Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has dismissed claims that the hardship and hunger currently facing Nigerians were peculiar to the present administration.
Bwala made the remarks on TVC’s FCT Brief in reaction to comments by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who accused the Tinubu government of worsening economic conditions.
“The most fundamental thing is the issue he (Atiku) has raised. Does he have a valid point? He does not because the data suggests otherwise,” Bwala said.
The presidential aide accused opposition figures of seeking to discredit the government, describing their criticisms as politically motivated.
“What do you expect them to do other than to try their best to see how they can demarcate the government in order to create the buzz around what they do,” he said.
Bwala highlighted what he described as progress made under Tinubu’s leadership, pointing to economic and social interventions.
“He said we are creating hunger. Is he blinded or doesn’t he hear the fact of the progress we’ve made? For example, we have increased foreign reserves. Our net export has increased. We have less dependency on imports. We have created a structure that has stabilised the economy,” he said.
“He won’t talk about that. He won’t talk about the Caesarean session we provided in all the hospitals in Nigeria — how the people don’t have to suffer. He doesn’t talk about that. He doesn’t talk about the NELFUND we have provided. He should be able to speak and say whether it’s working or not.”
According to Bwala, critics who previously dismissed the government’s economic policy have now shifted their rhetoric.
“They started first by saying our economic model is wrong. Now, after two years, we’ve been able to prove them otherwise. They are dog whistling for civil unrest,” he added.
Bwala also argued that hunger is not a new challenge in Nigeria’s history.
“This rhetoric of Nigerians is hungry; we have to be able to grow out of it. Nigerians were hungry in 1960, hungry in 1980, hungry in 1990, hungry in 1999. It was between 1999 to 2003 that somebody sang ‘Nigeria Jaga Jaga’. You mean he sang in abstract?” he asked.
“There has never been a time in which there is no one problem or the other as far as the Nigerian people are concerned. But judge the metrics. Judge us not by the rhetoric of Nigerians are hungry. Judge us by the dynamics of what we’re putting in place and whether it’s working,” Bwala added.
