Former spokesman to the Atiku Abubakar presidential campaign, Daniel Bwala, has alleged that there may be a foreign connection to the protest being planned by some Nigerians against the rising cost of living in the country.
He made the assertion in a chat with correspondents after meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday.
Bwala, who said he was on a solidarity visit to the president on information, said the administration is already addressing the hardship in the country through various initiatives.
The ex-PDP campaign spokesman reiterated that he was on his way to joining the ruling party.
He also linked the planned protest to politics, saying: “I honestly believe that there is, to a large extent, the element of politics, and my belief is that it even transcends the country there. “There would have been foreign interest but they took advantage of the poor political climate because of hunger and suffering.
“We know that everybody in Nigeria acknowledges that there is suffering and the suffering did not start last year.
“We’ve been dealing with that issue; you know, suffering, you know, lack of employment; we’re talking about entrepreneurship; virtually every aspect of the economy and security is what we have always been pushing the envelope and seeing how we can attain a better place.”
The former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential campaign spokesman regretted that, despite the president’s efforts, some individuals were threatening to bring down his administration.
He stated: “But suddenly, if you see what the mainstream and social media are all about, they want to bring the government down, and President Bola Tinubu must resign.
“Once you hear that kind of talk and language, then you don’t need somebody to interpret that there is a political connotation.
“You must be aware that people have been holding meetings saying they want to unseat the president. By our Constitution, he has four years, and it’s renewable for another term or four years, and he’s doing everything possible in these four years to deliver on the promise to the Nigerian people. The trajectory he’s going, some of you who are knowledgeable in economics, you would have seen as the data are coming in and some of the indices, and it shows that there is a redirection going on.
“There is no reform that is easy. Go to Brazil or any part of the world if you’re going to do reform; it is not going to be easy. It means that all of us will have to readjust, but the government’s role when you are initiating reform is to bring about intervention, which is what the President is doing, like the release of truckloads of food and then giving monies to… remember the increased allocation to the governors.
“He even committed to helping the organised private sector meet up with the minimum wage.”
