Adebayo Decries Tinubu’s Neo-liberal Economic Policies 

* Says president can’t achieve anything in 40 years

The candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 presidential election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has condemned President Bola Tinubu’s neo-liberal economic policies, saying they would not achieve anything even in the next 40 years.

“The main primary objective of a monetary policy in a neo-liberal economy is to achieve full employment. Have they done that? They have not. That is the problem. So, they are not going anywhere. You can give them 40 years but they are not going anywhere,” he said.

In an interview with journalists, Adebayo blamed the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of Tinubu for lacking economic policies capable of getting Nigeria out of the woods.

He said: “The essence of coming is to tell us what you want to do.  ‘Emi lokan’, meaning, it’s my turn, is not an economic philosophy. Dodging debate is not an economic policy. Ba la blu,  bu la ba’ and all those blabbing is not an economic debate. They did not articulate what they wanted to do. They did not understand the implications of the decision they were taking. They do not have the executive capacity to run a neo-liberal economic setting. You can run it, it is an alternative.

“You have to first come to power on the merit of your ideas, not on the number of bullion vans you can summon over the weekend. You have to support people based on their capacity not because you become a political contractor and they give you N2 billion, N3 billion to go and do media work, then you follow them.” 

He lamented that instead of running a government for the benefit of Nigeria, the current leaders are doing business with Nigerians.

According to him, “They are not running the country. They are just doing business. Occasionally they get distracted with governmental duties but their primary duty is business  and they think, that is why they are trying to run petroleum industry rather than have a regulatory framework. 

“They are not running the economy. They are not running government. They don’t see you and I as citizens, they see us as customers. They are mercantile in their approach. They see you as customer since they can get extra money from you by hoarding petrol.

“I can get extra money from you by underfunding public education. So, they are not willing to do anything because they are not ready to comply with chapter 2 of the Constitution which stipulates how governance should be done in Nigeria.

“Call anybody in government, they are not responsible for anything, because the minister of water resources is not responsible for whether you have water or not. The minister of education is not responsible for educational outcome, whether students fail WAEC, JAMB, he is not responsible. The minister of health is not responsible for your life expectancy or medical outcomes. They just carry these titles to enable them to put out their signatures to award. Beyond that, they are not going to do anything.”