1 week ago
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Daniel Bwala is the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Policy Communications. In this interview, he speaks on Tinubu’s administration, policies and governance. The former spokesperson to Atiku Abubakar, explains why he was very critical of the President, when he was in opposition, among other issues. JOY ANIGBOGU brings the excerpts:
Investment In Infrastructure, What is your relationship like with the other spokespersons, Bayo Onanuga and others, do you still have full access to your office in the villa? Do you still have access to President Tinubu? Again what are you doing in this government? In this government in an interview in 2023 you described the president as president select, rather than president elect, you accused INEC of manipulations. You casted doubts on the veracity of this government, so what are you doing in this government?
As for what you want to know about what we do in the villa, ordinarily I would have said it is none of your business. I will respond. My office is 101 in the state house, presidential villa. I’m a special adviser to the president. I was initially announced as special adviser media and public communications, redesigned to media adviser policy communication, status is special adviser. No demotion, it’s the same. I have unfettered access to Mr. President. You said that Sunday Dare and Bayo Onanuga corrected me. That is wrong. The first press statement that was issued from the presidency, there was no specific individual that was corrected.
Why did you call yourself the presidential spokesman?
I’m still a presidential spokesman. The statement that was issued said that instead of one there are three. During your “What’s Trending” session, insinuated by what she said, let him come here, as if I am running away from coming to this station. It is for that singular reason I took it and said that is innuendo.
You said that Tinubu won the election and that the election was shambolic. You admitted that you said all these things against this government, the government that you called a night of a thousand laughs, why are you serving in the government?
I was in the opposition. In case you don’t know the role of the opposition is to oppose the government. In doing so you deemphasize the strength of the government and emphasize your strength. Where they have strength, you will come to argue their matter, they rest their case on their strength and amplify the weakness of the opposition. I made a decision on the 10th of January after I visited the president, from that day till date I speak well of the president and I support his activities.
All the things that you said, do you still stand by them or do you have a change of mind?
They are irrelevant.
The question is, you are not a man of conviction because you said those things out of your conviction, has your conviction changed?
Here every day, it was wike, and at the end of the day you guys sat and nominated him as the best minister. Does it tell you it is not a station of conviction?
Let us examine some of the things that you said, beyond conviction you almost seem like a prophet. You examined the manifesto of the APC and analyzed the policy of the president, so if we are talking about it now, and analyzing it now that he is in government, some of the things that you said were actually right. You said that except there’s a plan to say he wants to create production, everything is borrowing, and this administration since it came on board Nigerians have raised concerns around our debt burden. In fact our debt to GDP ratio is at a record high. Do you still agree that there are better ways to address our current economic situation, for example, driving production rather than borrowing just like you predicted before this administration came to power?
I criticized the administration because I was in the opposition. When I made the decision to support the president, I decided to pay attention to his policy, talk about the manifesto and to further do research. In doing so I tried to look at where there is for example, failure, I tried to know why. For example there was a time there was food inflation. I tried to look at what was actually the cause of the food inflation. I realised there was a disaster in Mubi, Adamawa and then the insecurity in the northwest. So the research was to find the reason for whatever is the policy, the reason behind the policy and then we have for example a misinterpretation of implementation of the policy. We came out and gave our perspective. Government is not perfect and no government will ever be perfect. Government is a work in progress. At every point in time the government assesses what it does, takes inputs from Nigerians, improves upon it and moves forward. There’s nothing magical about everything I said before and what I’m saying now. I said it in my capacity as opposition. As an opposition I opposed the government but as someone supporting the government I speak for the government.
You said that this administration should be looking at production as opposed to borrowing, in the event that they came into power they are going to borrow our intestines and our kidneys, in terms of your analysis of the borrowing structure of this administration, are there ways there can be a production nation as opposed to a consumption nation so that we can reduce borrowing?
When a government borrows and there is a justification for borrowing. Before now I didn’t care about what might be the justification but now I realised that for the government to be able to carry out its mandate for the people with limited resources that will be the essence of the economy. If you can’t find where to get revenue or the revenue is not sufficient then you have to borrow. I will give you an example, there is research by an economist that in infrastructure alone, Nigeria needs to spend between 20 to 100 billion dollars annually or in proper perspective over a period of 30 years, Nigeria must spend between 2 to 3 trillion dollars. The budget of Nigeria is less than 35 billion dollars. Definitely you see the need to borrow. What you do with the money you borrow is what matters. If you borrow to invest in infrastructure and also intervention in the areas it affects Nigerian people that is the justification for borrowing.
Are you concerned about the spending recently, the presidential jet and the refurbishing of the vice president’s home, aside these things, the issue of appointments by the President, Nigerians are of the view that it has to reduce to cut down cost instead of borrowing to fund all these expenses but that the government should rather focus on infrastructure. Some people are of the view that there are a lot of wastages by this government, the appointments, look at the spokespeople, there are too many reasons they used to clash, one person would release one statement, and another person would release something else. The president can actually trim down his cabinet, reduce his spending so that Nigerians can see that these borrowing will not just be part of personal largess …
We are not many. If you look at it you will discover that we all have our duties cut out.
Looking at our democracy, you can see that we don’t have the strongest of opposition. We just saw the likes of the former Governor of Kaduna State who was so critical of this government. Considering Nasir El-rufai’s criticisms of the government, do you think they carry any weight?
Nasir El-rufai has said that he has not left the party. Since he is in the party, I don’t think he is playing opposition. He is probably complaining and the facts are there in the public domain. By the way Nasir and I have a very good relationship. I remember when I was doing my PHD, he was also doing his PHD. When I asked him if he could join me in my school in the UK he said, no. We have that good relationship and I’m conscious of my relationship with him because he is somebody who has value. We all know what may have happened in the past that he is displeased about and I believe that the best way to handle the situation is not by grandstanding or hobnobbing with opposition. We all want a virile opposition but it is not the duty of the ruling party to build an opposition. It is the duty of opposition and probably the press. When you call them out to do what they need to do. Most of what Nasir El-rufai was talking about, I don’t consider them as part of opposition politics because he is not in opposition and that is quite different from when I criticised the president because I left the party, than when you are within the party and you’re fighting.
Do you agree with his position about the president?
No, I do not agree because what he said quite frankly, there was a time when he was a governor during former President Buhari, when people said similar things he called them bluff. He dismissed what they said. My thinking is that he’s saying that now as part of the expression of his frustration. Because he is a stakeholder and somebody I consider viable in approaches. I think he should sit down with the president, raise issues with the president.
The president is buying an A-330 airbus. Do you know how big that is in terms of fuel consumption for a country that is taking loans. Secondly, how can you justify the economic policy when the level of inflation is 34.8%. The monies that we are borrowing we are not seeing the impact on Nigerians. Do you know what your health minister, Pate said recently, out of over N200 billion earmarked for capital project in healthcare sector only N20 billion was released. It is a big budget inder performance, so how can you justify the economic policies when the economy is not looking good?
Our economic policy has been doing very well in my assessment because where we were before the President took the oath of office and where we are today from the economic standpoint I think it is safe to assume that Nigeria is not to be dealt with the feeling that it is going into disintegration because of the fundamentals put in place. What are the fundamentals? Remember that we are dealing with a nation which national income is less than 30 billion and I just said that even in infrastructure, this is an expert opinion, not ours that we have to invest between 30 to 200 billion dollars annually. So, you are dealing with a nation which infrastructure is decadence. We don’t have good roads, we don’t have airports, our hospitals are dead and you are looking at a critical situation like that and you are trying to navigate with limited resources. Given the circumstances of the case and juxtaposing that with what we are doing I can tell you that we are doing well. You talked about inflation, I can tell you that the current inflation has gone down because food prices are going down. The general inflation of the last month is far better than the previous month.
General inflation number increased. In fact we were talking of 33 percent, now it is 34.8 percent. As at when this administration got in inflation was not up to 30 percent. This administration has increased the inflation by close to 10 percent percentile point…
Yes it is expected because when you take up policy reforms it is like you are pulling down the house to reconstruct again. At the time the president took the oath of office about 26 states in the federation where adjudged as bankrupt. They couldn’t pay salaries. That is nit the situation at the moment. States are now paying salaries and we are urging them to go beyond that and deliver in the mandate to heir people. That is one area that we have dealt with. Secondly, the various interventions of the Federal Government in terms of supporting the state have been providing direct impact on Nigerians. When you look at the medical sector, if you look at the agricultural sector, the kind of intervention that we have put in there. There are some investments that will take time.
People are suffering. Nigerians are hungry…
That is why every time we keep begging the Nigerian people. Leadership is about accountability and respect for the masses. You cannot look them in the face and say you are not suffering. We are not in denial but what we are saying is that what we’re doing at the moment will eventually yield results. Think of a family, maybe the father is used to taking the children out to the movies weekends, and twice in a year they go to Europe or America, certain lifestyles that were going very well suddenly if the father realises that he can no longer cope with them financially, he will have to change.
You were at variance and that is why I said, where is your conviction?
A man who is in the opposition does opposition especially in this part of the world.
If Atiku had been elected would you have followed him to the state house?
I don’t discuss if
Is it an AGIP thing, any government in power, I must be in power?
That is your opinion.
I want you to address this issue around the president’s appointment being nepotistic, that he is appointing a lot of people from the south west and some people are saying that he has lost favour with the northern part of the country and the south east also feel marginalised. I would like your thoughts on that, also do you think that the president should not have handled fuel subsidy removal alongside the floating of the naira. People are suffering and the prices of food in the market is very high, Nigerians are saying that this government doesn’t favour them, what do you have to say about that?
I criticised the removal of fuel subsidies. I have said that a couple of times. On the 10th of January when I met the president face to face. The meeting was supposed to be 15 minutes according to official protocol. He was gracious. We spent about an hour and 30 minutes. As soon as I walked in, the president started dealing with the issues that I have been raising and criticising him. He was so humorous. He explained to me why he made those decisions because when he took the oath of office there was no money on the ground. There is no way you can kick start this government but you have to find a way to get revenue. Nobody was ready to lend us N73 trillion so you have to put in policies that will convince investors and those that will lend you money that you are serious.
Immediate things that need to be done are these fundamentals to put the economy to shape. He said he knew that decision would affect the masses but it was a temporary pain and I believed him. The president in my view is one of the fewest in recent memory that in whose government minority in Nigeria have had a voice and inclusivity.
English (US) ·