Nigeria Content Online

Fans of ‘The
Project’, a politics-centred interview programme on Television
Continental (TVC) in Lagos, will have to look for another programme
because there are claims that the programme has been dropped from the
station based on the directive of Bola Tinubu. Mr Adekeye said the
decision to discontinue the programme was communicated to him on phone
by the management of the station on Tuesday, 48 hours after he had a
meeting with the management where they informed him of Mr Tinubu’s
displeasure with an article he had written earlier in the month.

On 4 February, Mr
Adekeye wrote an article he titled “Dynasty Toples Democracy” that was
published in NEXT’s opinion page. In the article, he expressed his
dissatisfaction with the manner Mr Tinubu, leader of the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN), was personalising the party. He also
criticised Mr Tinubu’s romance with the Congress for Progressive Change
(CPC) in search of a vice president position at the detriment of his
party’s presidential candidate, Nuhu Ribadu.

Eleven days later,
Kehinde Bamigbetan, Chairman of Ejigbo local council in Lagos and
former spokesman for Mr Tinubu wrote a rejoinder he titled “Tinubu Does
Not Deserve Ribadu’s Scorn” that was also published in NEXT.

“Let the real
Muyiwa Adekeye, political consultant and protégé of Nuhu Ribadu, the
presidential candidate of Action Congress of Nigeria, shake off the
paraphernalia of his pretence and stand where he truly belongs,” Mr
Bamigbetan wrote in his opening paragraph for his rejoinder.

He criticised
Mr.Adekeye’s opinion and choice of language in the article. “Adekeye’s
reference to our leaders as potentates indicates the little regard he
has for experience and expertise on the field,” he added.

After the programme was routinely aired that week, Mr Adekeye was invited for a meeting with the management of TVC.

At the meeting,
“they left me with no doubt that the owner of TVC (Mr Tinubu) was not
happy with my articles,” Mr Adekeye said. “I was told that Mr Tinubu
was unhappy with some of the things I said in the article… and I made
it clear that I wasn’t going to surrender my right to express myself
freely as a Nigerian.” The following day, Mr Adekeye wrote a reply to
Mr Bamigbetan’s rejoinder, but published it in another national daily.
The article gave his programme a red card. According to Mr Adekeye, the
morning after his second article was published, the station manager,
Gbolahan Olalemi, informed him that the “directors have decided to rest
the programme.” Mr Olalemi in an interview with NEXT, however, denied
the allegation that the programme was dropped based on the orders of Mr
Tinubu. He said that the claim came as a surpprise to him. “The man
(Mr. Tinubu) doesn’t even know there is a programme called The Project.
How could he have said it should be dropped?” The Project was first
aired on 8 January and since has hosted high profile guests like Nuhu
Ribadu, ACN’s presidential candidate, Tunde Bakare, CPC’s vice
presidential candidate,

Adamu Ciroma, chairman Northern Elders Forum, and Kayode Fayemi, the governor of Ekiti State.

The station
manager, however, said the programme did not meet up with the station’s
quality standards and needed to be improved and that was the reason it
was dropped.

“I called him and
said he should improve the quality of The Project.” The station manager
said. He added that he had at some point offered to produce the
programme himself to ensure it got the needed standard.

Mr Adekeye, however, disagreed with the station manager.

“There is a Yoruba
saying that: if a witch cries at night and a child dies the following
morning, everyone knows the cause of the child’s death,” said Mr
Adekeye, tracing the fate of his programme to his articles.

Mr Bamigbetan who still speaks for Mr Tinubu told NEXT he was not
aware of Mr Adekeye’s difficultuties with the station. “This is news to
me. I will dig into it and get back to you,” he said.