Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication, has acknowledged that more Nigerians fell into poverty following the Federal Government’s economic reforms, while insisting that the administration has recorded significant progress.
Bwala made the remarks on Wednesday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He attributed the increase in poverty to the economic adjustments introduced by the Tinubu administration, arguing that reforms of such magnitude often come with hardship.
“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,” he said.
“There is no part of the world where you start a reform like that there will not be discomfort.”
Bwala Acknowledges Poverty Increase
The presidential aide admitted that more Nigerians had fallen into poverty since the reforms began but maintained that the government had made measurable progress.
“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,” Bwala said.
He added that although a significant number of Nigerians remained poor, the administration’s progress should not be dismissed.
“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 Predicts Tinubu’s Performance in 2027 Election
Bwala also expressed confidence in Tinubu’s prospects in the 2027 presidential election, saying the President would perform better than he did in the 2023 poll.
In the 2023 presidential election, Tinubu defeated Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by 1.81 million votes and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) by 2.69 million votes.
Bwala claimed that the margin separating Tinubu from his challengers in 2027 would be substantially larger.
“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.
His remarks come as the administration continues to defend its economic reforms amid concerns over poverty and the cost of living, while political attention increasingly turns towards the 2027 presidential election.
