Daniel Bwala, the special adviser to the president on media and policy has giving an insight on why he was very critical of President Bola Tinubu before his appointment as a presidential aide.

Speaking on Arise TV’s Morning Show on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, Bwala said prior to his appointment, he was still a member of the opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

According to Bwala, the job description of the opposition is to criticise the government in power and that was what he did at the time.

He said, “I criticised Tinubu’s election and administration in the past because I was in the opposition.

“The opposition’s work is to criticise the sitting government and hold them accountable. My views changed after I met the President, and he saw a need to appoint me,” Bwala noted.

An avid critic of Tinubu and a former aide to the 2023 presidential candidate of the PDP, Bwala said the president will face numerous challenge with moral legitimacy once he assumes office

Describing Tinubu as ‘president-select’ rather than ‘president-elect’, Bwala accused the president of rigging the 2023 presidential election to clinch power as Nigeria’s number one man.

In a post made on X, he said, “Right now, although the presumption of law is in favour of Tinubu until the final determination of the election tribunal and appeals, he will struggle with moral legitimacy (because he rigged the election) for 240 days of his presidency.”

In another interview with Arise TV News just after the 2023 presidential poll, Bwala said the PDP with Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate won the election.

He stated, “We won. If these results were allowed to be read from the result sheet, we won with over one million votes. Nigerian people voted PDP as the winner of this election, but history and posterity will judge.”