Daniel Bwala, President Bola Tinubu's Special Advisor on Media and Public Communications, has revealed that foreign people suspected of being connected to insecurity in several areas of Nigeria have been detained by Nigerian forces. Bwala revealed this during an appearance on EchoRoom's panel discussion, The Link Up Podcast, which was released on Friday.
He claimed that foreign nations' meddling in Nigeria's domestic affairs was linked to economic and national security concerns, especially the nation's oil reserves and previous Federal Government policy choices.
"If you recall, the Federal Government of Nigeria made a decision at that time, and immediately we started seeing people in Nigeria lifting Russian flags," Bwala remarked, alluding to protests that erupted in Kano and other regions of northern Nigeria.
"Foreign nationals have been arrested by our soldiers in the middle of the country," he declared. In order to preserve existing diplomatic relations, he continued, the military had purposefully concealed the identity of foreign people detained during operations.
The Nigerian government has relations to such nations, but the military declined to reveal their nationality for security concerns.
He stated, "If you catch someone like that, you keep them until that country has something also, so you do prisoner exchange."
Bwala noted that nations seldom admitted intelligence operations, instead depending on what he called plausible deniability, and that friendlier nations were instead requested to take corrective action rather than face public admission.
When asked if the US Central Intelligence Agency was involved in financing terrorism in Nigeria, Bwala claimed he could not verify the allegation but recalled that a US Congressman named Scott Perry had questioned a CIA director about it during a congressional session.
He stated, "I'm not saying he's right or wrong, but an incident like that has happened, and as a nation, we cannot hear that and say you are a liar."
Regarding the activities of the Islamic State West Africa Province and Boko Haram, Bwala stated that the groups had moved from the North-East to the North-West and were advancing toward the North-Central, a development he claimed the government was attempting to stop before it reached southern Nigeria.
Although he acknowledged that infiltration by informants was not impossible, he refuted claims that the military protects terrorists during operations, characterizing such claims as speculative. He made comparisons to the case of American whistleblower Edward Snowden and a senior police officer who had previously been arrested alongside Chinese nationals.
Bwala also criticized what he called inadequacies in coordination between the Nigerian Army and the Air Force during Muhammadu Buhari's immediate previous administration, claiming that these shortcomings had since been rectified under the present administration.
Citing increases in the nation's foreign reserves and earnings, he gave President Bola Tinubu a high performance rating and advised Nigerians to determine for themselves if the President was deserving of a second term.