Adewole Adebayo: Tinubu Only Wants to Stay in Aso Rock to Amass Wealth

• Predicts more economic challenges if Tinubu wins second term 

•Urges Nigerians to stop electing thieves

Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adewole Adebayo, yesterday accused President Bola Tinubu of being more interested in remaining in the Presidential Villa and amassing wealth than providing purposeful leadership and addressing the challenges confronting Nigerians.

This is just as he alleged that Tinubu was not interested in the responsibilities of the presidency, including supervising ministers, engaging with citizens and providing essential services such as education and healthcare, but was only occupying the office to accumulate wealth.

The SDP presidential candidate made the allegations in Ibadan, during the public presentation of his presidential blueprint, titled: “Farewell to Poverty and Insecurity,” where he also called on Nigerians to organise themselves and collectively reject what he described as a system of exploitation and bad governance.

He said: “Tinubu doesn’t want to be your president. He doesn’t care. He doesn’t like the job of president. Tinubu doesn’t want to stay in Aso Rock and serve the people. He doesn’t want to talk to you. He doesn’t want to supervise ministers.

“Tinubu is only around because he wants to pack money. That is why he is not struggling for anything. He doesn’t even like the job of president. And he doesn’t want to talk like a president or behave like a president. He is only there because he wants to pack money,” Adebayo alleged.

He further alleged that Tinubu’s initial political ambition was driven by the desire to sponsor individuals into political offices and profit from their positions, adding that the President eventually decided to seek the office himself when he felt the financial returns from sponsoring others were insufficient.

“Tinubu’s business plan before was, ‘I will be sponsoring people to office and I will make profit out of it.’ Am I worried? Look, these people I am sponsoring, not enough money is coming back. Let me go and do this by myself.

“But to listen to you, to give you education, to give you healthcare, if you die, Tinubu doesn’t care. He will make money from your funeral,” he alleged.

Adebayo, who urged Nigerians to look beyond personalities and examine the country’s leadership choices, said the nation’s recurring political challenges required citizens to take responsibility for the kind of leaders they elected.

According to him, the country must break away from the pattern of repeatedly electing leaders who fail to meet the expectations of the people.

“If you have one president who is a thief, you have a second president who is a thief, you have a third president who is a thief, something is wrong with you. Why are you always choosing thieves? What kind of bad luck is that?” he asked.

He warned that allowing Tinubu to remain in office for another year would worsen the country’s economic difficulties, predicting that petrol could rise to N5,000 per litre, while the purchasing power of Nigerians would deteriorate further.

“Tinubu, if you allow him just four more years, if you allow him just one more year, four things are going to happen. You will buy fuel, petrol at N5,000 per litre. Because I predicted four years ago that you will buy it at N2,000 per litre. It is getting there,” he said.

He added that the economy could grind to a halt, with Nigerians requiring millions of naira to afford basic necessities, while honest workers would find it increasingly difficult to earn a decent living.

“The second thing that will happen, your economy will grind to a halt. You will see millionaires who cannot buy bread. All of you will become millionaires when Tinubu goes back because you will need one million naira to buy one loaf of bread. So you will be a millionaire in poverty,” he said.

The SDP candidate also warned that the country’s economic situation could undermine the dignity of honest labour, as the earnings of artisans, traders, mechanics and other workers would continue to lose value.

Adebayo, who described Nigeria’s 66 years of independence as an unfulfilled promise for millions of citizens, said political independence had little meaning where people remained hungry, unemployed, sick and without adequate housing.

“When you have independence on a piece of paper for 66 years and you are hungry, you are sick, you are unemployed, you are without housing and there is no prospect for your child that you are carrying in your hand, your independence is a lie,” he said.

He also questioned the country’s development trajectory, comparing the progress made since independence with the achievements recorded by the University of Ibadan, which he said was established during the colonial era.

According to him, Nigeria ought to have recorded significantly greater development decades after independence, rather than struggling with challenges that should have been addressed long ago.

The presidential candidate, however, said his presentation was not intended to be another exercise in lamentation but an opportunity to mobilise Nigerians towards rebuilding the country.

“I don’t want to come here and do lamentations. I want to congratulate you that you have decided to take back your country. You have decided to build a country for your children and children’s children.“

“I congratulate you that you have seen lies and you decided to follow the truth. And I will challenge all of us. Nobody can use mere wishes, sweet words, to crack a palm kernel. To crack a palm kernel, you have to take action. Very tough actions.”

Adebayo identified what he described as Nigerians’ willingness to compromise their values for political and financial benefits as one of the factors sustaining bad governance, urging citizens to stop cooperating with injustice.

He argued that many people had come to regard politics as an avenue for receiving money from politicians, participating in the misappropriation of public funds or helping political office holders spread falsehoods.

“The reason why the government is cheating you, robbing you, enslaving you, depriving you, subjecting you and ridiculing you, and all your prayers on the mountain, in the mosque, in the churches, everywhere, have not caught up with them is because God is a God of justice. He cannot help you to punish your collaborators.

“If we stop cooperating with evil and injustice, we stop pretending to be confused, because we think that the thing to gain from politics is money from the politician, that the thing to gain from politics is an opportunity to join them to loot, that the thing to gain from politics is to help them to spread their lies. If we believe in truth, God will answer our prayers,” he said.

He also maintained that a government had no justification for failing to provide free, compulsory and qualitative education, affordable healthcare, housing, food and employment opportunities for citizens.

Using his experience as a farmer to illustrate his argument on public healthcare, Adebayo said even livestock owners made provisions for the treatment of their animals without expecting them to pay for the services.

“When my cow is sick, I use my money to treat the cow. The cow doesn’t pay for it. How can I value my cow more than the government values you?“

“We have dogs in the family. When the dog is not feeling well, we call the vet. Come and treat this dog.“

“The dog does not speak English, doesn’t go to school, doesn’t pay salary. But we treat the dog. How can I love my dog more than I love you?” he asked.

On electricity, he advocated a nationwide solar power initiative, proposing that solar panels should be installed on rooftops to improve access to electricity, particularly for low-income households.

He said he had advised the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo as far back as September 2001 to consider solar energy as a practical solution to the country’s electricity challenges.

Adebayo questioned why the government could deploy public funds to provide facilities for political office-holders but would claim insufficient resources when similar interventions were proposed for ordinary Nigerians.

He also argued that the persistent increase in the prices of goods and services was partly sustained by the fact that those in government did not personally bear the same costs as ordinary citizens.

He cited the rising cost of petrol, food, education and healthcare, alleging that political office-holders enjoyed privileges that insulated them from the economic difficulties experienced by the population.

“How can somebody who doesn’t pay for what you pay help you lower the price?” he asked.

Describing the blueprint as more than a political document, Adebayo said Farewell to Poverty and Insecurity represented an agreement to ensure that Nigeria’s resources were deployed for the benefit of its people.

“This manifesto, Farewell to Poverty and Insecurity, is not a book for entertainment and it is not a book of decoration. It is an agreement between you and your creator that the resources that God has given to Nigeria, we will use it for the people of Nigeria,” he said.

He further called for collective action against insecurity, poverty and unemployment, warning that prolonged patience with what he described as government failures could have devastating consequences for vulnerable Nigerians.

He said children denied access to education could become vulnerable to recruitment by criminal groups, while patients unable to afford medical treatment risked losing their lives.

He maintained that the country needed urgent organisation and collective action rather than further appeals for patience.

“Any government that will not give you housing, education, healthcare, food and employment is not a government. It has nothing to do with them. And don’t wait. Don’t wait.“

“Because you have waited for 66 years. When I was growing up, the year 2000 looked like 2,000 years. And water for all by the year 2000, food for all by the year 2000, everything for all by the year 2000. The year 2000 happened 26 years ago,” he said.

Adebayo identified the inability of Nigerians to organise themselves across religious, ethnic and other divides as a major obstacle to national development, calling for an organised democratic movement to challenge what he described as organised crime in government.

“The greatest problem of Nigeria is that we don’t know how to organise. Individually, it would make sense, but we need to learn to organise.“

“Because what we are facing in government is armed robbery, organised crime. And if you want to defeat organised crime, you have to have an organised democracy,” he said.

He argued that Nigerians were subjected to collective hardship regardless of their religious or ethnic backgrounds, insisting that the country’s challenges required a united response.

He urged citizens to stop allowing politicians to exploit religious, ethnic and gender differences to divide them, stressing that national progress would depend on their willingness to work together.

As part of his five-point appeal to Nigerians on the country’s 66th Independence anniversary, the SDP candidate urged citizens to stop giving Tinubu undue attention and instead concentrate on improving their immediate communities.

He specifically called on Nigerians to engage their neighbours, discuss the country’s political and economic challenges and encourage greater participation in efforts to change the existing system.

“Rule Tinubu completely out of your life. Do not listen to Tinubu and his ‘bala blue’. Do not talk about him. Do not even laugh at him. Just remove him from your brain. Just forget about him. Don’t consider Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a presidential candidate. Just keep him out of your economy.“

“Focus on how to build your country from your street. There is no reason for you to watch television and do analysis about Nigeria, and you wake up in the morning, you have your neighbour by your next door by the right, you have your neighbour by the next door by the left. You just ask them, what do you think about Nigeria? Are you going to vote? What do we do? We need to start from the street level,” he said.

He called on Nigerians to take ownership of the country’s future by moving beyond complaints and translating their concerns into organised community-level action.