Azuka Ogujiuba – the ThisDay journalist who conducted the post-TeeBillz meltdown interview with Tiwa Savage – has been on the receiving end of a barrage of social media attacks.
While her interview style was criticised, Azuka’s perceived lack of empathy during the course of the interview with the singer, has been the major bone of contention.
After her initial response on the matter, Azuka addressed her critics in her ThisDay column.
From her article, we’ve gathered 20 interesting quotes
- “Let me shock you and maybe Tiwa too. I recall quite vividly her exact words; “She is so gorgeous, her hair is beautiful, l can’t wait to have a girl and dress her up nicely like this.””
2. “Though impressively unassuming, Tiwa was still a spectacle at the wedding. She was a good dancer and a dyed-in-the-wool kind of songstress. Almost effortlessly, her dance and voice were more than entertaining. ‘Girl’ was a stunner! I had to tell her to try entertainment, ‘come back home to Nigeria, Tiwa, you’ve got an appeal that Nigerians will love.’ Down-to-earth, Tiwa’s British accent was huge and the ‘aje-butter’ behaviour was unmistakable…I could tell she was so happy her friend was getting married.”
3. “Tiwa and I recognised each other, hugged and exchanged pleasantries. I felt so bad when I realised it was her. We all got chatting immediately and that was when Tiwa realised I was a journalist. We exchanged telephone numbers and BBM pins. Of course, I was excited to do her first ever interview then, if I’m not mistaken.”
4. “TeeBillz and I struck it off immediately, and he too was so interested in Tiwa’s success. He told me categorically to watch how Tiwa would become the biggest female act in Africa, and I had no reason to doubt his conviction; I was already a big fan…TeeBillz was cool and very friendly; he was full of humour, and I used to tease him about marrying Tiwa. I told him they looked so lovely as a couple…TeeBillz would reply, “We can’t get into that now, her career is very important, she needs to make a mark.””
5. “What I remember now is a man who wanted Tiwa to succeed, protective of her, knew Tiwa was fragile and was not going to allow anybody cheat or talk down at her. He was Tiwa’s ‘Voltron’. Like Tiwa, even TeeBillz behaved so much like a rich kid who was feigning a street boy. He was emotional and very harmless, but I honestly don’t know what to believe from the recent drama. Everything’s now confounding.”
6. “Tiwa was like a loan to Don Jazzy, who had a clandestine plot to storm the industry again with what would silence his friend-turned -rival, D’banj, who was busy narrating to the press how MoHits crumbled. We were super-excited when Don Jazzy introduced the Mavin Crew and Tiwa as its first lady.”
7. “The Baloguns led a marital journey so enchanting until they started facing hitches in their home. Apart from when Tiwa fired him as her manager, a lot of people didn’t know what was going on, not even close friends to Tiwa like Elohor Aisen knew every detail until some recent revelations. Tiwa didn’t want her business out there I guess. Sometime, when I inquired about Teeblizz, she said he was fine with a calm smile.”
8. “My friends told me to delete the hateful comments on my Instagram and Facebook pages. I was advised to block the jobless cyber bullies, I didn’t bother doing it because I honestly don’t care about jobless social media trolls, faceless and anonymous characters can’t cow me.”
9. “I was even advised to go on private, I refused because I didn’t think these critics had a say in how I live my life or practise my profession. Cyber bullying has no space in my territory, so they should stop wasting their data. These ‘yeye dey smell for jankara’ market mobile bullies are busy hating while I’m busy snooping for my next scoop.”
10. “For sure, I know Tiwa didn’t want the drama; she wanted a peaceful separation and was willing to assist TeeBillz with whatever he wanted to do from the tone of their text chats. Beloved, I marveled at Tiwa’s kind of heart! And my opinion about her speaking up? I don’t see anything wrong with that because we live in a society where people get disgusted about you when such accusations come up without even allowing you to tell your side of the story. It is worst when the accusation is from your partner.”
11. “This is the second fight between two entertainment couples that I remember now. The first was with the late singer, Kefee Don Momoh and her ex-husband, Godwin Alec, who accused each other of unfaithfulness and transfer of sexually transmitted infections. The lovers gave damaging interviews about each other, but then not many were on the social media, so it didn’t spread like wildfire. But it was quite messy; they remarried, but with no drama this time around from their new spouses until our Keffe passed on. Bless her soul.”
12. “The road was so free and before I could say Jack, we were in Tiwa’s house. I went straight to her bedroom, she had a scarf on, wore a black T-shirt and black trousers, she was broken and wept like a mourner. Thank God, Teeblizz was alive. She cried that morning like someone who has just lost something precious. I tried to console her, she looked dazed and confused, but she handed me her phone to read her chat with her husband.”
13. “It was when I realized that our chat would be recorded that I had to remind her that she has to change her all-black outfit, because people read meanings to things. A friend suggested she changed to a wig because she is a star and she replied again with another round of wailing; “I don’t care about this star thing, I am not wearing any wig, I am doing my interview like this.” In the long run, we succeeded in making her change her black T-shirt.”
14. “I heard so many crappy stories of how Don Jazzy and his Marvin Company paid me N2million to do the interview. I also heard Pulse bought the rights of the interview from me and I kept on laughing in my Owerri dialect. How people idly sit down and fabricate stories should be a case study in schools soon.”
15. “Before we started, [the guys] made it clear to me that they would also like to record the interview with their camera and I innocently agreed. They said they didn’t want Tiwa misquoted.”
16. “I’m not a celebrity, not a singer or an actress but a fun loving journalist. Yes, I’m on the social media because I enjoy social media, I love taking pictures of myself and capturing the moments of my fun-filled journalistic activities. I’m from the traditional media where we don’t see ourselves or portray ourselves as celebrities.”
17. “Oprah Winfrey’s name was mentioned; I’m not a fan and l don’t want to be like her or anybody, I’m not a copy-cat.The genuine and objective criticism will make me work on myself next time before those intimidating cameras.”
18. “And for my attitude during Tiwa Savage’s interview…my emotional detachment are matters I have no regrets about. It was a face I deliberately put up to hide and deal with anxiety and my emotions. I wonder what they would have said if they’d televised when tears trickled down my face, so the world will come down on me or what?”
19. “The fact that I know Tiwa and Teeblizz personally made it a tough one for me to conduct that interview, but I had to do my job. And I did it to the best of my ability at that time.”
20. “For that interview to happen, I risked my life and left my child at 2.15am to go and do a job…she called me…It means I’m either good at my job or I’m respected enough by her and her team.”
