Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, has acknowledged that the administration’s economic reforms pushed more Nigerians into poverty, while insisting that the country has recorded significant progress since the reforms began.
Bwala made the statement on Wednesday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, where he discussed the economic impact of the Tinubu administration’s policies.
He argued that the increase in the number of Nigerians living in poverty should be viewed within the context of the reforms introduced by the government.
“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,” Bwala said.
He acknowledged that reforms of this scale can create hardship, particularly during the transition period.
“There is no part of the world where you start a reform like that there will not be discomfort,” he said.
Bwala also admitted that the number of people experiencing poverty increased after the reforms were introduced.
“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,” he said.
He maintained that while poverty remains a serious issue, the government believes its policies have produced improvements that should not be overlooked.
“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 added.
Bwala Predicts Bigger Tinubu Victory in 2027
Bwala also turned his attention to the 2027 presidential election, expressing confidence that Tinubu would perform significantly better than he did during the 2023 election.
Tinubu won the 2023 presidential election ahead of Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP).
According to the figures cited by Bwala, Tinubu defeated Atiku by 1.81 million votes and Obi by 2.69 million votes.
The presidential adviser predicted that the difference between Tinubu and his opponents could be substantially larger in 2027.
He said, “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.”
Bwala’s comments come as political parties and potential presidential contenders begin positioning themselves ahead of the 2027 election, with the performance of the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms expected to remain a major issue in the campaign.
Source: Channels Television’s Politics Today
