Former’Your View’ host, Morayo Afolabi-Brown has admitted that her past criticism of former Anambra State governor and Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, was made without adequate knowledge of his record in office.
Speaking in an interview with Chude Jideonwo, Afolabi-Brown explained that her earlier remarks were not rooted in personal familiarity with Obi’s achievements, but rather in limited information at the time.
The veteran broadcaster recalled that after making the comments, several people reached out to inform her about Obi’s developmental strides as governor. “It was because I did not know him. After I made that comment, people called me and said, ‘Morayo, do you realise that when he was governor, he actually served us?’ So that was him. I said, ‘Oh, I did not know,’” she recounted.
Afolabi-Brown also revealed her past struggle with severe depression, recalling moments when she contemplated suicide. “I was depressed. It got so bad that I thought I was suicidal. I just left everything behind. I remember just walking on the express, hoping a car would hit me. It was that bad,” she disclosed.
Reflecting on her decision to leave Your View after its tenth anniversary, she explained that she had long considered moving on. “It was when we were 10 years old that I knew it was time to move on to the next thing. I’ve been harbouring that thought for a while, but I just didn’t know to what or where. Last year, I got that light bulb moment,” she said.
The broadcaster further revealed that she was dismissed from TVC at one point until her family background became known to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. “People called Asiwaju and said, ‘Do you know whose child was sacked?’ He said, ‘I’m not aware.’ Then they told him, ‘This is Alao Aka-Bashorun’s daughter.’ That’s when he knew it was me,” she recounted.
Revisiting controversies in her career, Afolabi-Brown spoke about the backlash from an on-air interview in which she was accused of making disparaging remarks about her husband.
She disclosed that the intervention of the First Lady helped her reconcile the matter and issue a public apology. Her departure from ‘Your View’, she added, marked the end of a 12-year journey on the breakfast show.
