THE presidential candidate of the social democratic party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo has said that if elected in the 25th February election, his party will lead Nigeria well and by extension, West Africa.
Prince Adebayo said this when responding to questions on the tension in the Sahel region and his plan for environmental development, during a Presidential Town Hall meeting on Climate Change and Environmental Concerns held in Abuja.
The town hall meeting which was held on Tuesday 7th February had the theme: “2023 General Elections and the Quest for a Greener Nigeria”.
Speaking on environmental problems Nigeria is faced with, he stated that the problems are caused by the failure of the government, adding that the country has enough resources to handle its environmental issues.
“Many of the problems you see here are not even environmental problems per se; they are problems of failure of government”, he said.
“First, if you look at the amount of money we need to reflood Lake Chad, it is not up to 10 percent of what EFCC has been announcing all the time that has been stolen from the government. So Nigeria is not a country that we need to call on the world to come and save it and its environment because we have enough resources within the country to do so”.
The SDP presidential standard-bearer further noted that Nigeria is a global power in Africa, hence if there is an efficient government in place, the environmental problems across West Africa will be dealt with.
He went further to list the various ways his government would control the challenges facing the Sahel if elected.
He said. “We are the global power around here, by nature of God’s gift. Therefore, if you have an efficient government in Nigeria and through the mechanism of ECOWAS and other bilateral relationships, here is what we will do.
“First, we will mandate by regulation; so when you deal with poverty, across West Africa, the impact on the environment will be minimal.
$Second, we have a defence policy – the symbol of it is the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), whereby around West Africa you won’t have militants, jihadists, or bandits coming there because we have the ability to take care of that if our defence policy is implemented under a proper Commander-in-Chief”.
Prince Adewole further noted that there is a need for the government to have stability in its dealings across board in order not to have communities clashing.
“So, I believe that under our government, we will lead Nigeria well and once we lead Nigeria well, we will lead West Africa well and anything the international community wants to contribute will be looked at as their contribution; but in-house we are fine”.
The lawyer-turned-politician further urged Nigerians to pay attention to issues the nation is faced with and listen to his ideas and those of the other candidates of the party to know that SDP is an organic party filled with ideas and ready to work for Nigeria.
Other presidential candidates present at the town hall were Kachikwu Dumebi of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC), and Senator Alkali representing Kwankwaso of NNPP.
Prince Adebayo’s presidential campaign entourage comprised vice president candidate, Yusuf Salisu Buhari, Sen. Ugochukwu Uba, Pst. Ade Alabi and Chief Godwin Osigbeme.