Insecurity, sign of poor governance — SDP’s Adebayo

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has blamed the heightened insecurity in the country on leadership failure.

Adebayo, in an interview, decried how insecurity has taken a negative dimension, stating that children now grow up in an environment with no safety.

According to him, neither President Bola Tinubu nor any other candidate in the 2023 presidential election can pretend to be unaware of the insecurity situation before seeking to be elected, adding that the situation is nothing but a sign of poor governance.

He said, “It’s disheartening that insecurity has taken a negative dimension, and now our children grew up in an environment with no safety. We started with the problems of Chibok girls who were kidnapped from the school. If any of those girls was 10 years old then, how old would they be now? So, insecurity is not new. Nobody can say, ‘Oh, when I was running for election in 2023, I didn’t know there was insecurity.’ Any insecurity we have now is a sign of poor governance. I ran on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) with the slogan, ‘farewell to poverty and insecurity’, so we’ve always known that poverty and insecurity go together.

“With the amount of resources that has been committed to insecurity, if we were a country without all these natural resources, what would have happened? We’d be calling on foreign governments to help us. So, I think the government of the day should be held responsible—for failure of intelligence, for not servicing large swathes of the country, and for not responding when intelligence comes. The persistent communal tensions across the country show how frustrated everyone is, and reprisal and revenge now seem like the only way people feel they can even out when they feel injured.”

Speaking on what the government could do to salvage the security situation of the country, the SDP Chieftain opined that a well-thought-out policy around root causes of the problem is expedient.

“The government should go to the root causes. For instance, where herders are involved, government should create a policy around how herders move—a well-thought-out policy. And in case that policy fails, and someone mischievously or accidentally loses cattle, there should be insurance.

“I’m a cattle herder myself. Recently, I lost two cows—I can show you on my phone. But I’m not going to die over it, because I’m self-insured. I raise cattle in ranches. Go to Adamawa, you’ll see my ranches. Even in the Southwest, I have ranches. I have a plan to accommodate the loss of any cattle. If there’s a national insurance program, I will subscribe. Investigate the loss, I get compensation.

“Just like third-party car insurance—you hit my car, you give me your insurance, and I go for claim. No need to slap anybody. We need something similar for herders and crop farmers,” he recommended.

When asked to speak on Boko Haram and other terror groups in the country, Adebayo said it’s not about communal clashes, recounting how government negligence can fuel mistrust.

“For those involving pure criminality, like Boko Haram—based on intelligence available to me, and I believe President Tinubu has access to even better intelligence—it’s not about communal clashes. These are just criminal cells trying to make a statement.

“In a place like Basa, it might look like reprisal rooted in an incident that happened two years ago. I’m not excusing anything, but maybe two years is enough for the government to have reached out. They didn’t.

“Yes. In one of my estate developments in Abuja, about three years ago, the government mistakenly damaged my construction. They sent a whole directorate to apologize, but I still haven’t received compensation. If I was a desperado, and I saw government officials, and something happened, people would say I was crazy. But that’s because the system doesn’t take care of people. Now imagine the less-privileged. These are the problems we must fix to address security.”

Speaking further, the 2023 SDP Presidential candidate described Tinubu as a symbol of leadership failure, noting that the office of Commander-in-Chief is not just about wearing ‘agbada’ but show of compassion and presence.

He added, “Oh, I’m directly saying it’s a failure of leadership. The great Chinua Achebe said it four decades ago, and he was right—leadership is Nigeria’s problem. And I don’t need to tell you that President Tinubu is a symbol of leadership failure. A living example of how leaders fail while still alive.

“But he needs to look around. The office of Commander-in-Chief isn’t just about wearing agbada. The president is the head of state, the father of the country, whom we can be proud of, the comforter of the bereaved. His position requires compassion, it requires presence. Even if the problem is outside your jurisdiction, the President must show empathy—when a boat capsizes, when people die—he must be a comforter of the bereaved, a co-celebrant in joy and a co-mourner in pain.”