A Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Media and Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, has said Nigeria’s large population and longstanding infrastructure deficit are the major factors slowing the impact of the Federal Government’s economic reforms on ordinary citizens.
Speaking during an interview on ARISE News on Tuesday, Bwala explained that although government revenue has increased, available resources remain insufficient to adequately meet the needs of more than 230 million Nigerians while simultaneously addressing decades of infrastructure challenges.
According to him, the scale of the country’s developmental needs means that the benefits of ongoing reforms will take time to fully reach citizens.
“The answer is simply population and resources. The population is over 230 million. The resources we have, however—even with the increased revenue—are not enough to match the population and the deficit in terms of infrastructure. So, growth will inevitably be slow, but it will be slow, steady, and consistent,” Bwala said.
The presidential aide argued that the effects of the administration’s economic policies are already becoming evident through increased allocations to state governments, which he said have contributed to improvements in governance and development projects across the country.
“When you talk about the increased revenue, the effect of that increased revenue is the higher allocation to states, which has resulted in state administration improvements and has also impacted the people,” he stated.
While declining to compare the performance of individual states, Bwala maintained that the Federal Government’s reforms have produced measurable outcomes nationwide.
“I am actually not here to start talking about state versus state because it would take away from my job description, which is to talk about what the federal government is doing, the concomitant effect of which is seen in the states,” he added.
Highlighting key interventions by the Tinubu administration, Bwala pointed to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) transportation programme, and healthcare initiatives, including subsidies for dialysis and Caesarean section procedures.
He said the programmes were designed to support low-income Nigerians and improve access to essential services.
“When we talk about over one million beneficiaries of the Student Loan Fund (NELFUND), these are not children of the rich; these are children of the poor. Without the intervention in this regard, they may not have had the opportunity to achieve their dreams,” he said.
Bwala further noted that the CNG initiative and healthcare subsidies were aimed at reducing the economic burden on vulnerable citizens.
“Every policy introduced by this government has the poor as its direct beneficiaries,” he maintained.
On poverty reduction, the presidential adviser acknowledged concerns that the administration appears more focused on macroeconomic indicators than on household economic realities. However, he stressed that the success of government policies should be assessed using empirical data and measurable outcomes.
“The argument most people make is that the administration appears to be too focused on macroeconomic indicators. They are not focused enough on household economics. I think that it is the argument—so you are celebrating numbers while citizens are counting their losses. That’s a fact,” he said.
Despite these concerns, Bwala insisted that limited resources and rapid population growth continue to constrain the pace of poverty reduction, even as the government pursues reforms aimed at achieving long-term economic stability and sustainable development.
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