Nigerian journalist pours more scorn on Mugabe

Sahara Reporters’ Adeola Fayehun has poured more scorn on President Robert Mugabe, saying he was so old and that she thought he should not be even in charge of a church.

In her latest episode of “Keeping it real with Adeola”, Fayehun pokes more fun at Mugabe in a satirical video, laced with sarcasm, which others assumed was a genuine apology.

Fayehun said the only thing she regretted about her confrontation with Mugabe in Nigeria last month was that her side comments were not edited out at the end of the interview.

“Me saying he is old is something that struck me,” she said.

“If he were to be my grandfather, I don’t think I would even want him in charge of a church – not to talk about a whole country.”

The United States based journalist shot to fame after door stepping Mugabe at the inauguration of Nigerian leader Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.

She asked the 91 year-old about his plans for retirement, health and lack of democracy in Zimbabwe among a number of inconvenient questions.

Her stunt angered government officials and the State media was unleashed on the privately owned Zimbabwean newspapers that covered the story with the Sunday Mail leading the onslaught.

Fayehun said some of her colleagues were asking Mugabe to smile for pictures and she believes there were more pertinent questions to ask Zimbabwe’s President.

She acknowledged receiving a backlash for her ambush on Mugabe, but she insisted there was nothing wrong with her line of questioning, as even CNN’s Christiane Amanpour had asked the Zimbabwean leader similar questions.

“Asking President Mugabe when he will step down was awful, it was terrible what I did,” Fayehun said tongue in cheek.

“How dare I, a small girl like myself, ask a whole President when he will step down, especially in Africa where we are not supposed to ask questions of our elders?

“We are supposed to respect them, whether they are dictators or not, whether they are corrupt or not, we are not supposed to challenge them.”

Fayehun then goes on to cite instances where she thinks Mugabe has failed Zimbabwe including the disappearance of activist, Itai Dzamara, the Gukurahundi massacres and mismanagement of the economy.

Information minister, Jonathan Moyo, who referred to Sahara Reporters as Boko Haram journalists, is not spared, as he is literally described as singing for his supper.

Fayehun said the encounter with Mugabe had ended her career and she was ending her weekly show, but a description of the video on video sharing site, YouTube asks rhetorically: “Is this the end of Keeping It Real?”

The Sunday Mail reported that Sahara Reporters must be eating humble pie after being forced to apologise, while an editorial in the paper said NewsDay and Daily News thought they had had their “wet dream”, which has since turned into a nightmare.

The paper said Fayehun had been forced to cancel her show and had her tail tucked in between her legs, as she made the apology.