A chieftain of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has stated that President Bola Tinubu has not been able to solve the country’s socio-economic and political challenges because his interest lies in winning elections, not in governance.
He alleged that once elections are over and victories achieved, Tinubu begins planning for the next election and abandons governance.
“President Tinubu’s problem is that he doesn’t want to be a winner in governance; he wants to be a winner in elections. Once he wins the election, he says, ‘It’s over, let me plan for the next one.’ As a result, his governance team can’t govern because they are essentially a campaign team,” he said.
He supported his position by referencing President Tinubu’s popular charge to his supporters before the 2023 presidential election that power is not served à la carte, and that they should “snatch it, grab it, and run away with it.”
He lamented that having snatched, grabbed, and run away with power, as evidenced in his controversial election victory, Tinubu has thrown himself into serious trouble. According to him, governance is not about snatching and grabbing but about careful planning and execution.
“President Tinubu was reputed to have told his supporters before the 2023 elections in London that power is not served à la carte,you have to grab it, snatch it, and run away with it. So now, having grabbed and snatched it, he is in serious trouble, because governance cannot be snatched; governance is about planning. It’s about recruiting the right people for the job.
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“When you are the President of Nigeria, you are the Commander-in-Chief and are managing human resources. If you manage human resources well, they can help you acquire even the material resources you don’t have. But they are not managing human resources properly, because the best people are not in government, and the people are not being led in the best possible way,” he said.
He noted that, as the opposition, they are already engaging in discussions aimed at changing the people’s mindset from the current government’s approach. He emphasized that citizens should be more concerned about what politicians deliver in office rather than what they offer on their way to power, stressing that this is the only path to good governance.
He said: “So, the opposition will face different challenges regarding how politics is done. We are having a conversation with the Nigerian people that their expectations of political parties must be based on what those parties will do when in power,not on what they hand out on their way to power. If this conversation is understood, even the way we select our candidates will change.
“We need to ask: Can he perform when elected? Can he mobilize people? Can he unite the country? Some of the differences we see driven purely by ambition will be set aside when people understand what it means to have a winning team.”
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