Leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has advised President Bola Tinubu to be more concerned about the resentment of the masses against his government rather worrying about a political coalition that could defeat him in 2027.
Speaking in an interview with journalists, Adebayo noted that the president is politically savvy enough to know that the coalition is not his problem.
“He knows the people in the coalition. They are all friends. They are all together. The real thing that the president should worry about is the resentment of the people and the problems that people are facing in reality. It is not the coalition that has been putting pictures and billboards all over,” he said.
He blamed the president for focusing on the 2027 elections, alleging that he has abandoned governance and failed to give good governance to Nigeria.
He also alleged that Tinubu has not been able to create an administration to effectively tackle Nigeria’s challenges since he assumed office.
He said: “If we are to be fair to the Tinubu government, we should talk about the Tinubu presidency, not the Tinubu administration, because there’s no administration going on.
“What you have is an imperial majesty in the Presidency. Their eyes are not to the ground. Do not call them an administration. Just call them the presidency, because they have not been able to create an administration.”
According to him, President Tinubu and his team of economic experts have not been able to give Nigerians a workable budget for two years running.
He noted that the president had presented two annual budgets to Nigerians, alleging that the last one was far worse than the first one.
“They have not been able to write a single good budget. They are reaching two budgets now and the only difference is that the one that came after is worse than the one before. They are not able to get a grip of anything. They are not doing well with employment. They need to know that the tool for dealing with poverty is employment,” he added.
He also picked holes in the student loan programme, saying that all that the government needed to do to give education access to an average Nigerian without taking a loan was to bring the cost of education down.
“I don’t agree with them on their student loan, because all you need to do is bring the cost of education down, and an average person will be able to go to school without needing a loan. But even with the loan, they are not able to administer it properly,” he said.
Adebayo said the Tinubu presidency has so far not shown any sign that it is prepared to address the people’s problems.
He said: “An administration is not focused on just politics; it’s not a campaign organisation rolling into the State House. It is now a government for the people. So, they will administer water, air quality, everything that’s within the federal mandate.
“And they will give leadership to the rest of the economy. I know you haven’t seen that. I haven’t seen that. President Tinubu has not even signaled that and very few in his Presidency are signaling that.”