By Dickson Omobola
The Presidency, Wednesday, acknowledged that more Nigerians have been pushed into poverty under the administration of President Bola Tinubu, but said the situation is a consequence of the reforms being implemented by government.
The Presidency also faulted a report by The Economist on Nigerians’ dissatisfaction with Tinubu’s performance, describing it as watery and lacking substance.
On October 1, The Economist said President Tinubu might win the forthcoming 2027 polls despite public discontent.
The report, titled: ‘Nigerians dislike their president, but may re-elect him anyway’, identified a worsening security crisis, the biting
effects of the economic reforms and popular political challengers as factors that could work against the president’s re-election bid.
Reacting to the report on Politics Today, a Channels TV programme, Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, questioned the research methodology of the report.
Bwala said: “Let me say that The Economist’s theory, as published, is watery. It doesn’t have the substance. If you want to write an opinion piece, and especially when you want to rely on data, you want to make a claim on the data, the first thing you should do is to conduct a survey. There would be some people who don’t like him (Tinubu), but there are others who like him.
“In other words, in democracy you have to allow the two voices to speak. When you make a claim that Nigerians don’t like him (Tinubu) without also saying that there are a lot of people, for example, one million families whose children have benefited from Nigerian Education Loan Fund, NELFUND, do you think they hate him? If you look at the agricultural sector in Nigeria, the kind of incentive and benefit they got, do you think they hate him? What about the incentive for the manufacturers in production?”
Asked whether more people had been thrown into poverty by the current administration, he said: “Do you know why? It is simply because we took a reform. There is no part of the world where reform comes with convenience. The population is 230 million, already at some stage of poverty. But we can’t make any progress until reform is carried out. None of the presidents that came before this president had the courage to do it because of fear.
“But the president said we can’t make any progress. So, he took that reform. Please let it be clear, even to the opposition. The reason why you have this number of poor people, and some of these doomsday analyses that people are giving, is because we undertook a reform. There is no part of the world where you start a reform like that, and there will not be discomfort. More people went down to poverty. I acknowledge it, I’m not doubting. But, there is a but to it. Since the reform started till today, we have made marked progress, which is what we have spent the last three years doing.”
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