Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Prince Adewole Adebayo has called on Nigerians to walk away from President Bola Tinubu and his All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 presidential election and embrace the SDP for the sake of themselves and their children.
Adebayo said as much as he wishes the president well and prays for him, he would criticize and proffer better alternatives when the president makes wrong policies.
He said “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 has an effect on the security of Nigerians or the welfare of Nigerians 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 said the SDP is not against Tinubu but against under-development, insecurity, poverty, devaluation of currency, lack of transparency and wastefulness, which have come to characterize Tinubu’s government.
He said: “The SDP is not anti-Tinubu. The SDP is anti under development, anti- poverty, anti- insecurity, anti -devalued currency, anti- lack of transparency and wastefulness. We are anti -unemployment. 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 talking about this thing for a long time even under Jonathan. We are consistent about that.”
He lamented that state of 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 sector 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 jam 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 reflecting 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 thoughts 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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