Daniel Bwala is the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Policy Communication. In this interview monitored on Arise Television by ANAYO EZUGWU, he speaks on his principal’s administration and chances of being reelected

What do you have to say on the comment by a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, that there is ongoing Yorubanisation of government in Nigeria?

Some of the things that my uncle is saying about the President is not a reflection of reality but I will try to avoid interrogating the choice of word and use, which I believe is not friendly and will not be good for people, who in fact value relationship.

The President was never quoted at any time to have said anything about Babachir. Even when Babachir left the President, and when you would have thought he would be the one to react, he never said anything.

So, what Babachir is saying, I believe if he is being honest with Nigerians, he should be able to separate between his personal interest and national interest. All of the expressions that he has given is a reflection of his personal opinion about his self-interest in relation to his relationship with President Tinubu.

But in terms of whether there is a Yorubanisation of the country; I believe this conversation came sometimes back when we realised that the statistics and data does not support what he said because the Nigerian nation is covered. There is a good number of northerners where I come from in this government.

He talked about Northern Nigeria that has been marginalised, but he has forgotten the fact that we just had eight years of a Northern Nigerian ruler.

There are a lot of issues he raised as to the direction of this government, whether or not this government is pitching itself against the Nigerian people given its policies and whether or not Nigeria is in trouble under this government…

Nigeria is actually safe under this government because if you look at the last two years and see how much we have achieved and the results coming out, which is attested to by both national and international bodies, you will know that this administration has been able to put the country on its proper trajectory.

Nigeria is safe under this administration because some of the things that could have happened, which would have plunged Nigeria in disarray and problem, have been dealt with and people are beginning to see hope.

The problem I have with those who come as opposition is that for lack of ideas, for lack of alternatives, they want to pick just about anything they see. And in this case, since they have not been able to put themselves together, the only thing they can do is to stockup sentiment.

That kind of thought around the line of Yorubanisation of Nigeria is what you would think that even in beer parlour. You expect people who do not see beyond their noses to talk about that but you know for a fact that that is not the case here.

There are those who will say naturally there is that tendency that human beings will gravitate towards the habitats which they relate better with. What do you have to say about that?

Every man works with whoever he believes he can work with to deliver efficiently. But the constitution has given us a baseline; that in order for you to constitute a government in Nigeria, you must have ministers from all the states of the federation.

You must constitute a government in such a way that there will not be dominance of one over the other, so that loyalty can be given to the country. And when you meet that threshold, the next thing you look at is a team of people you believe will help you.

You see, like this argument he’s making, if you go to the southwestern Nigeria, there are people, who also have certain animosity to say that he’s not working with this part of the states in the SouthWest or that he prefers people he has been with for long.

But the question is: Are they working? If you look at the cycle, the Vice President is from the North-East, the National Security Adviser is also from the North-East, the Chief of Defence Staff is equally from the North, the ministers of Defence both substantive and state are also from Northern Nigeria.

The problem I have with those who come as opposition, is that for lack of ideas and alternatives, they want to pick just on anything they see

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs is from the South-East, while the substantive minister from the North. You will also see that Minister of State for Petroleum is from the South-South.

There is no state that doesn’t have a minister and I thought that as a stakeholder in African Democratic Congress (ADC), what Babchir should would come up with is that he disagrees with the administration’s economic model.

He claimed about the policies and the manner in which the governor of the Central Bank is running things is dangerous to the economy…

A smart conversation would have been that he disagrees with the CBN governor’s approach to economy. All the things he said were his opinion. Unfortunately, they didn’t help the Nigerian demographic watching the television because he was not speaking to facts.

Has the government been able to internalize some of the criticisms, whether 100 per cent correct or not?

When it comes to the issue of whether this government is responsible and responsive; you must separate between the outcry or backlash that comes from the population of Nigeria and agenda that is cooked by the opposition. Let me tell you what would surprise you. In the last one month, the kind of results that are coming across all fronts is torturing the opposition because they have not been able to come out with any credible alternative.

The opposition is turning itself into a Kemi Badenoch. When she lacks what to talk about, she talks about Nigeria. That’s what they are doing. If President Tinubu were not to be a Muslim, I am telling you religion would have also been part of the thing that would be stocked-up against him. But we should be able to go beyond that.

The people of Northern Nigeria are extremely comfortable with the governance approach of Mr. President. You know why? He is solving the problems that are in the long term and the problems in the moment. You can see conscious effort by the President through the various policies. Example is the report by World Food Programme that came out two weeks ago.

Certain people in Northern Nigeria, especially Internally displaced Persons (IDPs) were going to go into death because of hunger. What was the reaction of the government? The government before the report has taken steps to deal with the issues of malnutrition and healthcare.

Opposition will never talk about that. You know why? They don’t have the ideas. I said this before and it still bears repeating. This opposition till today has not brought up a policy issue to say President Tinubu is wrong. In fact, listening to them, the person who came close to even discussing policy is Peter Obi.

Unfortunately, whenever you subject what he is saying to forensic analysis, it always comes out as falsehood. For the rest of them, look at them and look at their trajectory and see whether you will be able to tell Nigerians whether have been involved in dealing with the problems of Nigeria.

The question that has not been answered effectively is at what point will Nigerians will get out of this doldrum…

Let me tell you this; what we have been telling Nigerians is not going to happen tomorrow, it’s happening now. We told them that we are going to critically look at education, we provided funding for people, and we have over 300,000 people. It is not tomorrow. We told them we are going to look at maternal health issues and we are doing it.

We told them that we are going to look at infrastructure because there is a decay in Nigeria. Which part of the country does not have infrastructure development going on? We talked about aviation. We even talked about food, and we provided intervention.

But fundamentally, we told them the problem confronting the Nigerian state is that if we don’t deal with the issue of lack of revenue, and the federating units get the money, people are going to be on the streets of Nigeria.

The hearing of the sound of Goodluck Jonathan coming into the fray, I understand has destabilised your camp. How troubled is the APC with that news?

I see that some unscrupulous elements are trying to hoodwink former President Goodluck Jonathan to come into politics, so they can destroy his reputation, which after he left government, he has been building by becoming an international figure. Why do I say that? The South-South of Nigeria, where President Jonathan comes from, has all turned to President Tinubu and APC. You have seen governors coming.

These are the individuals he would have relied on if he was going to run for presidency. Now, the elements that are going to him form the North, asking him to come to run, were they not the ones that chased him away? What hope does he have that this time around they are calling him that they mean well for him?

Then, look at the political class that are coming together to cajole him to come into politics. I know President Jonathan is smarter than that but if decides to run; I have seen the political climate in Nigeria today and I will speak to facts, not conjecture, there is not a single politician that has the capacity to knock off President Tinubu in all fronts. President Tinubu came at a time when the odds were against him.

Before the primaries; I know prominent figures in the South-West who turned their back at him. Why? Because they were hearing that a Fulani man will give to another Fulani man, so they rallied around Atiku Abubakar. A majority in the South-East, who were trying to find a place, also aligned with Atiku.

For Peter Obi, he used dangerous rhetoric to deceive the church, that he is going to take the country back to the church and he got the number he could muster. But let me take you zone by zone. In the South-East; I guarantee you that President Tinubu is going to get more than four times, if not six times the value of the vote he got.