Presidential aide Daniel Bwala says Al Jazeera privately apologised to him over his contentious appearance on the network’s Head to Head programme hosted by Mehdi Hasan, but refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing in public.

Bwala, a former spokesperson for Atiku Abubakar who later aligned with President Bola Tinubu, said the network’s handling of the interview breached its own editorial standards and damaged his reputation, prompting him to file a defamation suit in the United Kingdom.

Speaking on Morayo Afolabi-Brown’s show, Bwala recounted that Al Jazeera admitted fault in a private communication after the episode aired, but rejected his demand for a public apology.

“They apologised to me privately. I said they should put it on social media. They said they will not put it on social media, it will affect their credibility, because it’s not just them, but their other programmers at the Al Jazeera network too,” he said.

According to Bwala, the core of the apology was an admission that producers failed to disclose that a significant portion of the programme would question his credibility over past criticism of Tinubu, even as he now serves in the president’s camp.

He argued that, by Al Jazeera’s own ethical guidelines, he should have been told in advance that his previous statements would be used as a central line of attack. “They said they were sorry they didn’t,” he added.

Bwala further alleged that the pre-recorded debate, which he said lasted about 90 minutes, was edited down to 49 minutes in a way that favoured Hasan. He claimed that segments where he challenged the host and drew applause from the audience were removed, while moments that appeared to undermine him were retained.

He accused the programme of using old clips of his comments without proper context and of denying him the opportunity to respond fully after each clip was played. He also said his opening caveat — that he would not entertain questions outside the agreed focus — was cut from the final broadcast.

Bwala said he turned to legal action after Al Jazeera refused to issue a public apology, acting on the advice of his lawyers in England, who, he noted, considered the broadcast defamatory.