The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has acknowledged that the government’s economic reforms increased poverty but maintained that the administration has recorded significant progress since introducing the measures.
Bwala spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday while defending the reforms implemented by the Tinubu administration since it assumed office in 2023.
The reforms, including the removal of the petrol subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange market, contributed to a sharp increase in the cost of living, with households and businesses facing higher transportation, logistics and production expenses.
The Federal Government has repeatedly defended the measures as necessary to correct long-standing economic distortions and ease pressure on public finances.
The government has also maintained that the reforms are beginning to deliver economic gains. In his October 1 Independence Day address, Tinubu said inflation had declined from its peak, foreign reserves had been rebuilt and the foreign exchange market had stabilised, describing the country as having reached a turning point from reform to prosperity.
Bwala, however, admitted that the immediate consequences of the reforms had been difficult for many Nigerians.
“Please let it be clear even to the opposition, the reason why you have this number of poor people and some of these doomsday analytics that people are giving is because we undertook a reform.
“There is no part of the world where you start a reform like that there will not be discomfort. More people went down to poverty, acknowledged, but since when the reform started to today, we have made marked progress which is what we have spent the last three years talking to Nigerians about.
“So, you cannot discount that even though there are quite a number of our population that are poor which we admit, but we have made progress so far,” Bwala said.
2027 election
On the 2027 presidential election, Bwala expressed confidence that Tinubu would perform better than he did in 2023, when he defeated Atiku Abubakar by 1.81 million votes and Peter Obi by 2.69 million votes.
The presidential adviser predicted that Tinubu would significantly increase his margin over his opponents in the next election.
“Let me tell you and let me say it categorically and I will be happy to come back. The margin of gap that President Bola Tinubu will give each and everyone of these candidates will be so much that you won’t believe it,” he said.
Bwala attributed part of his confidence to what he described as growing support for Tinubu among governors elected on opposition party platforms.
Since the 2023 election, several governors have defected from opposition parties to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Bwala said he expected more governors to support Tinubu in 2027 than did so during the last presidential election.