SDP Is Nigeria’s Most Consistent Political Party – Adebayo
The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo has said that his party is the most consistent political party in Nigeria in the past 30 years, urging the people to vote for credible individuals in the 2023 elections.
The SDP was the political platform on which business mogul, Chief MKO Abiola won the annulled June 12, 1993, presidential election.
The presidential poll results were cancelled on the orders of the then Armed Forces Ruling Council chaired by former Military President Ibrahim Babangida.
Speaking on a TVC News interview, Prince Adebayo noted that the history of the party does not hurt his presidential bid noting that rather the party has “been consistent in the last 30 years; older than the rabble-rousing political parties we have these days.
“We started by saying farewell to poverty and we won the election (in the June 12, 1993, presidential election) on that basis.
“At that time, we brought someone, MKO Abiola, who had never been a councillor before, or commissioner, minister or even governor. He never served in any government capacity before then.
“He was a well-renowned accountant, philanthropist and businessman.
“The only difference between him and me is the time and instead of becoming an accountant, I’m a lawyer. Our party has been consistent.
“Secondly, our manifesto at that time is still valid right now, people still remember them, that we were the people who tried to fight poverty and poverty now has a grandchild called insecurity. And we’re now saying farewell to poverty and insecurity.
“I went to Jigawa State, I met an old man who was struggling to see me, despite how the security (agents) were making it difficult for him.
“He told me that he was a polling agent under Abiola and while you are running for office now, I have gone around Jigawa and I have been able to raise enough money, I was told that he was able to raise N8 million even though he was a farmer.
“He just had to go to people who used to be in SDP, “SDP is back, let us do what we did last time”. So, it’s been helpful.
“But we’re also aware that there are a lot of people in this generation who never knew what happened 30 years ago; people who are 25 or even 30 years old.
“So, we’re reminding them that Nigeria has not always been about money politics, Nigeria has not always been about scepticism or apathy; that 30 years ago, Nigerians rallied round, without minding ethnicity, without minding religion and without minding any other thing and it can be done again today”, he said.
According to him, the legacy of consistency in the Social Democratic Party has been helpful in his campaign. This is even as he noted that he is happy to be party to the rebirth of the political party.
On how best to tackle poverty, Prince Adebayo said the first thing is “to remove the hand of government because the factory that has manufactured poverty is the government.
“This is a country that does want poverty; everything around us works except the government.
“So, once you remove the (hand of) government because I have always given the people the history of this country, that even before Nigeria was established, if you study all the historical records, the colonialists who came didn’t meet poor people in Nigeria.
“They met general underdevelopment in terms of infrastructure and all of that, but there were no homeless people, there were no hungry people; people were well-fed.
“If you look at the pictures of Nigerians 100 years ago you will discover that they were well-fed and were quite muscular and the women were robust and healthy.
“So, the land was able to support us but the government came and occupied the entire land through the Land Use Act. So the government controls land all over the country, the government controls everything under the land and the allocative efficiency is not there.
“What the government is doing now is (to) confiscate all our properties, all our natural endowments, (is) misapplying them to the priority of a few people who are less than one percent of our population.
“So, they rendered people to go to school, the education is not sound enough and when they come out of school they are not giving them jobs. So, people are kind of lost.
“A community that is trying to take care of their affairs, there are issues regarding licensing, the rights to control this and that.
“So, even simple public safety and all of that, the initiative has been taken away from the people because the government has police that don’t work for the people also.
“When you put all of these together you will discover that it is the government that is responsible for abject poverty in the country”, Prince Adebayo said.
He then blamed inconsistencies in government policies for the poverty in the country, urging Nigerians to replace the leadership in government with people who want to serve the country to move forward.
