- Presidency Stands by Tinubu’s Policies, Calls for Balanced Media Reporting
- Dare rejected the paper’s description of it as “worthless”
- Dare said three million vulnerable households have received ₦75,000 each
The Presidency has criticised a recent editorial by Daily Trust newspaper, calling it exaggerated, unbalanced, and a misrepresentation of the country’s current situation.
Eko Hot Blog reports that Sunday Dare, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Public Communications, said in a statement on Friday that while the administration welcomes constructive criticism, it must be based on facts rather than distortion or selective negativity.
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He acknowledged that the Tinubu administration is aware of the economic difficulties faced by some Nigerians but warned against allowing exaggerated pessimism and generalisations to distort reality.
“The irony is that what is often criticised today are actually policies designed to secure a more stable, prosperous future for Nigerians,” he said.
Referring to a hunger projection linked to UNICEF cited by the newspaper, Dare clarified that it was drawn from the Cadre Harmonisé Food and Nutrition Insecurity Analysis, a worst case scenario for the June to August 2025 lean season not a current statistic.
He listed government actions to prevent that outcome, including releasing over 42,000 metric tons of grains from federal strategic reserves, procuring an additional 117,000 metric tons, activating the Food Security Council, and scaling up emergency nutrition support in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Katsina, Sokoto, and Bauchi states.
On the naira’s performance, Dare rejected the paper’s description of it as “worthless,” noting the currency had strengthened from ₦1,800 to the dollar in March 2024 to about ₦1,525 to the dollar as of August 1, 2025.
“The naira has not collapsed, it has been corrected and is now recovering,” he said, crediting the rebound to higher oil revenues, restored investor confidence, unification of the foreign exchange market, and reduction of the foreign exchange backlog by over four billion dollars.
The presidential aide also dismissed claims that the school feeding programme had “fizzled out,” stressing that over 9.8 million children in 53,000 schools still benefit, along with more than 200,000 cooks and local farmers across the country.
Dare added that three million vulnerable households have received ₦75,000 each through the Renewed Hope Conditional Cash Transfer, with plans to reach 15 million households, while over 396,000 students benefit from tuition loans and stipends via NELFUND.
He highlighted the President’s recently approved Renewed Hope Ward Development Programme, which targets all 8,809 wards in Nigeria with interventions focused on poverty reduction, food security, infrastructure, power, and job creation.
“This administration does not ask for silence in the face of hardship. It asks only for fairness and a shared commitment to rebuilding this country, not just exaggerating its pain,” he concluded.
