In this interview with ROTIMI IGE, a presidential aspirant on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 general election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, promises to tackle insecurity and corruption if elected president.
You are contesting on the platform of Social Democratic Party (SDP). Compare to the most dominant parties, why this party, and not the APC or the PDP?
You cannot say before you join the fire service, you first of all be an arsonist. You cannot say I have to be a reckless driver before I can join the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). You cannot say I should be an armed robber before joining the police. You cannot say before I join the Economic and Financial Crime commission (EFCC) to fight economic crimes, I should first be a yahoo person. This country is where it is today because of the PDP and the APC. Why would I join them? They are not making mistakes? They are deliberately impoverishing the people.
But the two parties are well-grounded in terms structure and grassroots penetration, which of course, accelerate their victory.
Their victory is not from the people but from rigging and that’s why you see them struggling with the Electoral Act and all the manipulations. In any case, what is the essence of the power if you are not going to help the people? Do you think (former) President Goodluck Jonathan is a happy man today? He is not. He tasted power but he made no difference in the life of anybody. Do you think President Buhari is happy man today, if he can reflect? He has gone from hero to zero, because of what: ‘let me join those who can make me win quickly.’ I am following the mantle of the late Chief MKO Abiola, which is farewell to poverty. And now I say farewell to poverty and insecurity. If I am saying farewell to poverty, who is the author of poverty except PDP. If I am saying farewell to insecurity, who are the architects, custodians, profiteers of insecurity except APC? How can I go and join them to stop their business? You cannot join the wrong coalition in order to win at all cost. But if you join the looters, the compromised, the riggers, the manipulators, you can travel fast, but you will not go far.
You speak so confidently as if you are sure of victory.
My confidence is coming from the place of justice. I believe that God didn’t create a country like this of 200 million people to be enslaved. That is not the belief I have. I believe God is showing us an experiment and in the fullness of time, this people will overreach themselves and an ordinary person will come and knock them down. This is the David/Goliath situation. I believe the David is the Nigerian collective people. I am not the David, the Nigerians are. I am just the sling. That sling cannot direct itself but David was divinely inspired to throw that sling. I am that sling that would hit the head of looters in this country. All of these things are testimonies to the conclusion of a wicked system. I am not competing with them in the area of bullion vans and I am not competing with them in the area of bogus consensus they are doing, manipulations and the breach of trust they are doing. I am just taking my message to the people; that journey that began in 1993 which Abiola was killed and everything came to a halt has begun again. These people have asked for power, they have been given, they did nothing with it. They asked for billions, they gave them and they cornered it; they have done nothing with it. They have taken the centre-stage of our political life; they have done nothing with it. They have left the people impoverished and pauperised and they are deliberately withholding the benefits of the people of Nigeria. Electoral defeat is enough for this set of people. This generation took all the benefits to themselves and their children. Now they are doing a day-light robbery. They rob crèches, primary school, hospitals and mortuaries. Everything that has money in it is stolen in this country. Enough is enough. People can’t be condemned to perpetual hopelessness. Nigerians are neglected and in perpetual penury, and yet their country is rich, very rich.
In the course of consultations across the country, what was the reception like, especially the powers-that-be you visited?
I have gone round the country. I am still touring. I have seen former heads of state, traditional rulers, former governors, politicians, religious leaders, market men and women. The response has been warm and the message is clear. The former rulers have given their perspective and where things went wrong and what they want to see. None of them, I can tell you, is happy. Whether you contributed one way or another to where the country is today, none of them thought things would go this bad. They have become victims themselves. They have equally lost hope in the generation that is ruling now but that is compensated for that they have great hope in our generation.
What would you do differently, if given the opportunity to superintend Nigeria regarding the insecurity in the country?
Insecurity is the easiest problem to solve. The insecurity in the country is a government-induced insecurity. The Nigerian government is the source of the insecurity because it has become a business. Just like fuel scarcity, they have turned it into business. Lack of electricity is a problem they have turned into business. None of the Nigerian problem is difficult to solve. The solutions to our problems are already there.
The Nigerian army of today is better than the Nigerian army of the ECOMOG time. But what is happening now is that they have turned insecurity into multi billionaires out of the generals, permanent secretaries, contractors and politicians. When you talk to some members of the armed forces, they would tell you that they are not lazy and that they can finish these rogue fighters within a short time. Even during the Nigerian Civil War, there were a few who saw the war as a business; the majority of members of the armed forces took the war seriously and that was why we were able to fight the war without borrowing a dime to execute it. Awolowo was the finance minister in Gowon’s government. It was a policy of that government at that time that they would not borrow money to execute the war. Awolowo was auditing and editing almost every bullet used. the late Dr Clement Isong was governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). He protected the bank against the government. That was why even during the war, our currency was still strong. Isong said he would not use the CBN to fight the war. When the argument was too big, Gowon ran out of rational argument and told Awolowo that if the CBN does not release this money today to buy ammunition, he will take everyone in the bank to the Bar Beach Lagos and get them shot. When this message got to CBN, Isong said: “No, let them take us now to the Bar Beach. Let us die in the defence of the Central Bank of Nigeria. At the end of the day, Gowon had to relent and found the money elsewhere. Compare to now where the CBN Governor is taken to the convention of a political party where his presence was announced. That is a professional institution, an independent and professional position that people have fought over the years to maintain. A government can continue to perpetuate insecurity as long they want to make money out of it. I will put an end to that.
How does this lopsidedness of Nigeria make you feel? Virtually nothing works.
Nigeria has more solutions than problems, honestly. We have more money today than we had yesterday. The government is awash with money. If anybody tells you there is no money in the Nigerian government, you should know that that is your number one enemy.
But we are borrowing to execute our budget?
We are borrowing because their greed is so big that they did not want to only steal the money of today, but they want to rob the children unborn. The Nigerian leadership’s quest for money is a special ethology of mental disease, when you steal what you don’t need. You steal what you don’t know and cannot keep that when they come out of office, they don’t know where the money is. I say this with all sense of responsibility, if we are not careful, we are going to have leaders who will rule from the mortuaries. We must remove the original curse of Nigeria which is bad governance. There is no middle way by those who are blinded by an insatiable greed for money. There is this unhealthy competition. If one governor is using state money to control a political party, spending millions of dollars to remove chairman and do whatever, the other governor wants to copy it too. So, you now have a well-known criminal organisation called the Governors Forum that everyone there is supposed to, as a matter of patriotism, report themselves to the nearest police station. They corner substantial revenue of the country and steal the money of the local government. So, some of the poverty being ascribing to Buhari is not totally his. Buhari has become an angel of disappointment though.
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