Blame Lawmakers, Not Tinubu for Cyber Security Levy, Says Adebayo

The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 general election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has advised Nigerians to direct their anger about the cyber security levy at their representatives at the National Assembly, instead of President Bola Tinubu.

Adebayo, speaking at an interactive session of the Nigeria leadership series hosted by the Africa leadership group, said Tinubu didn’t pass the law, the National Assembly did.

“Your representatives passed the law, the media carried the news of the law when it was passed. So, if you don’t want the levy, stop talking about Tinubu. Just tell every member of House of Representatives and your senators representing you that within 48 hours, they must bring a repeal of that law immediately. 

“So, the government is not only one person. It’s a good thing that the president has suspended the operation of the levy but the way government works is that you must ensure that if you are against that levy, as I am against it, you need to let your representatives go there now and repel the law. 

“If the law is repealed, there will be no levy to pay. So, we need to have a deeper understanding of our government. I am an SDP person, when government brings a policy and we are discussing the good or bad side of the policy, I always ask my party people, how did the elected SDP members vote? I don’t want to look very silly to go and start opposing something which our members voted for. 

“So, if we don’t like this policy and we can recall our members who are in the house, summon them for questioning, to say this law or this regulation or this resolution is contrary to the objective of SDP and the principle for which we stand,” he said.

Adebayo also highlighted why the country’s leadership structure is weak. 

For him, the incumbent, from the state up to the national level, always want to leave a weak successor behind so that he, predecessor, will still be relevant even after leaving office.

He said: “This is the kind of leadership we want. Every incumbent wants you to miss them when they go. They will look for somebody who is weaker than them to succeed them. They are not playing to the strength. The Nigerian Army started by trying to recruit the best who could defend the country and raise cadres below them so that by the time you were a major in the Army, you are already leading leaders under you – Captain, Second Lieutenant, Lieutenant, Second Lieutenant and NCOs so that by the time you are a colonel with a red neck, you can lead the country. 

“That was how the Army started. But when the Army joined politics, the leadership started looking for people who will not take over from them who will obey them. Then the leadership quality dropped in the Armed Forces. Such that you could be a General and you don’t have the quality of somebody who would have been a captain when the Army started. 

“So, the Army became weaker and weaker to the point where Alwari Kazil when he was retiring as Chief of Army staff, said the Army had become army of anything goes. As it was with the Army then, the public lost confidence in them and in 1999 they had to leave. The same thing is happening now in our politics from 1999 to now, the doctrine is, don’t look for somebody who will outperform you, who will outshine you, who will do better than you, who is clever, who is smarter, who is more intelligent, who is ethical, who is independent minded. 

“When President Tinubu will set up his Federal Executive Council, he set it up as if he wants ministers who will be totally un-performing. If we change our minds, and we are recruiting leadership that will be better than the incumbent, then we will encourage people of ideas, people of ethics, people of discipline in politics. 

“To do that, it will be done at three levels: at the level of political leadership, they will be looking for candidate political parties will be begging you and say you have done well in your private life, come and lead us, come and be our candidates, we will support you, we will push you. 

“Personally, that was what I will say, SDP did with me in 2022. I wasn’t a member of their party then. Next is the elite of the country, former heads of state, former military heads of state, civilian, business people, clergy like Pastor Itoha, bankers, people with means, media owners; they will also start to tilt towards the idea that let us give feasibility let us give support, let us give encouragement to good leadership in Nigeria.

“As it is today, the elite whether the elite bankers, the elite lawyers, the elite professions, the elite businesses, the elite clergy, elite pastors, elite imams and sheiks and all the business people, they are all combined together to agree that they will be selecting among a few people who they are sure don’t have competencies and won’t change the privileges of the day. That is what is happening.”

While addressing the issue of corruption particularly within the civil service, he said corruption is aided by the political class as civil servants are there merely to carry out professional technical administrative duties as directed. 

According to him, “They don’t make decisions in government. Politicians have a lot of influence. The corruption of the political class is aided by the corruption of the public services and the corruption of public service is tolerated because the political leaders don’t want civil servants who will say no, that is why if you go to many state, the people they elect as their governor used to be the collaborator of the governor, it will be the accountant general or the auditor general of the state. That’s the person the governor will say since we both committed a crime together, okay, you go and succeed me because you cannot probe yourself.”