BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – The 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, has castigated the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Administration for prioritising the interest of few party faithfuls as against the struggling Nigerians that can hardly eke a living.
He said that with the APC increasingly crowding the political space and the opposition still scrambling for coherence, the fear of an unchallenged ruling party looms large.
Adebayo however, rejected the idea that the solution lies in a rushed merger of opposition forces, stressing that unity must be forged in shared purpose and not just pooled logos.
According to Adebayo; “Nigerians don’t care about party names. They want power that puts food on the table, not slogans. They want dignity, not drama”.
Adebayo, who stated these when he featured on Trust TV programme ‘Daily Politics’, questioned who the government of President Tinubu is really serving, just as he criticised the recent APC summit at the Presidential Villa which he noted was used to launch the re-election bid of Tinubu, adding that the event was a rally in disguise.
In the words of Adebayo; “It is a dangerous step toward a one-party illusion. Governance is not theatre. The president is not a performer but chasing applause. He is a steward of national pain and there is plenty of it”.
Adebayo noted that the Nigerian story is starkly different from the drumming of support for Tinubu’s re-election without contest, saying that it is clear that a mother in Chibok cannot feed her child just like a jobless graduate in Katsina is still chasing hope.
“What is being celebrated? The APC is running a permanent campaign. Every office is a trophy. Every moment is PR. Meanwhile, nothing changes,” he noted.
Adebayo noted that the unkept and unmet promises by President Tinubu, particularly his vow to resign if power supply didn’t improve, are signs of how performance is replaced by posturing.
In his words; “We still have no power. Farmers have no tools. Roads are breaking. Phones don’t work. But what we get instead of solutions is a standing ovation”.
Commenting on if the opposition is offering the needed alternatives, Adebayo said; “People say we are scattered, but who is united in service? The people are not clapping for the government or the opposition. They are holding their breath and their wallets”.
The SDP chieftain therefore urged both opposition and ruling parties to return to the basics to protect rights, create jobs, end insecurity, and stop the performance politics, saying that it is not about who wins 2027, but about whether Nigeria still has space for real governance before then.
