Adebayo: Political Class is Taking Nigeria in Wrong Direction
Ahead of the August 1 proposed protests by Nigerian youths, the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 general election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, in this interview with THISDAY, says the protest will be a fruitless exercise as long as the youths let the wrong people take power
What is your perspective about the August 1 planned protest by Nigerians against bad governance?
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 Bola Tinubu himself.
You said it is not every right you have will be effective; does that include the right to protest, expatiate?
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 conduct 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 election?
Of course, I have said that on many occasions. There were errors. When we were raising the 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 this 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 All Progressives Congress (APC) that is now in government at the centre, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or the Labour Party (LP), saying they were going to liberalise the economy, float the currency, remove subsidy on day one, 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 streets; it is very interesting that he is telling people not to go on the streets now but he was on the streets with former President Muhammadu 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 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 Onanuga 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.
The information minister said the president is pleading with the youths not to go on protest. Do you think that is enough to stop the protest?
I hope that the president understands that beyond just speaking, he needs to also show some results and needs to do some dialogue. For me generally, I know where the root cause of the problem is and I have seen many countries go on protests. Right now, they are doing a similar thing in Uganda, they have finished in Kenya but none of them tends to bring anything in return. The one they did against Jonathan last time didn’t bring anything in return but it is good for politicians if your opponent is in trouble, you take advantage of the situation.
Why is that so; why doesn’t protest yield any meaningful results?
Because you have to change the policies; when you come out to protest, what are you going to get? When they protested against Jonathan, what did they get? They got Sure-P and other palliatives. When you come out now and you protest, hopefully people don’t die and you don’t break bones, you just burn buildings and all that, and then you slow down your economy, at the end of the day, you get more palliatives.
So, the problem is the party and their understanding of the economics and what should be done, right?
Yes, because you need to grow your economy; you need to run the government properly. And I can tell you that President Tinubu’s presidency is 99 per cent politics and one per cent governance and that is not enough. So, they got politics A1 but governance, maybe F9 or not showing up, so they need to do more work on that.
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 from the protest; 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.
They tried last time but it didn’t work, what happened?
No, last time it was just the same politics of the elite. The youth followed the same neoliberal people. The people, who got the majority of the votes, forgot about the people who won, were saying the same thing that Tinubu is doing now. They said they were going to remove the subsidy, float the naira, which is a poor understanding of the economy. And these IMF and World Bank people are not expecting you to take hook, line and sinker to take what they are saying. And in their own countries, nobody is following the IMF. Joe Biden is not following the IMF, and even Rishi Sunak who tried to play monkey games with it was thrown out immediately. Everybody is making sure that in their country, they do social investment; they employ people. You will know that a government is good when they begin to employ people.
You have run for presidency, what would you do differently if you were on the saddle right now?
Everything they have done right from Eagle Square, we will do the opposite. First, we said to the people that when they said they were going to remove the subsidy, what they are saying is that they are going to collect more money from you; they wanted to tax you because removal of subsidy is petroleum tax through the back door. Second, the subsidy will never go away because as long as you continue to import fuel, it will never go away. Thirdly, you must make social investments to take people away from poverty. Do you know that people use vehicles in Nigeria out of poverty? Many people who have no business using vehicles are forced to use vehicles because there is no transport infrastructure.
But the government will tell you they have a ministry of poverty alleviation…
They are alleviating the poverty of politicians. That’s why you see them having romance with the EFCC every three months. Those places are created for them to pay their campaign staff and all that. What I am saying is that when the government wants to alleviate poverty, every ministry, including that of the president, is for poverty alleviation. What is poverty? Poverty is when you have no access to basic needs. And if you do housing, education, healthcare and you make food affordable, you have already killed poverty, and you don’t need to create a ministry for that.
Many will say that talk is cheap and they may want to know how many offices you have managed in the past to be able to translate what you are saying into reality if given the opportunity; what can you say about that?
Those who have run every office have now run you into hunger, so that’s number one, meaning that running office means nothing. Secondly, if you look at what I have done in every sector that I am a player, I have a record of great achievements. But governance, administration and management are about having a focus. The problem facing the Nigerian elite is that their focus is consumption and self perpetuation. It is not as if they have any goal set in mind and they have a gross contempt for the goals contained in chapter 2 of our constitution because that is where the hard work lies.
