By Sunday Ani
As Nigerians prepare to election new set political leaders in 2023 general elections the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adebayo Adewole has charged Nigerians to collectively ensure that they vote of corrupt people out of office, saying it was the only way to set Nigeria free from the malice stunting her growth and preventing the attainment of her full potential.
He insisted that it was only by doing that that the country’s greatness could be achieved. “If you want to kick out poverty and insecurity, you will need to kick out corruption and the only way to do that is to kick the corrupt people out of office,” he noted.
He made the charge recently when he was featured in the Voice of America (VOA), on the invitation of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom .
Insisting that it was the government that is bad and not Nigerians, he said: “Nigeria is synonymous with many good things. It’s the government that is synonymous with corruption, and why they have not been able to change is because they have not changed. When you change the administration, you just recycle same old people. They will not change their behaviour. And the only way to ensure things are different is to vote the corrupt people out of office. That’s what we are going to do in 2023.”
Asked if he has ever been part of the government he was canvassing against, Adebayo said his records were open to the public to know, even he stressed that he is part of the young and fresh Nigerians who are fed up with the sta- tus-quo and wants to change it.
“In all these years, we have not partaken in the corruption of the government. We have not joined them. We have never supported them, and we have not been their bag carrier. Many of the people succeeding them today have always been part of the system. We are completely different and we are from the people. Nigerians know that.
We know that Nigeria’s problems are man made. Ordinarily, as it was designed by nature, Nigeria was not supposed to have problems because every resource you need to develop yourself is there; human capital is also there. Everything you need to succeed is readily available. With all these opportunities, it is unfortunate that the only malice facing the country is bad governance. People know that is why we are running for office. There is nothing wrong with the system from the point of view of those who are in the system. It is only people like us outside the system that know something is wrong. The whole world can see something is wrong with the country, but they can’t see that. What they see is politics of doubling your money. You come into the government, you support someone to come into the government and you continue to loot the country the more. Now the young people outside and the third force are coming to together to push a new narrative so as to push an ordinary person into government so that we can then work within to throw out the system. If you don’t, even if you give them 1000 years, nothing is going to change”.
Meanwhile, Adebayo, who is on tour of Washington DC met with a team of policy advisors and diplomats with keen interest in Nigeria led by former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Professor Robert Destro and deliberated on key common issues of concern between the United States and Nigeria, namely security situation in Nigeria as it affects Nigerians in general and aspects impacting on religious freedom in general, poverty and economic problems, access to US policy makers and understanding of making processes within the United States Government, and international and regional alliances Nigeria needs to overcome her present key challenges.
Adebayo emphasized that his administration would overcome most of Nigeria’s protracted security, economic religious challenges and diplomatic problems with keenness of focus, fair mindedness and robust engagement with the United States.