Adewole: Corruption, Incompetence Responsible for Nigeria’s Crisis

Bennett Oghifo

Social Democratic Party’s (SDP) presidential aspirant, Prince Adebayo Adewole, at the weekend identified corruption and incompetence as bane of the country’s precarious situation.

Adewole, who was a guest speaker at the Pastor Ituah Ighodalo-led Africa leadership group lecture series titled, “Nigeria: Hope in positive action”, added that mismanagement and greed on the part of Nigerian leadership made the country a debtor nation.

He said: “We have been unlucky in the driver’s we have. Mercedes is Mercedes. Toyota is a Toyota. It’s not the car that is the issue. We just need to change the driver. We have an opportunity to change the driver’s in the coming election. We have never had people-oriented president emerging from the people. The constitution didn’t envisaged some people would sit in their conclave and begin to recycle themselves around. The constitution isn’t the problem.”

Adewole said he was not disturbed being described as greenhorn, saying, “When God wants to change the history of people, He brings in fresh leaders. What matters is the courage to mean well. It’s not by might, but the truth. God cannot be ascribed with callousness that He would assemble over 200 million of his own being and He would lead them to perpetual slavery and backwardness. Even the captivity of the Zion ended at a time. This must be the time. We must have the spirit of Joshua to fall the Jericho.”

Criminality, Adewole argued, is in the State House in Abuja: “If there is no criminality in the State House, there won’t be criminality outside. Once it can be stopped, everybody will follow suit. You cannot put a call to the State House today to say you want to see someone, nobody will answer you. But give someone $10,000, they will book an appointment for you. If the people in charge of the law are now perpetrating crime, then we are not qualified to call them to come and solve criminality outside.

“The character, spirit and person who becomes the president is very important. If such a person is given executive power, his fears, ignorance, prejudices automatically becomes ours. If he has weakness for money, we will all become thieves. If he is prejudicial, that’s what we will all become.”

Adewole said the insecurity in the land is feeding fat on corruption and incompetence and until a true leader and president emerges from the people, it would be business as usual: “What is happening in Nigeria today is both corruption and incompetence such that insecurity in Nigeria had now become a business. Check the lifestyle of those involved with the issue of insecurity, a lieutenant general is ten times richer than a major general. A government that cannot do simple things like mail delivery, how do you think will prosecute a war successfully. So incompetence is enjoying a space with us. Our leadership lack character and integrity.”

The SDP presidential aspirant debunked claim that his party is divided into factions.

He said: “Our disagreement in SDP is not fundamental, just about administrative injustice. We are more united now than we were some months back. That is behind us now”.

On the sincerity of the much criticised 1999 constitution, Adewole said there was really not much problem with the constitution. The problem, according to him, lies with the people.

“Our constitution isn’t our problem. Our problem is lack of simple obedience to simple law as simple as traffic and sanitation laws. We are in a culture of disobedience and our leaders lead in that. It does not matter how faulty the constitution is, if you have people who are in the habit of disobedience, nothing works. Yes, the constitution isn’t perfect but that isn’t the root cause of misgovernance. Our misgovernance is traceable to our character.”