No Politician Is Bankrolling Me Not Even Peter Obi – David Hundeyin
– No Politician Is Bankrolling Me Not Even Peter Obi – David Hundeyin
Investigative journalist, writer, filmmaker, and founder of West Africa Weekly David Hundeyin has overtime made it clear that he has never asked nor received funding or support of any kind from any Nigerian politician (past or current) and has maintained his stand of being independent and never wanting to associate in any political tussle except it is about an investigation he is carrying out.
As an independent journalist, he has been able to break out several stories and happenings with proof which has placed his life in danger multiple times and at some point seeking asylum in Ghana. Some of his investigations and publications include the famous ‘Cornflakes for Jihad: The Boko Haram Origin Story‘, ‘exposing the court cases, drug charges against the current president of Nigeria Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his forged credentials‘, ‘the shortage story of Nigeria passports‘, ‘killings in southern Kaduna‘ amongst many others.
As an investigative independent journalist, not only has he constantly received threats to his life but has also been tried to be ridiculed by online trolls and one of the troll’s tactics is accusing him falsely. Most of the time these happen, and he lets it just slide but yesterday the 5th of March 2024, the Obidient (Peter Obi’s supporters) were being dragged, and an X (Twitter) user Seanklean made a tweet saying that David Hundeyin received huge sum of money to join the Obidient movement.
A few hours after making the tweet, David Hundenyin posted a screenshot of the tweet asking for the poster’s name, telephone number, and house address with a N75,000 reward attached to it. Twitter users swung into action and within a matter of minutes, his details were all over the response section of the tweet on the micro-blogging platform. Immediately after he received the details, he reached out to the poster on WhatsApp asking him to delete what he posted and demanded for a public apology for the false information shared about him.
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The tweet from Seanklean has been deleted as of this moment but screenshots are still being circulated on the X app. While the post-deletion request by David was honored by Sean, there seems to be no apology from him rather, he explained his now-deleted tweet while sharing the reason he chose to delete the tweet. He wrote;
After speaking to my lawyer and some good people here on this app, I have decided to delete that post. I have been on this app since 2010, never have i been dragged because I always maintain my lane. I don’t post fake news neither have i engaged any defamation news against anyone. What i posted was related to the breaking news of some Obidients that collected money to campaign and vote while they come online to form saints and preach New Nigeria, and knowing fully well that David Hundeyin is part of the movement was why i said “if you hear the amount paid to him too “i didn’t categorically say he received any money. I’m educated and exposed enough to know the meaning of defamation which is what a lot of them are used too, but i don’t roll like that. I chose to delete for peace to reign and because of some people on this app. As for David Hundeyin placing a bounty of 75k on me? Haa me? not even in Dollars. For those of you calling and sending threats lol please stop it, don’t put yourself in trouble. This is the last time I’ll talk about this. Shalom!
Even though there was no apology, it seems David Hundeyin was satisfied with the deletion of the tweet and explanatory tweet because he went on to share a screenshot showing that the tweet had been deleted with the caption; ‘Feel free to insult my dead father and call me every derogatory name under the sun. You have freedom of speech, and I will fight to defend your right to insult me and my work. But you cannot go around making false statements. That is all.’
Following up on the tweet he already shared, the journalist retweeted a tweet he made in 2021 sharing payment slips from places he worked stating that he wasn’t bankrolled by anyone but by his hard work. He wrote ‘I shouldn’t have to do this, but knowing Nigeria, this will become an agenda if I don’t, so: I am “bankrolled” by the work of my hands. I have a $30,000 annual Substack deal, a $500/month BusinessDay column, a €200/article gig at The Africa Report, and I do freelance writing.’
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In a bid to buttress the fact that he was not being by any politician especially Peter Obi since he’s the major focus, he shared page 564 of his book Breaking Point which gave insight into an incident he had to reach out to Peter Obi after being advised by Dele Farotimi to do that but on reaching out, he got no response from Peter Obi an experience he said to be happy about because the whole situation could have forced him into receiving favors from a politician which would blur the ethical lines between a journalist and a politician and also mean he’d no longer be independent.
Below is a transcript from the page he shared on his handle on X (Twitter).
……Dele Farotimi insisted that I should inform Peter Obi about what was happening. I was reluctant. I did not, under any circumstances, want to come across like I was asking a politician for assistance, whether directly or indirectly. I had direct access to P.O. but I never used it because not only did I not want to blur the clear ethical lines between a journalist and a politician, but I also did not want him getting the impression that I wanted something from him. I was happy to only speak when spoken to.
D.F. was insistent though, so I sent P.O a brief WhatsApp message along with the screenshots above, and the blue ticks that appeared shortly afterward told me that he actually read my message. For whatever reason, he chose to completely air me, which I remember feeling strangely relieved about. I dreaded being put in a situation where he would ask me if I needed help, and I would want to say yes, but I would force myself to say no because accepting favours from a politician would mean that I was no longer independent. The fact that he did not respond made things simpler for me, and the fact that I didn’t get upset about it subsequently helped me to self-validate my public position – that I did everything I did because I thought it was the right thing, and not because I had individual material expectations from a Peter Obi presidency.……
