Prince Adewole Ebenezer Adebayo has become a household name shortly after he contested the general elections in 2023 as a presidential candidate on the platform of Social Democratic Party SDP. In this interview, this lawyer-businessman turned politician lamented the state of mess the country is presently enmeshed due to the ruling party and wrong policies of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration which he claimed has taken the country back by 10 years.
How do you want to go about achieving your ambition of planting 100 million trees in your lifetime?
Well, you start by taking action. Today is May 12, and it’s just 10am and we’ve planted 100 trees today. Look at how many steps you take in your lifetime, how many times you blink your eyes, how many times you breathe in and out.
So, all these are biological actions. Even when you are sleeping, these actions are going on. And you are polluting as well because every step you take including eating food or throwing it away, drinking water from the sachet and throwing it away, you’re also polluting. So, it’s about taking action. Before you know it, the number will accumulate.
A hundred million sounds like a big number, but if you take steps every day, it’s achievable. There are days when you do a lot, and there are days when you do less. The accumulated thing, you will get there.
When oppositions raised eyebrows about the scale of defections, the presidency responded that the opposition members were defecting because President Bola Tinubu is providing good leadership. For you, is it about Tinubu’s good leadership style that is attracting people to the opposition, or do you think there is more to it?
First, where is the real opposition in Nigeria? The people that you call opposition are establishment politicians who are changing from one establishment party to the other. So, someone who is in PDP cannot say that he is in opposition, because after the APC, the PDP has the highest number of governors, senators, House of Representatives members and Houses of Assembly members. And even in the APC government of President Tinubu, PDP has ministers in it.
So, they are moving from one room to the other in the same house. That is not relocation; that is just mere rearrangement within the house. So, I am yet to see anybody who is a genuine opposition politician, who is in opposition because they don’t like the ideology and methodology and the outcome of these establishment politicians. Such people won’t be able to move.
And for us in the SDP, we have seen a lot of people moving to us as well.
I think more people are moving to the SDP than they are moving to the APC. And we welcome those who are moving to the SDP, but we always ask ourselves the questions: if you move to us, has your mind moved to us? Do you now believe in what we believe? If you are part of those who have been giving problems to Nigeria, are you willing to change? Are you repenting? If you are, you’ve had policies that hurt the poor, you have done injustice and you have misused public resources.
There is this fear that Nigeria could be tilting towards a one-party state. Some observers are foreseeing a possible implosion within the APC due to this massive inflow of opposition parties. What are your reactions to these two questions?
There cannot be a one-party state in Nigeria because there’s no one system of welfare. There’s no one system of employment. There’s no one system of security. The benefits of politics are flowing in the direction of politicians. And a welfare politician changing from party to party cannot say he’s in the same coalition with the poor, who cannot pay their children’s school fees, who cannot sleep well at home, who cannot keep a job.
And if they have a job, the pay from that job cannot satisfy one percent of their needs. So, there cannot be a one-party state when this is not a welfare state, when it is a selfish accumulation of money for the few who are in the ruling class and the wretched people who are on the streets.
How can people who are standing in the rain waiting for a car to carry them, be a one-party system with those who are using multiple private jets paid for by the public? It is not possible. So, if all the governors go to one party, Nigeria will choose a new set of governors. If all the senators go to one party, Nigeria will choose another set of senators.
So, that doesn’t make a one-party state; what makes a one-party state is the people thinking that they don’t need any other party outside the one that is ruling, or people being forced by law not to create another party. In Nigeria, you can create as many parties as you want, but what is going to sustain the party is whether the members of the party believe in that party.
Your party’s attention is on how to improve the living standard of the people. But then in 2023, the people made a choice. Those people you are focused on, the masses, made a choice to vote for President Bola Tinubu, and you’re so concerned about them. Do you think people make the right decision when it’s very crucial?
Do you know the party that got the highest votes in the last election? The party that got the highest votes is called Apathy Party because we had 89 million voters; all the voters that came out were around 23 million or less. So, the majority did not show up and that is why our government is apathetic.
Our politics is apathetic because it takes longer. I want you to understand something. It takes more effort, more resources, more sacrifice for you to go to INEC and register to vote. But to go and vote is easier. Why do you think people who sometimes go to the INEC office three times, four times before they can be registered; stay like six hours on the queue to ensure that they register and after that will still go back to pick their cards will not come out on Election Day.
You cannot say they are not interested in the democratic process. They are interested; otherwise they won’t go and pick the voter’s card. But they are not happy with the choices and they are not involved. That is why we are focused on the people. President Tinubu, the combined votes that he got is less than the population of Lagos State. It’s less than the population of Kano State. In fact, all the presidential candidates combined together, all the votes they got is about the population of Lagos State, one of the states in Nigeria.
It shows that the majority was left behind and that is what the SDP is working on. It’s just that the media are more focused on people they know; people who are newsmakers.
Nigerians want to know how strong the SDP is from the local level to the state. How strong is this party to unseat the APC in 2027?
The SDP is as strong as Nigerians are. Let me tell you one fact you need to know. SDP is not strong. It is not designed to be strong. What needs to be strong is the determination of Nigerians to change the government because the party can only be strong when people join it. So, the party is not inherently strong.
There’s nothing strong about the party. It’s an ordinary collection of Nigerians who wish better for their country. So, we’re not strong. We’re underdogs. We’re ordinary people. We have carpenters, tailors, Okada riders, farmers. We’re an ordinary people’s party. But who are the same people who rally around and produce Abiola as president?
Yes, the same people who, when the big people realize that, oh, this Abiola, though a rich man, has been taken over by the poor people and is now championing farewell to poverty and is going to lead these poor people to take over the government, they cancel the election. And many lost their lives. I remember myself being chased with tear gas by soldiers all over Ilupeju and Mushin in Lagos.
I joined the SDP in 1991 when I was 19 years old. And I have been in SDP even when they banned the party from the military. We remained the same. And after that, when the military system ended, PDP came, APC came and others. I didn’t join any of them.
We kept fighting to ensure that the SDP got registered again. Through the effort of Chief Falae, Osoba, and many people, the party was registered again. And when I came back to politics, I joined the same party. So, I’m a Nigerian who has joined only one party in his entire life. I joined when I was 19. I’m now 52 plus. So, I’m going to die inside that party.
What endeared you to that party at such a young age, 19?
Babangida created two political party systems. They said a little to the left SDP, a little to the right NRC, and the SDP manifesto captivated me because it says that the way to fight poverty and to develop a country is by using the collective resources of the country to improve the welfare of the people, build infrastructure, create employment and give social services like education, health and other services.
But at the end of it, it said liberalize the economy and let each person, let businesses take over. It’s not the business of the government to create jobs for people, and so on and so forth. So, if you look at APC and SDP, and PDP, that is PDP first and then APC next, they have implemented that NRC approach. So, the government will take care of the politicians and God will take care of the people.
Abiola was right. Praising Abiola who has died and abandoning the poor he died for is hypocrisy. That is why we must remind our people, it’s not about Tinubu is too tall, Tinubu is too short, Tinubu is wicked, it’s not about that. Tinubu offended me, Tinubu is not like that. No, it’s about the government not working. And if you go to Tinubu’s hometown, you will see poor people there. If you go to his extended family, forget about his son jumping up and down, if you go to his extended family, you will see that they are struggling to pay their rent too.
Are you saying that Tinubu hasn’t done anything? Are you saying none of his policies has impacted positively on the lives of the masses; none at all?
Even your own voice tells me that Tinubu hasn’t helped you at all because from the strength of your voice, you realise that you’re only asking that question as a professional.
The answer lies in your question. Your take-home pay cannot pay your bills. You’re an honest, hard-working, well-trained journalist and this is a high-level profession. Journalism, law, medicine, and some of these professions, are at the top of the elite profession. Yet, in all these professions, professionals who are working day and night cannot take care of their families.
If you are leading a road show or travelling along the street, you cannot travel 100 meters without encountering 100 cases of destitution. So, you know that water doesn’t run in the house where you live. No single supply of water from the water corporation to your house. So, what has changed? Where were you three years ago? Where are you now? What has changed? Not only that, forget about three years ago, go back to 10 years ago. Where were you 10 years ago when APC took over from PDP, and where are you now? Are you 10 steps ahead, or 10 steps backward, or 10 steps on the same spots?
You actually have mentioned that you’re having defectors from other parties to join the SDP, former Kaduna State Governor, Major Hamza al-Mustafa also joined with a host of others. But are these people and all other entrants willing to be debriefed on the ideologies of the party and willing to pick them up?
That is the battle we’re having. It’s an engagement because you must have captured some of the engagement exchanges in the media. And we’re having more intense engagements. It’s happening at every level of the party.
As people are coming in, we’re telling them, hey, watch your step. You’re on holy ground. Here, we don’t cheat the poor.
Here, we don’t lie to the people. Here, we don’t rob the bank. So, account for your past behaviour and stop mentioning people’s names here. Here, we talk about the people only. We’re not part of any conspiracy to cheat the poor.
So, if you have problems with those who were in conspiracy before, wait outside, sort it out with them.
When you come here, use us only to preach farewell to poverty, insecurity, accountability to corruption. If your language is that, then you start to examine your own contribution so that people will know that our party is not a place where just by merely joining us, all your sins are forgiven.
So sins are not forgiven in SDP? Is that what you’re saying?
No, sins against the people can only be forgiven by the people. And for you to do that, you have to first confess to the people. And you have to first purge yourself. You cannot use stolen money that you got where you were before to come and do politics in the SDP.
So, it will be a small thing, a bigger thing. What is the use? They must not see us coming and start laughing and say, look at these people who say they’re SDP. Are they not the same APC? No. Or look at these people who say they’re SDP. Are they not the same PDP? Look at this man who robbed us to the last kobo when he was in power. He’s now joining these people singing a new song. So, we keep telling them that you can join the Catholic Church today.
You can join and be a member of the Catholic Church. Right now, no matter what your religion is, you can walk up to the nearest Catholic Church or Catholic priest and say, I want to be a Catholic. But you cannot on that same day say, I also want to be the Pope.
Now, Nasir El-Rufai that joined the SDP is also in talks with Atiku Abubakar to champion a coalition. Is this not going to be a problem for the SDP?
It’s not a problem to the SDP because if you go and ask a former vice president, Abubakar, he will answer you correctly. Nasir El-Rufai has not been mandated by SDP to talk to anybody. But he’s a charming fellow.
He’s a charming fellow who likes to take photographs and we can’t stop him from enjoying his life. But the SDP has ways by which we do things. And we do that methodically. All our engagement with the coalition people has been ideological engagement. We’ve been asking them questions, sending them questionnaire upon questionnaire.
What is your belief in this? What is your attitude to how SDP believes in this? You supported Tinubu on subsidy before. So now, do you agree that the policy is wrong? We engage in all of this. We do that all the time. And I’m doing that. Our national chairman is doing that. Our national secretary is doing that.
Many people in our working committee are doing that. Our youth groups are doing that. So, that is not the policies we understand in SDP. It’s not the policies of personality. It’s the policies of principles. And as time goes on, you will find out that the best choice for the Nigerian people is where the SDP will stay.
