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By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has listed reasons why President Bola Tinubu will not be taken aback, if he is defeated in the 2027 presidential election. In this interview, he speaks on a wide range of issues.
In faraway Brazil, President Bola Tinubu declared that the reforms his administration has carried out are tough, but like a bitter medicine, once the fever is gone, you would know that the cure was worth it. What do you make of that statement from the President?
Well, I’m happy that the President is going around the world. I’m happy that he went to Brazil, because if ever his policy life is going to change, we will see whether he changes from Brazil. His going to Brazil is the equivalent of Saul becoming Paul, because in Brazil what the Workers’ Party did to become what they are today, the President was giddy about it; he even posed the question what do they have that we don’t have? And I have the answer.
What they have is good leadership and that’s what we don’t have yet. What they have is a poverty reduction manifesto and set of programmes and policies. If you look at Bolsa Familia, which reduced poverty by 27 percent in Brazil in four years under President Lula da Silva’s government, it is the opposite of subsidy, subsidy is gone but it increased poverty exponentially. Look at them. The Central Bank of Brazil is crying because of 4.5 percent inflation. We are celebrating 22 percent inflation, which in reality is 13 percent.
Are you saying that this government is not doing the right thing?
I am not just saying that President Tinubu’s government is not doing the right thing. But I’m saying that they are not just doing the right thing, they are actively doing the bad thing. And the reason I’m able to say that is that the President may disagree with the policy of the SDP. We raised the issue of farewell to poverty and insecurity, and we said you have to make social investment. And we said that you can grow your GDP by making social investment.
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He is trying to grow his own GDP by making social divestment and hoping that Brazilians, because I heard him calling Petrobras to come here, he is hoping that Brazilians, other people who have made social investments at home, and have redeveloped that social investment, are going to bring their own money to come and make foreign investment here. The policy is wrong.
Ahead the 2027 elections, politicking has begun in earnest. You saw what the PDP has done by zoning the presidential ticket to the South. What is your reaction to that?
Well, that’s what they should have done in 2023, because there is a popular demand that there should be equity in the country. So, they have this, at least from the elitist point of view, they have this North-South rotation that they’re doing. So, my only concern is that when it goes to the North, they bring the worst person.
When it comes to the South, they also bring the worst person. But if it can be done positively, when it goes to the North, they bring the best person, so you are voting for them not just because they are from the North, but because they are good for the job. And if it’s the turn of the south, you look for the best candidate also.
So, I think, the party can correct its mistake, because the idea of rotation actually came from PDP. They were the ones who brought the idea of Turn-by-turn Nigeria Limited, as Chief Bode George would call it. So, now that they are finally finding their way, they should not assume that that’s the only problem Nigerians have with them. The problems we have with them is not just the north-south issue, it is the 16 years of bad governance. The luck that PDP has is that as bad as their government was, APC managed to equal them or even top them in mismanagement. Otherwise, Nigerians were not happy with the 16 years of PDP, and I think we haven’t forgiven them. So, it’s good that they’ve done this rotation thing, so to make it easier for them to allow people shift to more substantive arguments as to how to run the government. But I don’t think Nigerians want to see PDP in power.
Some people are of the view that zoning PDP’s presidential ticket to the south is tantamount to giving President Tinubu and the APC a quicker route to win the election in 2027. What do you make of that?
Well, who is going to vote for President Tinubu in 2027 with all this suffering, with all the fake promises? President Tinubu said, don’t vote for me if I don’t give you electricity. Has he given it? He said: ‘I know the job; the job is tough. Let me do what I want to do. If you don’t like it, at the end of the four years, don’t vote for me.’ So, I don’t think if things remain the way they are in 2027, President Tinubu, in good conscience, should be surprised if he’s massively voted out. Nigerians have suffered enough. His policies are not working and it’s not about us. Beside PDP and APC, Nigerians have better options. So, it’s not compulsory that if the PDP commits suicide, automatically, the APC inherits the politics. No, what we know is that APC and PDP are like Siamese twins. They are the same company now. They work together. Nigerians want alternative politics. We are looking for a new direction. That’s what people are saying; new direction. People are talking about a new direction now. There’s nothing new about PDP. Definitely, there’s nothing new about APC. We’ve done change. We’ve done next level. Now, we are in serious suffering. So, I think we need to understand that Nigerians have options. But if by 2027, something changes in terms of macroeconomics, in terms of security, in terms of poverty, in terms of employment, then President Tinubu becomes competitive. But the way it is now, I think that for the good of the country, even for the good of the president himself, he should just go home and thank God that he’s the president for four years.
