Special Adviser to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Economic Affairs, Tope Fasua, has claimed that the living conditions of poor Nigerians are improving under the current administration.Speaking during an interview with Channels Television, Fasua defended the Tinubu government’s economic policies and efforts to tackle poverty, insisting that increased funding to state and local governments is beginning to yield positive results.
According to him, the President’s push for local government autonomy is central to addressing poverty at the grassroots level.
“The solution to poverty is actually at the local government level, and that’s the reason why the President has advocated for local government autonomy,” Fasua said.
He argued that improved allocations to states and local governments have helped ensure the prompt payment of workers’ salaries and pensions, unlike in the past when some civil servants were owed salaries for several months.
“Those days when civil servants would be owed 18 months, 12 months or six months’ salaries are gone. Pensioners are getting their money, and that’s where it matters,” he stated.
Fasua maintained that the welfare of the country’s poorest citizens is gradually improving, attributing the development to increased financial resources being channelled to sub-national governments.
“I can tell you that, honestly, for the very poor people in this country, the situation is getting better, perhaps better than it used to be,” he said.
He also stressed that effectively tackling poverty requires detailed documentation of households, citing China’s poverty eradication programme as an example.
According to Fasua, such data collection can only be effectively carried out by state and local governments, making decentralised implementation essential to the Federal Government’s anti-poverty strategy.
The presidential adviser further expressed confidence that the administration’s economic policies and increased funding to sub-national governments would boost President Tinubu’s chances of re-election.
“These monies that have been pushed to them are what are going to win the election for us. I have no doubt that Bola Ahmed Tinubu is coming back in 2027 anyway,” he added.
