•Adebayo and Tinubu
The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, has accused President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of acting against the some portions of the very electoral bill which he signed into law as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Adebayo made the allegation while speaking on the state of Nigeria’s democracy and the ongoing political transition process, warning that the nation was drifting towards authoritarian rule disguised as civilian governance.
In a video made available to The Frontier today, the flag bearer of the SDP said, “Tinubu as president signed a law that says one should belong to only one party. But today, he wants to belong to every political party. He wants to have his parallel organs and parallel candidates in all the political parties. He wants to control every political party, control INEC and dictate who emerges.”
Speaking further on the alleged dictatorial tendencies of the president, Adebayo said, “Don’t be deceived to think that the tailors that sew the uniforms of the soldiers in power then are different from the tailors that are sewing President Tinubu’s clothes now. And he wants to score 10 million votes even when 300 people are voting. That is why we’ve been going from court room to court room.”
Adebayo therefore said that the current administration was gradually centralising power and weakening democratic institutions in order to dominate the entire political landscape.
Referring to the famous ‘Option A4’ voting system introduced during Nigeria’s Third Republic, the SDP chieftain lamented that a transparent electoral model designed to reflect the true will of the people was now allegedly being distorted for political advantage.
According to him, the original concept behind Option A4 was simple and credible because voters openly queued behind candidates while votes were counted transparently at polling units.
“When Professor Omo Omoruyi and others developed democratic studies during the Third Republic and Humphrey Nwosu implemented Option A4, it was done because it was basic and transparent,” Adebayo said.
He, however, alleged that the Tinubu administration had transformed that legacy into electoral manipulation.
“Did anybody believe that President Tinubu can turn Option A4 into Option A-Fraud, where you announce 11 million votes when the people physically present are not even close to that figure?” he asked.
Adebayo claimed that figures were allegedly being inflated in ways that defied logic and arithmetic.
“You count one, two, three, four and suddenly jump to ninety-nine,” he said, describing the process as “elliptical arithmetic.”
The SDP leader warned Nigerians not to dismiss the danger facing the country’s democracy, insisting that what was happening went beyond ordinary political rivalry.
He argued that Nigeria was moving towards a dangerous concentration of power in one individual.
“This is no longer about party differences or ideology. It is about preventing Nigeria from becoming the personal estate of one man,” he declared.
Adebayo also accused the government of sponsoring internal crises within opposition parties to weaken resistance ahead of future elections.
He cited the recent controversy surrounding the SDP national secretariat, alleging that security agencies were used to intimidate the party and facilitate the activities of persons he described as government-backed agents.
The SDP presidential candidate called on political parties, civil society organisations, the media and young Nigerians to defend democracy and resist what he termed “a prolonged coronation disguised as an election”.
He maintained that the survival of Nigeria’s democratic system now depended on citizens refusing to remain silent.
“This is the fight of our generation,” Adebayo stated. “Once Nigerians defeat this idea of one-man control, nobody will attempt it again.”
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