The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in the 2027 general elections, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has told the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, conference in Port Harcourt, that Nigeria’s crisis is rooted largely in bad governance, weak institutions and a political class more interested in winning elections than solving the country’s problems.
Adebayo, who was among the presidential candidates invited to the NBA conference to present their visions for governing Nigeria, said Nigerians were less concerned about the political fortunes of individual politicians than about having a government that would improve their lives.
He said the repeated elections since 1999 had failed to produce the fundamental changes Nigerians expected, arguing that the country needed a new political direction anchored on the Constitution and its fundamental objectives.
According to him, the SDP has rejected the traditional politics of ethnic and religious rotation, money and political calculations, insisting that competence and commitment to the Nigerian people should determine who governs the country.
Adebayo said his party had previously engaged some “professional politicians” who sought to form a coalition with the SDP, but that the discussions exposed fundamental differences in political philosophy.
“We discovered three things. One, that they don’t care about ideology; they just want to win and figure it out later,” he said.
Adebayo said anyone seeking political office under the SDP must subscribe to those principles, adding that the party would not rotate political power on the basis of ethnicity or religion.
“We do not rotate power based on ethnicity and religion. We do it based on your understanding of the needs of the country,” he said.
He also rejected the influence of money in determining political leadership, saying the SDP would rather build a coalition with ordinary Nigerians.
On the contentious issue of fuel subsidy, Adebayo said the country should stop dwelling on whether subsidy should be removed, arguing that what Nigerians needed was a sustainable supply of petroleum products at affordable prices and a stable exchange rate.
He recalled that the SDP had warned against the removal of subsidy and predicted the hardship that would follow, stressing that the current situation had validated the party’s position, arguing that the subsidy debate had become largely academic because the policy had already been dismantled.
“Subsidy is like giving somebody a scholarship to a university that does not exist. The scholarship is useless,” he said.
He maintained that the real challenge was reducing energy costs through sustainable measures rather than returning to the old subsidy regime.
On insecurity, the SDP candidate launched one of his strongest attacks on the political establishment, arguing that Nigeria’s security crisis could not be solved without confronting the political and economic interests allegedly sustaining it
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He said the country’s security expenditure had failed to translate into genuine security for citizens, insisting that security allocations should be examined alongside the broader structure of governance and accountability.
“The theme of our own campaign is ‘Farewell to Poverty and Insecurity’, and they are linked,” he said.
Adebayo alleged that elements within the political establishment and their collaborators benefit from insecurity, particularly kidnapping and illegal mining, and argued that Nigerians would continue to suffer if they repeatedly returned the same politicians to power.
“If you remove these politicians who you keep re-electing, they will go away, and their terrorist partners will go away. If you keep re-electing them, the terrorists will continue because they and the terrorists are in partnership,” he alleged.
He also criticised what he described as the excessive use of security spending without adequate accountability, arguing that past administrations had left behind huge financial liabilities.
On state police, Adebayo said the issue should be approached as a constitutional and governance matter rather than a political slogan.
He argued that since state governments possess legislative powers to make laws, they should also have the capacity to establish law-enforcement mechanisms capable of enforcing those laws.
“If you come to Rivers State and kill somebody, it’s against the law for Rivers State to kill somebody in Rivers State. Rivers State should not need Abuja to help them apprehend you,” he argued.
Adebayo maintained that every tier of government should have the capacity to enforce laws within its constitutional jurisdiction, saying state policing would strengthen local accountability and responsiveness.
He urged Nigerians to scrutinise the programmes and records of political parties and candidates before voting in 2027, saying the country’s future depended ultimately on the quality of choices made by the electorate.
“Your choice is to vote candidates and parties according to what they present to you,” he said.
