Prince Adewole Adebayo, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), has declared his intention to challenge President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 elections and ensure he is the last “bad leader” Nigeria will have.
Adebayo expressed his belief that Nigerians have long lamented the prevalence of bad leadership but have not actively sought to change the situation. He asserted that this will change after the 2027 elections.
He outlined his strategy, emphasizing the need to transform the current political landscape and move away from the dominance of money politics. Adebayo stressed that citizens must take responsibility and use their votes to elect good leaders, as divine intervention alone will not suffice.
Adebayo urged Nigerians to raise their expectations of politicians, stating that those who cannot meet these demands will be phased out.
“If you listen to politicians, they will tell you, oh, the president who is there now is the problem. Then, it was anybody but Jonathan. And then, oh, Buhari is the problem; he’s clueless and whatever. Now, Tinubu is the problem, but I can tell you, my mission is to make sure that Tinubu is the last of the bad presidents,” Adebayo stated.
“How do you ensure that? You will change the politics. You will make Nigerians believe in the politics of their country, reasonable people who will not touch politics with a long pole. When politics is done properly, ethically and legitimately, they will come into it. More talent will come into it, and people will not emphasise the politics of money. So, once we change that system, it doesn’t matter if Tinubu can resign tomorrow, you can conspire and remove him but you don’t need that. What we need is to change the politics, and to do that, we must first change our political party, and anyone who looks at the SDP knows that we have changed the party for the better,” he added.
Adebayo called on Nigerians to actively participate in the political process, stating, “While we are doing awareness and talking, I don’t want Nigerians to sit at home and point fingers at the bad governors and say it’s caused by politicians. The mandate comes from the people, and once the people raise their bar, some politicians will respond to it and some will fall by the wayside.”
SDP as the Platform for Change
Adebayo asserted that the SDP is the platform that will usher in a new Nigeria and urged citizens to embrace the party as a vehicle for correcting the nation’s political ills.
“That is what the leadership of the SDP is working to achieve. If you speak to our national chairman, Shehu Gabam, our national secretary, Olu Ogunloye, and other leaders of the party, you’ll see that down our ladder and our organogram, we are reminding everyone who joins the party that they are welcome. However, look at our manifesto, chapter two of the constitution and the plight of the masses, our politics is geared towards addressing that. What we want is for the party to be adopted by the Nigerian people as a platform to correct what is wrong in our politics,” he concluded
