By Chioma Gabriel, Editor Special Features

Mr Sunday Dare is the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Public Communications. He served as Nigerian Minister of Youths and Sports from 2019 to 2023 under the Buhari regime. He previously served as Executive Commissioner, Stakeholder Management at the Nigerian Communications Commission.
An experienced journalist, he once served as the Chief of the Hausa Service, African Division of the Voice of America and had managed many portfolios in government.
In this interview, he speaks on what the Tinubu administration is doing to tackle issues confronting the country and what several government policies intend to achieve in the long run. Excerpts:

There is so much hardship, suffering and poverty in this present dispensation. Nigerians have never had it this bad. What is government doing to ameliorate these?

The Federal Government is doing a lot to combat poverty, hardship and suffering amongst the people. I think what’s important is that we speak about what the government is doing, the programmes and policies of government on one hand, which are quite many.

I will state them, but also, we speak to the fact that our people should apply themselves to these opportunities. Are they lining up? Are they applying? Are they showing up? Are they going through the processes?

In America and in Europe, they have some parts of welfare system for unemployed people, they call it unemployed benefits. Before you can benefit from such things, there are forms that you must fill, there are requirements that you must fulfill.

These governments don’t go on people’s doors to offer them. And I’m saying that with the benefit of my own experience, that very often when government has policies and initiatives to augment or to serve as palliatives people are reluctant to apply themselves to the process of application and to benefit. Like they say in sports, if you don’t start a race, you don’t expect to win at all or even to lose if you are not part of that race.

Reforms are progressive. Policies also impact at a progressive level. It doesn’t happen in a single quantum. So, we’re just two years down the road. So, the question we should ask is what have been the impacts and the benefits?

Now, wherever you have changes and reforms, there will be adjustments that will be made. There will be sacrifices. There will be pains and difficulties. Nobody is hiding away from that. President Bola Tinubu repeatedly, even in his statement on May 29th, appealed to Nigerians to say, I know that you’ve been persevering. He thanked them for their perseverance. He thanked them for their understanding. And he said things are beginning to turn around.

What are the things turning around because it’s not impacting the people?

Some of these policies. Take for instance, the NEFLUND. Over 600,000 young people are benefiting from NELFUND soft loans for education. 600,000 young people are collecting N20,000 to augment their feeding and allowances in the universities.

Do you remember the last time we had bursary? The idea of bursary died since. It was state-paid bursary. The state stopped paying bursary. The last time we had anything close to a subsidy for education was under Awolowo when education was free. So, if subsidy on oil was taken away, you see subsidy on education. The subsidy on education, going to our young people, is helping parents who cannot afford to send their children to school. The subsidy on oil was going to some very few, very few Nigerians who are extra wealthy and were appropriating the Commonwealth to themselves. So, you see a people-oriented policy there.

And across the length and breadth of this country, over 300 institutions and more are benefiting. Put that aside. You look at CNG. Yes, subsidy was removed. Price of PMS went up. But President Bola Tinubu embraced CNG from the start, which is a lower cost of powering our cars, which seems gradually, Nigeria is beginning to embrace it.

You look at the social register. The president said it should be expanded to 15 million. It was not up to that before. As we speak, at least 5.7 million households have benefited, and it’s 25,000 three times, N75,000. We have testimonials. The data is there. So, what do you say?

Every government says they have done this, they have done that, but when you look around you, you don’t see anything. You ask around who have benefited from this, you don’t see anybody…

This is a huge country of 230 million. And when you look at that population globally, Nigerian numbers are amongst one of the first 15 countries with the highest. And then you stretch it further, you look at the projection by the United Nations. By 2050, this country will be the fourth or the third largest. We would have the 5th largest or 6th largest population in the world. So, how do you deal with that size of population? No matter what you do, people will still say they don’t feel the impact. But again, it’s progressive.

Maybe the number of people that have benefited is not up to that massive number. Is there any household, hardly any household that has a young person now that will say that their son or daughter is not benefiting from the education subsidy?

It’s also going to take time before this thing seeps down to everybody. But not everybody will get the benefit at once. We’re dealing with limited resources and a massive population. So, it’s a case of seeing the cup half empty or the cup half full. But to ask: is the government doing something?, absolutely. Do we need to scale it up as resources are available? Yes, more Nigerians need to benefit from the cesarean operation. More students need to benefit from the NELfund. More Nigerians need some subsidy on the CNG. Absolutely and as far as they are available. But these options are there, and people are benefiting. And I think it’s critical to understand that.

We say government is a continuum. But each time, an administration will blame the government before it for its shortcomings and ask for time. Before now, Nigerians were complaining they were seeing ‘shege’. But now, it’s like we are in a ‘shege promax’.

There’s no ‘shege promax’. Every country must make a choice. Don’t forget that the person who is president now, President Bola Tinubu, was not president for those first eight years. So, you cannot really blame him.

It’s either you are the president, you are in charge, and you can be held responsible. Like I love to say, every president will fall on his sword. That is, every president will fall on his performance or non-performance. You can only judge this president from the moment he took the oath of office and said, I will lead this country two years ago.

The vehicle is the same, the APC. But he didn’t have the power. He was not directing the resources. He was not building the cabinet. And when he came on, every president or leader inherits the assets and liabilities of the previous government. Whether it’s an APC government or a PDP government, because Nigeria is a continuous project.

Every president also will have to review after building his team to say, these are the problems we have. How are we going to get solutions that will fit this problem and solve them? The president will have to sit down and say, these are the problems we have. What do we prioritise? What resources do I have? What engagements can I make? And then proceed in life function to prioritise these things and deal with them.
We have seen under this president, what has he prioritised in the last two years?

He has prioritised the welfare of our young people when it comes to education. He has prioritised human capital development when it comes to health. He has prioritised infrastructure, which is the backbone of development. In terms of beyond the legacy roads, we see a lot of infrastructure.

So, he’s dealing with those strong pillars that you need to push this economy forward. But most importantly, look at our economy- microeconomic indicators. The data is there beyond paying off debts. Look at them. The strongest growth in 10 years ever. Our GDP has gone up from 2 points to 3.6. The projection by the World Bank is 4.6 towards the end of this year. Look at Nestle. Look at Guinness. Look at MTN. One year ago, they declared losses. They wanted to shut down and pack up. Their first quarter 2025, five of them are declaring profits in billions under the same economy. That means these policies are working. If you adjust yourself, every government will deal with policies because they have goals and objectives they want to meet.

These are the reforms that are necessary that other leaders have scattered around, did not want to take those tough decisions. This president has bitten the bullet and we’re beginning to see the positive impacts. Maybe they are not coming as fast but the fact that we’re seeing impacts shows that we’re on the right path. And in another year or two, we’ll see that more Nigerians will benefit.

Why then is the Tinubu administration not seen to be enjoying the support of Nigerians?

Which data supports that? Who did that survey? Where is the data that says the administration is not enjoying the support of Nigerians?

The ordinary people, those are the people who go to stand on queues to vote on election days. These are the people not affording to put food on their table, pay their rent and tackle other family issues
But it must also look at the database. You see, you’re dealing with 200 million people. You can’t just assume that the people are not supporting the administration.

Why am I saying data? The Financial Times did a piece on May 29th, and they went through the policies of the government, and they said, Mr President, you must stay on the path of reforms that you have instituted because the country is on the right path. That’s one.

Our rating by the Fitch is now moved up to the B rating, which is critical. They look at data, the microeconomic data and all of that. Again, Moody, three days ago moved our rating up again. So, where is the data? I’m not saying that people are not feeling the effect, but to generalise that everybody is crying, that 200 million people are crying. No.

What is your honest assessment of the security situation in the country because terrorists are everywhere

Let me take you back to data again, very briefly. Yes, the security problem that we have has been on right from the time of President Goodluck Jonathan. And it’s been ongoing. And every president has come to try as much as possible. President Jonathan did his best. Former President Muhammadu Buhari did his best. We know that under him, we reclaimed about 11 local governments that were taken away from Nigeria. We’re able to regain those territories.

President Tinubu also inherited a few security challenges in certain parts of the country. And these are being addressed. When you look at the number, the figures two years ago and the figures now in terms of terrorists and leaders of gangs that have been either arrested or annihilated, you see a progressive effort being made.

Two years ago, most farmers were driven off their farms, Birnin-Gwari, which is the biggest grains belt in the north, in Kaduna State and even in the farms, even the cocoa farms in the southwest and the rest. But what have we seen in the last one year? We have seen that the Birnin-Gwari corridor, where the grains come from, we’ve seen videos and testimonies saying, look, these guys are back on their farms. Almost 95% of the farmers are now millionaire farmers, millionaire farmers from there because they can go to their farms. Suddenly, cocoa has gone up because in the Osun or the southwest belt where cocoa comes, the farmers are back on their farms.

Look, we’re back on our farms. We’re not saying security is 100%. What we’re saying is that most of these farmers are back on their farms.

So, yes, we have a security problem, which is also traceable to the Sahel and the Lake Chad region. Clearly, our borders are porous, border management is bad, our borders are unpoliced. We have more than 1,900 kilometers of border with Cameroon. We have 1,400 or 1,300 kilometers of border with Niger Republic. These borders are unprotected, they are not properly managed.

What do you see from the Libyan corridor? Small arms and the rest are pouring in. From the Niger corridor, small arms, bandits and terrorists are pouring in. It’s a humongous challenge, which Nigeria was mixed by collaborating with other countries. And that is ongoing.

When you look at other countries, it was not until they fenced up their borders to some extent. Even America is building a wall to fence up its borders from criminals and the rest of them. So, the security challenge is humongous. This administration is facing it head on. We have seen that in the last two weeks, even the governor of Borno State has said there has been improvement because of the response they have gotten from the Nigerian military and the armed forces.

So, when you are dealing with low intensity war, you are dealing with: ISIS, ISWAP, criminal banditry gangs and kidnappers, it takes time. There will be few losses, but of course there will be several wins. And I believe very strongly that this administration is committed to making sure that our borders are secured, and our farms are secured.

Let me say this finally. The president three weeks ago also agreed and announced that forest guards should be hired across the country and that process is going on. We have 1,129 forests across the country. These forests are unpoliced. Where do these bandits hide? Where do these terrorists hide? In the forests. Now, this president has directed that our young people be trained, they be armed to serve as forest guards. Now, increasingly as we get that done and these people are brought on, we get another level of security for our farmers.

About N19 trillion has allegedly been spent on addressing insecurity in the country. But there have not been proofs. Where is the money going to?

You know, you also said allegedly. Yes. who alleges must prove. I have not seen, apart from the allegation, I have not seen the documents that speak to this. So, I can’t really respond because I’m also trained in the legal profession. I can’t respond to allegations that are not backed by documentation. And that’s the truth.

Again, when you look at the anti-corruption report card of this administration, you must give it some credit, you know, without any presidential obstruction. The president has not stood in the way of the anti-corruption war. And I think the biggest ever result we got was 752 houses, duplexes that were seized by the EFCC and returned to the Nigerian government and the Nigerian people. So, on that allegation, unless there’s documentation out there, it remains a mere allegation, and it must be proven. Whoever alleges must prove.

It’s like we are heading towards a kind of dictatorship or one-party system with all these defections to APC or that some people are being threatened to go and join the ruling party to secure the second term in office. Where is that taking us? Is it democracy?

If you look at Nigeria’s political history, we’ve always had alliances, maybe one or two mergers, but we’ve also had people moving from one party to another. I think that when you look at it, I remember the late Wahab Dosunmu, who moved away from the Unity Party to the NPN, and you know that our 26 years of democracy, seeing these decamping and people moving from one party to another, is the nature of multi-party democracy anywhere in the world.

People can decide to change their ideologies; they can change their party affiliation. As far as I know in our constitution, it is not a crime to move from one party to another, once your conviction changes.
Now, why we are having these defections in our party the APC? It’s simply because the APC is the ruling party and because we also have a performing president.

People have seen the strong indicators. They’ve seen that the policies of this government are progressive. They’ve seen the direction. They’ve seen a leader who is bold and courageous, who is willing to take and ready to take the necessary decisions to move this country forward.

So, people just don’t move. They also moved based on certain political interests, which of course is permanent, but also, they moved with the indicators they see. They see a government that is performing. They see a government that they can further the aspirations of their own people and their development. They see a centre that they want to collaborate with rather than antagonise.

So, for me, there’s nothing. They talk about a one-party state. The last time I checked, we had about 18 or 19 political parties registered by INEC. The last time I checked, PDP is still a party. Labour Party is still there and a couple of other parties. So, you must play the politics. You can’t blame somebody else for playing the politics. So, defection is part of multi-party democracy and there’s nothing wrong with it.

The claim in many quarters is that the APC government has pocketed the judiciary, pocketed INEC and pocketed all the government agencies. So, if you are not a member of the party, you are on your own. For instance, the claim is that the concerns that the judgment of the Supreme Court is giving many interpretations. For instance, what is happening in Rivers State and other judgments of the Supreme Court? They seem to be confusing people, and they say it’s the government that is using courts and the judiciary and the INEC to attack other political parties. Is it true?

You know, this is not true. And like you said, it must be proven because you said it’s also an allegation, if I’m right. Isn’t it? Like I said, this president does not abuse his presidential powers. This administration respects the independence of the judiciary.

Under this government, we have seen APC governors being taken through the grind. I don’t want to mention their names. We have seen members of APC also taken through the grind and through the judicial process without any interference from the government. And I think it’s important to pay attention to this, that judiciary has got independence, the executive has got independence, just as the legislature has got independence. Now, it also depends on which side you are standing in the game. It’s a question of perception. And I think the matter of River State is settled, the emergency in River State is for six months or maybe less.

There are considered condition precedents. Before this happened, we had a former president, Obasanjo who also invoked his powers to declare a state of emergency. Before this, we had President Jonathan. There is also the principle of statecraft that says that when you perceive that there will be a dislocation in the political setup and a likely constitutional crisis, that the leader or the president is expected to act. That is more than statecraft. And when you look at the provisions of our constitution, the president did not act out of tune or in conflict with the provisions of our constitution. And you know this debate and argument has been on for a while, and I think it’s all settled now, that the president is very clear that the president took a timely and well-informed and legally backed decision on that declaration.

Again, it’s for six months. And there’s the possibility that if things return to normal before the end of six months, that will be lifted. And already we’re seeing a semblance of reconciliation, understanding and peace coming to that place. Imagine if the president did not take any decision, and we’re at that octane level, octane level of combustion. The story of Rivers State would have been different.

He said that this government is pro-anti-corruption. But if you look, there are some persons that EFCC had convicted in the past, and some of them are holding strategic government appointments and positions. So why would government allow them to be in such positions?

You must also be very specific. You can’t be general here. Because I know EFCC says most of their investigations are open and they are continuing. We have seen EFCC after five years go after somebody. Not that EFCC forgot. The EFCC is doing its investigation. And see, until they conclude that investigation the person is not guilty until there is the conclusiveness. So, when you say there are some people, we need to be specific. We need to be specific of this person. And then we need to have the information to say where the EFCC on this matter is.

Again, I say this administration does not condone corruption. It’s very important to say that. But let me also put this out very clearly. In 2024 alone, the EFCC secured a record-breaking 4,000-plus conviction, making it the most successful year. They recovered 364 billion in foreign currency alone. Then you have the single largest seizure of property that we got, 725 units of duplexes and apartments.

The EFCC is working. They have hundreds and hundreds of cases. But you can see, you know, beyond political corruption, you are dealing with wire fraud. You are dealing with so many other crimes because it’s looking at the whole gamut of crimes. Again, this is a huge country. There are huge challenges. There are so many cases to handle. And I think the EFCC, and the administration is up to task.

Let’s talk more about security and social welfare…

I think this administration’s security to the largest extent is impressive. We have had over 13,500 terrorists, bandits, and insurgents that have been neutralised. About 7,000 have been arrested in the past one year alone. Yes, there are still some abduction and some violent attacks. That, of course, we know must be continuously addressed. We’ve also seen proactive responses by this government to security-related matters. We just paved the way for the farmers to return to their farms. And we have testimonials to that effect.

Now, you also look at terms of development, regional development. Look at where we were before, the first 30 years of our independence. Development at the regional levels was accelerating at a pace that was commendable. We have had this president, President Bola Tinubu, take the bold initiative to set up six development commissions. And that is what you call regional equity or development equity. Given each of these commissions: The Southwest Development Commission; The Northeast Development Commission; The Northwest Development Commission and the NDDC.

Prior to now, we only had one. We only had the Northeast Development Commission in the last administration. Now we have regional equity and development equity. And each of them is getting a quantum of budget to be able to deal with the critical development issues in their regions. And I think that is very, very notable. It’s something that we must recognise as one of the best decisions taken by this administration.

Let me also add this very quickly. And it’s important. When it comes to the microeconomic story of this country, and I think that is the strongest suite of this government. You know, in America, what they say is it’s the economy stupid.

Our economic indicators are strong. Subsidies that were depleting our resources in this country have been removed. State governments and some regional governments, because of the subsidy removed, are now receiving an increase of almost 62% revenue allocations monthly, higher than what they were earning before. And several governors have testified to this. Our revenue has gone up by over 21%. We’re now at 21.6 trillion. So, we’ve seen more resources, more revenue being generated, more resources being freed up.

There is a correlation between inflation and cost of living. As the inflation rate comes down, the cost of living also comes down. You see this government tweaking its microeconomic policies to make sure that inflation comes down so that cost of living will come down.

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