Prince Adewole Adebayo was the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 presidential election. In this interview, he faulted the economic policies of the President Bola Tinubu-led administration, saying it took the wrong direction from the outset. Among other issues, he opined that the planned nationwide protests over the current economic hardship in Nigeria will not have any effect on the political landscape. See excerpts:
What is your take about the planned August 1 protest by Nigerians?
Basically, my attitude is that in a democracy, you have a right to express yourself, you have a right to express displeasure, you have a right to voice out your disagreement with government policy, you have a right to point out anything you think is unlawful or unconstitutional. Therefore that freedom of expression and association is there. However, it is not every right you have that you can exercise. My perspective is that you can protest but the quagmire that we have, goes beyond protesting. The quagmire we find ourselves in Nigeria is that the direction that the political class is taking Nigerians to is wrong and if we don’t change that direction, we will be taking turns to protest. Remember that a few years ago, the person who was protesting was Tinubu himself.
You said it is not every right you have, that you can express, does that include the right to protest?
When you have the opportunity to be in government and change the direction of your country, if you specialize in letting the wrong people take power all the time and you come after that to protest against them, I don’t think that is the most effective way to go about it. I think that the direction the ruling elite is taking the country now is wrong; what is happening are natural consequences of the policies. So, it is not a personal decision of one or two persons. It is a general direction and we contested these issues in the last election. We saw the direction that the policies that they have taken, the subsidy removal, the floating of the naira and so many other disinvestments in social services, the inability to manage inflation and money supply all that; these are the consequences. So, whether you are in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, USA, or wherever, once you allow these kinds of ideological errors to be dominant in your political space, you will get the same consequences and protest will not help you.
When you said letting wrong people in government, is it a case of the people allowing wrong people or the problem of poor elections or an undemocratic system that allows politicians to force themselves on the people?
It is a combination of all those. First of all, before you even do the election you start to get worried when you see the dominant issues. In a society that is mature in democracy, you don’t have elections in one year and within one year you start to protest against the same government. So, there is an error somewhere because these issues that are biting us now were the issues that were on the front burner in the last elections. So, what is happening now is a combination of poor ideological orientation in our political party organisation and in our choice of leadership. The ability to come to power without having the popular support, whether you come by way of election rigging, manipulation and all of that, is also part of it.
Are you implying that there were errors in the 2023 general elections?
Of course, I have said that on many occasions. There were errors, when we were raising alarm as to the dangerous tendencies of the dominant political parties, particularly about the things they said they were going to do. In a well articulated society, this kind of protest we are having now should have been held against that time when they were saying they were going to remove subsidies, float the currency and the things they are doing now. That was the time Nigerians should have rallied round and told them they would never taste that power but that was not what the majority did.
When you say that was not what the majority did, do you think that these majority you are now talking about understand their power?
I think there was a failure in communication and orientation and conscientization of the people because people were following politicians like celebrities. And politicians were not speaking to the needs of the people. Majority of Nigerians don’t have money, they don’t have jobs, they don’t have housing, they don’t have any saved income anywhere and they depend on social services and the value of the currency to be stable.
And when you had dangerous proposals brought by the APC that is now in government at the centre, the PDP or the LP, saying they were going to liberalise the economy, float the currency, remove subsidy, we told the people that these policies would put them on high jump and they will be in serious problem and whoever does the policies will get the same result. In 2012, even President Tinubu himself was on the street; it is very interesting that he is telling people not to go on the street now but he was on the street with former President Buhari and some other people and at that time, I told people not to listen to them because they too had the same problem. The problem we are facing is not about personality; the problem is about policy and this policy mix doesn’t work well for our country.
One of the presidential spokesmen, Mr Bayo Onanuga has said that the people who are saying that this government needs a change are committing treason. What’s your view on a movement that is seeking better governance?
While I respect everybody, I think it is a bit beneath dignity to respond to a presidential spokesperson. He is not even in government. So, if I am to speak, I will speak to what Tinubu himself says, or a minister of government like the Minister of Information, who has the responsibility to speak on behalf of the government.
But he speaks on behalf of the government
I don’t know how disciplined they are in that place. I didn’t win the election but I don’t think that is how to run a government; so I can’t comment on somebody who is of no rank, with due respect. I respect him but he is speaking above his rank. He is not the attorney general, he is not a lawyer; he doesn’t know what treason is all about. So he is just speaking. It will be indignity of the highest level for me having run at the highest level, to come here and speak about one spokesperson, maybe my spokesperson will speak about him. But, in reality, I am focusing more on what the president has to do because he is the one we elected. I am focusing more on what the national assembly has to do because they are the ones who appropriate our money. I am focusing more on what a minister who has gone through screening at the national assembly is talking about because that one is speaking for the government.
So, what is clear is that the government needs to understand that the policies that they have put in place are the reason people are in serious pain. And if people are expressing this pain, it is an opportunity for the government to try to change course, and in some of the areas that they have tried to change course quietly but they need to admit that one of the problems they are facing is that they sign up to this. Nigerians need to know that the political elite signed up to a charter of policies by going to Chatham House, Washington all those places. And these policies are not good for our economy. That is not how China, India, Brazil, Turkey and others developed; they can’t develop the country. So, the solution is to actually make sure that they don’t come to power any more.
Are you saying they are carrying out the mandate of people outside the shores in Nigeria?
Yes and even mandates that they do not understand clearly. If you study this government, there is a serious case of economic illiteracy. They are actually throwing away opportunities. They are fixing things that are not faulty, and they are actually leaving out the fundamental issues.
Can you give us one good example?
Yes, the first duty they owe Nigerians is the duty to stabilize the currency, and it is not about the value of the currency, because whether you value it up or devalue it, the case is that you must have a stable currency that can be a store value; they haven’t achieved that. You must be able to have fiscal discipline inside the government, which means you collect all the revenue that you need to collect and you are very thrifty in the management of the expenditure that you make; they are failing in that. You have to do serious monetary management to see that the money supplied is regulated in a manner in which you can achieve full employment; they haven’t been able to do that. You need to do social investment which means that you need to put more people to work. So, when you listen to them talk about so many things that they have done; when you listen to the Minister of Information, he is not talking statistics. He is not talking reality; he is only preaching to you that the president loves you, which we are not in doubt. But the question is, he is not saying we have created one million more jobs since we came and it is over one year now. In our last year’s budget, we projected 750,000 more jobs, and we have met the standard, he is not saying any of that. They need to govern and the problem they have is that they need to understand the economy of Nigeria and the policies they are implementing. Even though those are the policies they advertised, these policies are not good and if they don’t change them, there is no direction to change the country and no amount of protest can change anything. They must see that they change direction because where we are going is not good for our economy.
Mr Onanugua also accused the LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, of being the mastermind of the planned protest, what are your views?
I am not an investigator but I know that when people are hungry, they don’t need the opinion of any party leader to tell them that they are hungry. When your house rent has gone up, I don’t think you need to listen to anybody that your house rent has gone up. The issue is that many of them still have animosity from last year’s election. They don’t know that elections are over. We have one country to govern now. Maybe we have to contest in the future but that future is still ahead. So we pray that all of us are alive to see the future. So, people should forget about the animosity of last year’s election and actually let’s listen to the issue. Even if somebody is your opponent and he has a good point, you have to take that point. You have to realize that the republic belongs to all of us and President Tinubu is in power. He needs to be tolerant about the opposition because he is the opposition general of Nigeria. He is the person who has spent many years stoking troubles in the opposition over time. This protest that people are doing now, he did his own in flamboyant ways against the same policies he is supporting now.
Even at that time, I told people not to follow them because they were just deceiving people. But the key thing is that the 2023 elections and all the fallouts are the issues now; the issue now is that there are real statistics on the street. You can see living statistics of the people sliding into poverty, of unemployment rising, of people’s purchasing power disappearing, of industries shutting down and of infrastructure being too slow in delivery. These are the issues that no enemy, or opponent needs to talk about before people know about them.
So, are you saying that all the measures that the government has been taking don’t count?
No, they don’t count because they are facing the wrong direction. If you are in Abuja and you are supposed to pick up something in Kano, if you are flying to Lagos, you are wasting your time because you are taking the wrong direction. The economic plan that they have is going the wrong direction and you will see it because the tension that is going to be coming will start with those who are earning wages, then it goes to the middle class and then to small businesses. Very soon you will see your so-called business tycoon, the richest people in Africa start feeling it too. You are going to break down the economy. What we need to do is very basic, which is that we need to make social investments. And that is why I keep saying we should go to chapter 2 of the constitution because everything you need to do on the economy is there and if you are protesting, (and that is the point I am making) or organizing to bring about a government that is going to implement these good policies, that is worth doing. But if you are just protesting to get more palliatives, then you are wasting your time. In Kenya now, you can see that Ruto is back and he is bringing back his old ministers all over again. People are just speaking up and that is not how to do it. And in a country like Nigeria, where we have viable oppositions, we should at least find a way to kick out the status quo and try fresh people.
The protesters have listed about 14 conditions to be met before they can back down; do you think the demands are fair or are they unreasonable?
That is the shopping list of revolutionaries. Many of them are not things that the president can do by himself. I think when there is a protest; people come up with their own perspectives. The protesters are not the same people; so it is not as if they are sitting in one place planning it. They are different people with different agendas. Some are thinking of constitutional amendment; the national assembly is there to address that. Those who are talking of economic intervention are the people I am paying a bit more attention to, where for example people are practically starving, people can’t farm anymore because of insecurity and food prices are rising. And I can tell you I am not seeing this from second hand; it is in every sector because I am into agriculture and animal husbandry and I see how factor costs are rising. So, if the president can address those ones, fine. But another issue which has been the same issue we have been talking about in the country forever; if you want to raise those issues in our next election, maybe, you can use them to campaign because people believe in them. For example, I believe in the 1999 constitution because I know it can be improved upon. But there are people who don’t believe in it; those issues, Tinubu can’t do anything about them.
If you don’t think the planned protest will have any effect on the political landscape, what is your direct message to young Nigerians that are agitated and fed up with the system?
My advice is as follows: Take over power, don’t protest when the wrong people have power and you have the opportunities.
How do you take over power when it has been captured?
Power cannot be captured in a democracy where the majority doesn’t agree. What happened in 2023 was that the youths were like fans treating politicians like celebrities and following people without looking at their ideologies. What I am saying now is that the crisis on the ground, you can use it to protest but you can also use to organize the Nigerian people to say you can see now that all sides of the elite; those who were there before, those who protested against those that were there before who are now there, none of them has your interest at heart. So, you need to organize yourselves and organize political parties that are going to take power. So, you are not going to protest. For example, you protest against Tinubu in August and in October and November, you go and elect the same party in Edo and Ondo states; I don’t see any seriousness in all of that. I think that what we need to do is what was done by the Left in Brazil and what has been done in other places. You look at the evidence that these people don’t care about you and they don’t even know what they are doing in governance and use it to organize yourselves into a political movement and you raise people from the councillor level to chairmanship level and it is a long time work.
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