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By Sunday Ani
Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, has accused the President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) led Federal Government of turning down projects that could have been of immense benefits to the country.
Adebayo said he once attracted power projects to the country at no cost on the part of the Federal Government, but some officials of the present APC government under Buhari, turned it down because they felt it would not serve their personal interest.
A successful businessman, Adebayo said he wanted to help the country to solve its lingering power problems, so he brought a business initiative that would not only increase power generation in the country, but also provide about two million jobs in Nigeria but some officials of the current APC government rather than support and give all the necessary assistance to the initiative, frustrated it by asking for bribes. “I am not saying this to embarrass anybody. Do you know that for three years I have been talking to the present government to help generate electricity and create about two million jobs for Nigerians? It costs absolutely nothing to the government. I have held meetings with them. I have met the minister countless times. I have even taken it to the highest level. They just won’t let it be done. I am not faking it. I am just talking out of respect, but if they react to it and ask me to come and say it, I will mention names, date and everything. I showed them the amount of money the Europeans are coming in to invest. I told them that I am their lawyer. They were sending people to go and negotiate with them; they wanted to know what was in it for them. Those ones got mad and were asking if my people had mental problems. They said they were coming to my country to help people to generate electricity, and not to collect any money from us but this is what my people are doing,” he stated.
Adebayo boasted that he has not experienced power outages in his Abuja office in the last 15 years because he got the office off the national grid. “And that’s 15 years back. I am not talking about theory. These are things I have done and still doing. That is why I charged Nigerians to examine people’s lives before giving their votes to them. These kinds of solutions don’t and won’t make ministers rich. A minister who signs an agreement with a foreign investment to come and do electricity in Nigeria gains nothing personally; it is only the country that gains and these people are not in government to gain. There is nothing wrong with our country. We are the problems to ourselves,” he said.
While fielding questions from Nigeria on Twitter platform conversation with hashtag #TalkingJobson,#GettingitrightNig with Prince Adewole Adebayo, anchored by human rights lawyer, Segun Awosanya, popularly known as Sega, he reiterated his promise to provide 30 million jobs in the first instance if elected as president. He further noted that he had secured the agreement to provide jobs, with 2000 American companies that are willing and ready to come over to Nigeria to establish and provide employment. “I am already preparing what should be done when I am elected; I am not looking for what to do when I get into office. I am an employer of labour. Kaftan Television, the pharmaceutical company and my farms have employed many people who are working there. At present, I am training about 500 random people in green energy. They are being trained by four companies. These are people who have never seen solar panels before. They are getting physical and remote training from the manufacturers. By the time they are through, they can become trainers, and before you know it, you will see how the sector would boom. Imagine if I was training 500,000, you can see that the jobs are already being created,” he stated.
On insecurity, he said the Commander in Chief could never be innocent anytime security was implicated because according to him, the president and indeed, every president, has the ability to reach his troops anywhere they are located in the country. He said: “A soldier, who is at the checkpoint, takes final orders from the president. When I was going to Ekiti State during the governorship election, I was not allowed to enter Ekiti because the soldiers stopped me and it was a shock to me. None of us, including my convoy, was allowed into Ekiti. My security called the captain who said sir, we have orders that you should not enter, so you contact the governor. I said God forbid that I must contact Kyode Fayemi, the Ekiti State Governor before I enter Ekiti. He insisted that it was the order but luckily enough, I had the contact of the Chief of Defence Staff. I called his office, and somebody in his office answered, I said I am the presidential candidate of my party, I am going to Ekiti for a rally and I have been held back here for more than an hour. He asked: by who? I said soldiers. He said it was not possible. I gave the phone to the captain. He asked him, have you lost your mind; what concerns the army with elections? Let the man go. He gave me a salute and I went my way. The Chief of Defence Staff is one step away from Buhari. It means the Commander in Chief has effective control. So the C-in-C cannot be innocent when security is implicated because all the information is at his disposal.”
