Prince Adewole Adebayo, a lawyer and presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), speaks with OSARETIN OSADEBAWME on his intention to re-enact the 1993 winning by the then SDP, as well as issues concerning the 2023 general election.
What is your mission in politics, given your background as an investor and lawyer?
I am an independent person, just like the late Chief MKO. Abiola was not in government. He was known in accountancy and from accountancy, he went into communication, media, and agriculture. Same can be said of me. I have investments in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, finance. I have been an employer of labour over time and survived the damage the various governments have done to the economy. I have managed to survive it. Even the Federal Government has honored me with the award of the Employer of the Year many times.
My state honours me with the taxpayer of the year regularly. I have a clear idea that in this country, our resources are being wasted. There’s a lot of money in government and the resources are mainly unaccounted for and stolen by people who are in government. They are just there on a looting spree. So, the problems of Nigeria cannot be solved until we comply with Chapter Two of the 1999 Constitution. The document itself is highly suspicious of people in power. It does not want to give them a free rein to do as they wished.
In the light of section 29(1) of the Electoral Act, does any party has a window to change the name of the running mate submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)?
What I can say is this. INEC has lawyers. INEC is not short of legal advice. People are just making interpretations as part of a political contest. If your opponent takes an action, you start criticising him. What I know is that some political parties are taking it to the point of ridicule. If you want to become president in Nigeria,, you are expected to nominate a vice president. You need to be a person who is highly responsible, to respect the office of president to know that a vice president can be president anytime.
If you don’t have a good knowledge of the country, and have not been able to select someone who is appropriate to be a vice president, it shows that you will be a terrible president. Clearly, because of all the pressure of time and pressure from all kinds of quarters, you must tell people that you are capable of giving us a good succession, if circumstances require that. Secondly, it shows that you are fraudulent. If you go to the court to swear an affidavit, then submit the affidavit to INEC that you want to serve as vice-president, only for you to go on national television that you are just a placeholder.
It shows the fraudulent nature of those persons. You cannot go to court to swear an affidavit to an office that you do not intend to serve. So, if circumstances warrant and it can happen anytime, for family reasons, for health reasons, for other reasons somebody whom you have chosen as your vice president, is unable to continue.
The law allows you to substitute if that person withdraws. You cannot stop them from withdrawing. You are not going to crash out because somebody, who was running with you, is not running anymore. If the person withdraws within the time allowed for substitution, the political party is allowed to put another person forward. Now, the definition of candidates include candidates for the office of vice president and a vice president, does not emerge from primary, the office of the vice president is not a contested one. It is a person who is elected who will recommend somebody and once such person accepts and is qualified, that person becomes a candidate and any other thing that applies to a candidate will apply. I don’t want us to go into this. I am not giving legal advice to INEC, they know what you’re supposed to do; a politician is expected to comply with the law. So, every political party should give advice to itself. I don’t want to join in this debate because a lot of the arguments are self-serving. But the law is clear. The INEC has issued guidelines based on the way it understands the Electoral Act. Nobody has gone to court to challenge the commission on the guidelines, which allow for substitution for those who have genuine cases. Those, who are likely to be in trouble are those who said they are placeholders because it shows that the affidavit they swore to is fake; that they lied under oath.
What is the primary focus of the SDP in the first one year, if elected by Nigerians?
One year is too far. One year to a hungry man is a lot of time. First, SDP will offer succour in the course of the campaign. It will let the people know that the problems of Nigeria are impossible to solve; they are not even extremely difficult to solve. So, we’ll give them an outline. We will tell them where their money is to guarantee accountability, transparency and efficiency so that they don’t have this impression that those in government are giving the people and making a lot of young people wanting to leave the country. They tend to give Nigerians that the problems of electricity, water, employment, housing, transportation and security cannot be solved.
They will also ensure that the country is so much in debt; not the current situation where we use almost 90 percent of our money to pay debt with young people thinking there is no future for them. So, our first duty will be to restore hope to Nigerians; to know that the business of government is being mismanaged properly and judiciously. Secondly, we go around the country to show to them that we can run a campaign and that if we are as efficient to run a campaign this way, then running the government would even be much more confident.
Thirdly, when we are elected, we will show you who and who will be running your government. Every ministerial nominee and their portfolios will be announced in March once we are elected in February. So, Nigerians have two months before inauguration to criticise, critique and examine these people in order to give them suggestions and to make that we do not make mistake. I am not going to do what they did; where it took them six months or waited for the Ahmed Joda’s report before they could do anything.
How do you see the issue of devaluation of the national currency so far?
They are doing that deliberately because those in government are pumping all our money into sectors where they will never produce anything. Because of the trend, there’s so much demand for imported items that we need foreign exchange to pay for.
Your party is not trending as other parties online; is it due to poor strategy?
It is not about getting an internet company to be helping you to throw online supporters up and down. It is about penetrating the people where they are and getting the message to them. And this is what the Social Democratic Party will do. The results we are going to get for Nigerian people because things have to change. Otherwise, we’re doomed.
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