Prince Adewole Adebayo, Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, in this interview with TITILOPE JOSEPH, speaks on the prospect of the party in 2027, says that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will suffer defeat because the opposition political parties will unite against the ruling party which has mismanaged the country, among others. Excerpts:
In the next one month, this government will be in office for two years. How would you assess it in terms of security and economy?
The struggles of the people are not re-flected in the current government’s ac-tions. High youth unemployment, poor infrastructure, currency depreciation, and increasing debt are not being ad-dressed. The Minister of Finance and the Minister of Budget and Planning have delivered two unsatisfactory budgets, with performance in the mid-20s, mean-ing many promises made have failed. While two years may be enough to make a difference, the next two years will be crucial, as there will be competition for the same position.
I advise the government to allocate at least 10 percent of their budget towards urgent interventions like employment, reducing food costs, and improving pub-lic transportation. The CNG initiative is a step in the right direction, but prog-ress is too slow. The government must recognize that their time is limited and that they don’t have a guaranteed sec-ond term. There are successes in some ministries, like FCT and Interior, and the Minister of Works should be more creative in securing private capital for infrastructure. Rebasing inflation data is not enough without tangible action on the streets to alleviate the hardships faced by Nigerians. The president must focus on improving the lives of the average person to boost productivity and the economy.
Were you surprised by President Bola Tinu-bu’s decision to change the leadership of Ni-gerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), and what is your take on it?
It’s the President’s prerogative as Min-ister of Petroleum to change the NNPCL leadership. I expected it to happen earlier, considering Mele Kyari had served under three presidents. The NNPCL has man-aged to stabilize fuel supply and revive refineries, but major challenges remain in the upstream sector. I believe the Presi-dent wants to focus there, given Bayo Oju-lari’s expertise. However, the dismissal could have been handled better—asking the board to resign would have been more honorable, especially after recently re-newing their mandate. But since I don’t have all the details, I can only speculate on his reasons.
Considering Ojulari’s appointment, back-ground and experience, would you call it a great decision by the President?
I’m not easily enthused by politicians giving corporate directives to a compa-ny with its own board and management targets. This move seems more about political optics. The targets set for Oju-lari are not new; they were already being pursued by the previous management. Whether he will perform better remains to be seen, but much of the groundwork has been done under Kyari’s leadership. The real issue is whether Ojulari will be allowed to run the NNPCL as a corporate entity or if political pressures will in-terfere. If the government treats NNPCL like Petrobras, focusing on commercial growth rather than financing deficits and political programmes, Ojulari will have a fair chance. Kyari deserves credit for reducing crude oil theft and continuing the AKK pipeline despite funding set-backs. The real test is whether Ojulari will be given the independence to suc-ceed or pushed into the same political constraints.
How do you plan to stop President Tinubu and the APC from returning to power in 2027, con-sidering their belief that no one can prevent it?
The plan is to engage with them, show that we love the country, but disagree with their policies. We’ll expose the weaknesses of these policies to Nigerians, including APC members who are suffering. The government has mismanaged economic opportunities, and we want to make sure they know it doesn’t have to fail in the next two years. If they don’t change their policies, we have better ones to offer, focusing on the economy, public service, and compassion. People who think Tinubu is unshakable forget that he is human, and no one is unshakable except God. History shows incumbents can be defeated, as seen in past elections. The only way we might not defeat Tinubu is if he performs his job well. Nigerians are focused on their children, food, and jobs, not on politicians’ faces.
What platform would you be using, is it SDP and with a lot of people who are joining your party, do you even stand a chance of getting the ticket?
Getting the ticket depends on the SDP people. They know me. People are joining my party, and we are welcoming them. You can see how active I am in welcoming them. The only little issue we have with some of them is to change the culture of where they are coming from. If you have not been in an environment where there are rules or where rules are taken seriously, you need to get used to such an environment. Some of them are doing some Boy Scouts, black market operations. We are dealing with that. But, we welcome them into the party. We believe that their coming will strengthen the party. I am not at all perturbed that these names that you have mentioned like Nasir El-Rufai, Vice President Atiku Abubakar and other people are coming. In fact, I was told that even Governor Peter Obi is coming. A lot of people are coming. We welcome them.We don’t have a problem.
Is Peter Obi joining SDP?
Supposedly, Peter Obi is joining, but until someone joins, we don’t know. His people are talking with us, and I welcome everyone. When they come, they must follow the rules, allowing one person to emerge transparently, without cheating or criminality, like we did in our 2022 convention. If they adopt our culture and don’t fear cheating or bribery to win, we can offer Nigerians a real alternative. We’ll defeat the APC, retire President Tinubu, and start taking care of Nigerians from day one.
Does the SDP have that kind of structure? You can say we’re structure-less, but we rely on the people, not on criminality, bribery, or diversion of public funds. The people working hardest for SDP are in APC, as they’ve turned up the heat on Nigerians, making them suffer while getting paid insufficiently. They’re making life tough with decisions that don’t favour the people, spending trillions on invisible projects. With a N55 trillion budget, nothing trickles down. President Tinubu is working hard to make sure he’s the last APC president by neglecting the people.
With the inability to form a credible coalition, don’t you think it will be very difficult to defeat Tinubu in 2027?
It is difficult but not impossible and we are not letting our cat out of the bag yet. What we are saying is this, the fact that there are many people wanting to be president, I want to be president and everybody knows that, Vice President Atiku Abubakar wants to be president, Peter Obi wants to be president and there are other people who want to be president who are not talking that doesn’t make any difference. What makes a difference is that all of you if you are in the same framework and if the framework is firm and reasonable and decisive and at the end of the exercise, everybody comes together to pull behind. The winner is going to work. What is not going to work is a coalition of politicians would not impress anybody anymore because the first coalition of politicians in 2015 only satisfied the politicians and left the people high and dry and poor. So right now what the people want is not a coalition of politicians but a coalition with a clear ideology that people can identify with, clear rules for competition and we do it on time. I can guarantee you that once the intention is clear that we want to serve the Nigerian people, they will give us a chance and we are going to make President Tinubu a one-term president.
(Daily Independent)
