From Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja
The 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, has lamented that President Bola Tinubu’s security chiefs are incompetent.
He made this disclosure at the 50th birthday celebration of his wife, Queen Lilian Adebayo, in Abuja.
He stressed that Nigerians were not supposed to be surprised with the present economic situation because they knew before now that the present administrators won’t take governance serious.
“We knew this was how they would behave. What shocks me about Nigerians is that they are surprised about Tinubu; we knew that these people don’t take governance seriously.
“They take elections seriously, but not governance. The first duty of a president is to be commander-in-chief. The first order of business of government is national security, then the welfare of the people, justice, development and infrastructure. So, it’s a disappointment.
“I personally do not like to politicise insecurity because when there is insecurity and you criticise the government, in a way, that can encourage terrorists and other criminals to think that they can influence our politics by committing more atrocities. But in this case, the incompetence of President Tinubu and his security team speaks for itself.”
Speaking on the president’s present trip out of the country, he said if the president was a serious-minded person, he would have come home and address the issues on ground.
“The president should look at the security architecture of the country and look at governance with more seriousness.”
He described his wife as a blessing and his greatest achievement in life, adding that she taught him from being a boy to being a man.
On his part, Chairman, Forum of State Chairmen of the SDP, Femi Olaniyi Ferrari, pleaded with Nigerians to join the SDP to rewrite the story of Nigeria.
“We can all understand what everyone is passing through in Nigeria now. We asked for a change but the change has short-changed us and the economy is nothing to write home about.
“The only thing we can do now is to plead with everybody, including the youths and the market women to join the SDP. We are trying to change the polity.
“We have seen what the so-called political gladiators have done in Nigeria in terms of insecurity and bad economy,” he stated.
Earlier, the National Secretary of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Chief Peter Ameh, noted that coalition was crucial in addressing Nigeria’s present situation.
“I think every gathering should also have a bit of discussion about how Nigeria should move forward because the current suffering that Nigerians are experiencing under this incompetent governance system is something that we must halt.
“As the people come to dialogue, whether we find ourselves in a place of celebration or worship, it’s very important that we look at Nigeria and discuss it.
“There is hunger on the streets, Nigerians are depressed with high tariffs in electricity and data and the cost of living has gone so high since President Tinubu came into office,” Chief Ameh decried.