I’ll ensure Tinubu becomes Nigeria’s last bad president – Adebayo

From Sunday Ani

Prince Adewole Adebayo, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate in the 2023 presidential election, has vowed to make President Bola Tinubu Nigeria’s last bad leader in the 2027 elections. He criticised the tendency to complain about poor leadership without taking action to change it.

Adebayo noted that Nigerians have long grumbled about leaders from Goodluck Jonathan to Muhammad Buhari and now Tinubu, citing their lack of direction, yet have not acted decisively to elect better leaders.

He believes the solution lies in transforming the country’s politics.

“If you listen to politicians, they will tell you, oh, the president who is there now is the problem,” he said.

“Then, it was anybody but Jonathan. And then, oh, Buhari is the problem; he’s clueless and whatever. Now, Tinubu is the problem, but I can tell you, my mission is to make sure that Tinubu is the last of the bad presidents.”

To achieve this, Adebayo advocated changing how politics is conducted. “You will change the politics,” he said. “You will make Nigerians believe in the politics of their country, reasonable people who will not touch politics with a long pole. When politics is done properly, ethically, and legitimately, they will come into it.”

He emphasised that ethical politics would attract talent and reduce the influence of money. “Once we change that system, it doesn’t matter if Tinubu can resign tomorrow,” he added. “What we need is to change the politics, and to do that, we must first change our political party, and anyone who looks at the SDP knows that we have changed the party for the better.”

Adebayo urged Nigerians to raise their standards and hold politicians accountable. “The mandate comes from the people, and once the people raise their bar, some politicians will respond to it and some will fall by the wayside,” he said. He rejected the politics of money, stating, “I’m not going to accept.”

He encouraged Nigerians to adopt the SDP to address political ills. “That is what the leadership of the SDP is working to achieve,” he said. “If you speak to our national chairman, Shehu Gabam, our national secretary, Olu Ogunloye and other leaders of the party, you’ll see that down our ladder and our organogram, we are reminding everyone who joins the party that they are welcome.”

The SDP’s manifesto and constitution focus on the masses’ plight, he noted. “What we want is for the party to be adopted by the Nigerian people as a platform to correct what is wrong in our politics,” he said.