The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has revealed that he once feared the president would politically target him because of his previous criticisms while in opposition.
Speaking during an interview on Symfoni TV on Saturday, Bwala said he was surprised when Tinubu later invited him to join his administration.
According to him, he had already planned to leave Nigeria to pursue a PhD programme after Tinubu emerged president.
“I feared Tinubu would hunt me down. You see this is the dynamics that leadership sometimes get confronted I must be honest,” Bwala said.
“And this President Bola Tinubu, look at his trajectory, all the people that have been condemning him, even me, when I was in the opposition I thought that if President Tinubu comes to power he was going to hunt me down.
“That was the year I decided to just go for PhD. Let me just leave Nigeria alone. He never did that the next thing is he called me to come so I can be a part of what is happening in the government’s affairs.”
Bwala also recently claimed that Tinubu attempted to reconnect with former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar after the 2023 presidential election.
He said the president reportedly sent emissaries to Atiku after assuming office as part of efforts to establish communication with the former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate.
According to Bwala, who said he was still working closely with Atiku at the time, the emissaries were unable to gain access to the former vice-president’s residence.
He alleged that Atiku instructed that the gate should not be opened for the visitors, adding that the incident showed Tinubu had made efforts to reach out after becoming president.