•Prince Adewole Adebayo
The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party in the 2027 general elections, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has urged Nigerians to vote for politicians who will improve their lives, not to vote based on sentiments.
Adabayo blamed Nigeria’s persistent crises on bad governance, weak institutions and a political class more interested in winning elections than solving the country’s problems.
Adebayo stated this while addressing the Nigerian Bar Association conference in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where he was among presidential candidates invited to present their visions for governing the country.
He said Nigerians were less interested in the political fortunes of individual politicians than in having a government capable of improving their living conditions.
According to him, the successive elections held since 1999 had failed to deliver the fundamental changes Nigerians expected, stressing that the country needed a new political direction anchored on the Constitution and its fundamental objectives.
Adebayo said the SDP had rejected what he described as 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.
He said the party had previously held discussions with some “professional politicians” seeking to form a coalition with the SDP, but that the talks 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 the SDP’s political philosophy was fundamentally tied to Chapter Two of the Nigerian Constitution, particularly the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.
He said anyone seeking political office under the party must subscribe to those principles, adding that the SDP 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.
The SDP candidate also rejected the influence of money in determining political leadership, saying his party would rather build a coalition with ordinary Nigerians.
He, however, said politicians would be welcomed into such a coalition if they were prepared to subscribe to the Constitution and the ethical principles of the party.
On fuel subsidy, Adebayo said the country should stop dwelling on whether the subsidy should be removed, arguing that what Nigerians needed was sustainable supply of petroleum products at affordable prices and a stable exchange rate.
He recalled that the SDP had warned against the removal of the subsidy and predicted the hardship that would follow.
According to him, 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.
Adebayo likened the situation to that of a medical patient whose appendix had already been removed, saying it would be impossible to simply reverse the procedure.
“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 to reduce energy costs through sustainable measures rather than return to the old subsidy regime.
On insecurity, Adebayo argued that Nigeria’s security crisis could not be resolved without addressing the political and economic interests allegedly sustaining it.
He said the country’s huge security expenditure had failed to translate into genuine security for citizens, stressing the need to examine security allocations 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 were benefiting from insecurity, particularly kidnapping and illegal mining.
He 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 excessive security spending without adequate accountability, arguing that past administrations had left behind huge financial liabilities.
Addressing the farmer-herder conflict, Adebayo rejected what he described as a simplistic portrayal of the crisis as a clash between farmers and herders.
“I am a herder myself. I have close to one million cattle, and I’ve not killed anybody before,” he said.
He argued that the government should focus on identifying the real beneficiaries of violence and illegal exploitation of the country’s natural resources.
The SDP candidate advocated stronger regulation of the mining sector, saying miners should be properly identified and held accountable for criminal activities occurring within areas where they operate.
He also called for reforms to the Office of the National Security Adviser and a fundamental reorganisation of the armed forces.
According to him, Nigeria needs a “people’s army” structured to respond effectively to threats confronting communities across the country.
Adebayo criticised what he described as the creation of military divisions without sufficient manpower, saying the country needed properly equipped and adequately staffed formations rather than administrative changes that did not translate into operational strength.
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 had 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.
On his campaign theme, “Farewell to Poverty and Insecurity,” the SDP candidate said poverty and insecurity were interconnected and could not be effectively addressed without reforming the way government operated.
He further claimed that Nigeria had not experienced a government since 1999 that sufficiently reflected the governing principles contained in the Constitution.
“We don’t have a government. Not only the one who is there now, President Tinubu. Since 1999, we have not had a government close to what we wrote in the Constitution,” he said.
Adebayo identified three principles which, according to him, should be non-negotiable regardless of political differences: democratic elections as the means of forming government, governance according to law and approved appropriations, and accountability with a firm rejection of corruption.
On food security, he said Nigeria must move away from excessive dependence on imports and develop its agricultural production capacity.
Adebayo described himself as a net producer and exporter of agricultural products, citing his investments in farming and cattle production as evidence of his understanding of the agricultural sector.
He argued that food security could not be achieved through rhetoric or imports alone, but through deliberate investment in agriculture and productive capacity.
The SDP candidate challenged political leaders to demonstrate practical commitment to agriculture rather than merely making promises about food security.
He urged Nigerians to scrutinise the programmes and records of political parties and candidates before voting in 2027, saying the country’s future ultimately depended 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.
