The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has acknowledged that the government’s economic reforms led to an increase in poverty, but insisted that the administration has made significant progress since the measures were introduced.
Bwala spoke on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday while defending the reforms introduced by the Tinubu administration since it assumed office in 2023.
The reforms, which included the removal of petrol subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange market, triggered a sharp rise in the cost of living, with households and businesses facing higher transportation, logistics and production costs. The Federal Government has consistently defended the measures as necessary to address long-standing economic distortions and reduce pressure on public finances.
The government has also argued that the reforms have begun to produce economic gains. In his October 1 Independence Day address, President Tinubu said inflation had fallen from its peak, foreign reserves had been rebuilt and the foreign exchange market had stabilised, while describing the country as having reached a turning point from reform to prosperity.
Bwala, however, acknowledged that the immediate impact of the reforms was painful 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.
On the 2027 presidential election, Bwala expressed confidence that President Tinubu will 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 widen 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’s optimism is partly based on the growing support for Tinubu among governors who were elected on opposition party platforms.
Since the 2023 election, several governors have moved from opposition parties to the All Progressives Congress (APC) with Bwala expressing confidence that more governors will support the President in 2027 than did so during the last presidential election.
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