ready, and not less than 17 had been requested point-blank, excluding unscripted queries and follow-ups.

Among the many unaired questions had been whether or not the President thought of Nyesom Wike, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), a political legal responsibility and whether or not direct funds to the native governments weren’t a derogation of the precept of federalism, which recognises the centre and the states as the elemental constituent models of the federation.

Questions additionally arose about #EndSARS and state police and whether or not the president would request the Code of Conduct Bureau to launch his belongings, as one or two newspapers requested beneath the FOIA of 2011.

His solutions had been fascinating. He described Wike as a performing minister and an excellent man. He stated it twice, slowly however louder and with a hearty laughter of approval the second time. In response to the Supreme Courtroom’s judgement on native authorities autonomy, he stated, “There are not less than two ideological views on that. The factor is that the structure created the native governments, and there isn’t such a factor as ‘unfunded mandate.’”

Translation: If the regulation created native governments, it’s not illegal for them to obtain their funding immediately. That debate continues.

‘I’ll Think about’

On state police, he stated he didn’t anticipate any obstacles however anticipated a negotiated consequence within the nation’s greatest curiosity. His response to the query on asset declaration was much more fascinating. I do not forget that in 2012 this query left Jonathan with a media chat black eye. He was requested if he didn’t care concerning the rising public demand that he ought to declare his belongings. In what was initially regarded as a slip, he stated, “I don’t give a rattling!” That turned out to be a rattling good headline the subsequent day.

Tinubu took a special strategy. He stated he had finished his half by submitting his belongings as required by the regulation and would accomplish that once more on the level of exit. However when requested if he would ask the CCB to launch it since there may be at the moment no regulation mandating the CCB, regardless of the FOIA, he stated, “I’ll think about doing so.” That, I believe, is value holding onto.

Every part couldn’t be coated in a one-hour broadcast, and maybe one stay or recorded interview will hardly fulfill the pent-up starvation to listen to the president. However one presidential interview at a time, the hole is closing.

Azu Ishiekwene is the Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP and creator of the brand new e book, Writing for Media and Monetising It.