Chieftain of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Prince Adwole Adebayo has called for the rejection of President Bola Tinubu and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
He called on Nigerians to embrace the SDP for the sake of the future.
He noted that even though he wishes the President well and prays for him, he would not hesitate to speak up and proffer better alternatives when the president begins to churn out wrong-headed policies.
“I wish the President well, and I pray for him every day. I tell everybody who wants to pray for anybody in this country, to pray for President Tinubu because anything he does affects the security of Nigerians, the welfare and the progress of the country.
“However, when he is having wrong-headed policies, it is my duty to point them out; not only that, it is also my duty to proffer alternatives to Nigerians and demonstrate to Nigerians that those alternatives are better. And when you have an opportunity, just walk away from Tinubu and APC and their policies for the sake of your children and grandchildren, and seek alternatives. Consider the SDP and our platform. There is no enmity in that,” he said.
He equally made it clear that the SDP is not against President Tinubu but against under-development, insecurity, poverty, devaluation of currency, lack of transparency and wastefulness, which have come to characterise Tinubu’s government.
He said: “The SDP is not anti-Tinubu. The SDP is against underdevelopment, poverty, insecurity, devalued currency, lack of transparency and wastefulness. We are unemployed. And Tinubu just happens to produce a lot of those things now. And so sometimes when we talk about it, it will look like, oh, we are against the president, but we have been talking about this thing for a long time even under Jonathan. We are consistent about that.”
He lamented the poor state of the textile industry, the petroleum industry as well as agricultural sector in the country, stressing that many people are disappointed with President Tinubu because they thought that he would have fixed those sectors in the last two years of his government.
“Our textile industry is gone. Our petroleum industry is just about to restart a good thing now, after two decades of doldrums. Our agriculture is not working. So, it doesn’t matter that President Tinubu is there now, whoever is there now, our criticism will be the same, but many people are disappointed that President Tinubu whom they thought would be able to do very good work has not managed to show that,” he said.
Adebayo, however, noted that he was not disappointed with Tinubu and that was why he contested against him in 2023. He stressed that he would still contest against him in 2027 if given the opportunity because he is currently pushing a lot of Nigerians into poverty in a country that is richly blessed.
“But I’m not disappointed. That was why I opposed him. That was why I ran against him last time, and that is why I’m going to run against him now if the opportunity comes my way.
“The issue is that speaking against traffic jams doesn’t mean you hate drivers. Speaking against hunger doesn’t mean you hate the Minister of Agriculture. Speaking against poor academic grades doesn’t mean you hate the Minister of Education. It is that these are things we shouldn’t have. I don’t like an epileptic power supply, but it doesn’t mean I hate the minister in charge of power. It’s just that these are not good things to have.
“The President is making a lot of Nigerians poor. He is leaving millions behind, and a lot of money is being spent on the budget and outside the budget, which are not reflected in the welfare of the people.
“It doesn’t matter who is there. These are not good things. And these are things even the President himself, when he was in the opposition, campaigned against, and I believe that in his heart of heart, he should not be satisfied.
“I don’t think that his vision for himself is that two years after being in power, people will still be shouting hunger, under-development and unemployment everywhere. The currency will be so badly damaged to this point that inflation will be going to almost the middle of the double-digit.
“So, I don’t think he wants all of that. And I believe that he is probably struggling on his own, trying to figure out how to right some of these wrongs. And our job is to provide alternatives because there are certain easy options, valuable options that President Tinubu is not considering, which shows to me that he has given serious thought to the method he is using now. And he genuinely believes, even though wrongly, that these methods are going to work.
“I hope they work, but I know that historically, they have never worked. So, I’m trying to prepare Nigerians for an alternative that will be better than this,” he said.
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