New Telegraph

Religion, tribal sentiments bane of good governance –Adebayo

Prince Adewole Adebayo, a lawyer and businessman, is the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the 2023 general election. In this interview, he calls for proper scrutiny of all candidates in the race, stressing the need to be less fixated on religion and tribe in leadership. WALE ELEGBEDE reports

Has your position in the midst of the discussion going on about balance of both faiths for all political parties in the coming presidential election, ever been questioned?

The person who questions my faith the most is me because I know the precept of what it takes to be a Christian. As Christians and Muslims, it is our work, in terms of what we do in private and public life that should speak for us. We should not use religion to claim employment and votes. Religion should be used as a moral guidance. A former president of the United States once said the presidency is a lonely place that sometimes your last recourse is to be on your knees.

Perhaps that’s why President Muhammadu Buhari said he is eager to leave the office…

We saw it before you guys saw it.

Who is your vice presidential candidate and his faith?

The faith of my vice presidential candidate isn’t the reason. Let me tell you how the SDP behaves and our perspective to it. We do not question people’s religion, but we are sensitive to the country, because we are a diverse community, so you have no shortage of good people, men and women and different faiths. In SDP, we believe that Nigeria is not only about Muslims and Christians, we also recognise other faiths. We respect everybody’s sensitivity, identity and beliefs and it is our hope that we would not push this argument to a ridiculous point where people will begin to ask that are you the only two people here.

I am happy to be a Christian because it is religion I have serious faith in, but I grew up in an environment where half of my cousins are Muslims. So, it is not an issue for us. As a lawyer, both here in Nigeria, America and other places, I have confronted very good Muslims and very good Christians, and I have prosecuted very terrible Muslims and very terrible Christians. My message to Nigerians on this issue is that we can raise this argument only for one reason; to judge the ability of that person who is going to hold public office to have a sense of sensitivity because that’s the only reason with which you can judge him. The first duty of a person who wants to be president is the choice of the vice presidential candidate.

That’s why I asked the question: Who is your vice presidential candidate and his faith?

We will announce that because my party must be there when the announcement is made. What I want you to understand is that since we came in 1999 into civil rule, Christians have ruled, Muslims have ruled. In fact, both have ruined us. So, we should not see religion as a major criterion. All the evils that have been done in the first eight years was done by a nominal Christian, that government didn’t look like a government led by a Christian, but history will judge that. Next was Umaru Yar’Adua who did a bit. Then we have the last seven years being ruled by a practicing Muslim. This is not how I know Muslims to behave. This government doesn’t look to me like a government under a good Muslim. It was the same with the person, who ruled us now, a Christian, who even had a chapel inside the villa, but I can tell you, that is not a good standard of a Christian because when the righteous rule, the people rejoice.

Why are we fixated about politics of region such that it is becoming one of the parameters before one can aspire to rule Nigeria?

In politics, whatever argument you want, it’s available in abundance. What politicians do is first locate their interest, when the argument is found, it then helps their aim. But when you are working for the people as I am doing, I don’t have permanent interest other than good governance, making sure we have an accountable government, and as Black people, Nigeria should not be the headquarters of shame in the world. I always ask myself: Why are we concerned about politics of region? I see that the fear could be because of marginalisation. Secondly, people have been wrongly educated or I should say, miss-educated into believing the presidency is a reward but it is a very difficult job. You could see President Buhari complaining the other day. It is not about the honorific aspect of it; that is waving at children, going to Eagle Square and watching the army march past. That is just one per cent of the job. It is a very difficult job because he is carrying the burden of millions of people.

So, if it i about service, people won’t be too concerned about who is there, whether he is from my place, they would think more of the deliverables. So , it is my mission in politics to interact with people who have this kind of primordial perspectives to say, yes it is important for identity sake, we have tried, and President Buhari has been in power for the past seven years, I am from Ondo kingdom, we have had a better time than people from Katsina.

What exactly are you offering Nigerians because you said we should focus on job creation, national security as well as food security, and what are we doing wrong as a nation?

What we are doing wrong is that we don’t have a government. We are having incumbents who spend four years and go and replaced by their friends. They don’t do governmental functions. Just like you know, when you go to your home town, the local government chairman there is not relevant to you, a councillor in your street is not relevant to you, because your amenities within the environment isn’t working, and when you talk to the councillor or the chairman, they say they don’t have money or say the governor has taken the money. These are the ones you could see with your naked eyes, so with that, you know that the local government has collapsed. Let me tell you, the Federal Government too has collapsed in Nigeria. But because the Federal Government is hiding inside the villa, they blow siren and make lots of noise when they are passing, you think they are busy, it’s a lie, they are not busy. What I want to bring along is to replace these bunch of politicians who are going to the villa to collect campaign reward with a functioning government.

What do you mean by that?

A functioning government, first of all, will secure the people. And the parameter of keep ing your job, whether you are the Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Force, Chief of Naval Staff, head of police, head of Department of State Services (DSS), that the first thing you are told is that if a single Nigerian is missing and unaccounted for, it is your responsibility. Remember what General Ibrahim Babangida said to Etim Inyang, then Inspector General of Police. He said: My friend, where is Anini because they were looking for Anini, the armed robber at that time. They were going to the council meeting when he saw him and asked the question.

If you were the president and the Kuje Correctional Facility was attacked, what would you do differently?

It would not be attacked if I were the president. The first thing a government does is to have intelligence. Secondly, is to have ability to process the intelligence. What they are doing is that they are not spending our time on government time. They are doing all sorts of things in the villa. They are even holding weddings in the villa now. They don’t have time to pursue and process intelligence because their recruitment is faulty. They are not even implementing the Terrorism Act, 2011. When I was overseas, people were giving me intelligence. Why is it that they appear too careless about the problems?

Nigeria has a revenue problem. How do you intend to fix that?

Quite simple; Nigeria has honesty problem because they are stealing and that is the problem.

Are there facts to buttress the claim?

Yes, I have facts. For the past three to four months, I have been shouting that 80 per cent of crude oil being produced by Nigeria is being stolen. Even the little that comes in is being stolen by the apparatus of government. It is not me talking, it is the government.

How do you want to create your much pronounced 30 million jobs for Nigerians?

At the moment, there are 2,000 companies that have signed up to this. When you look at the companies, from just their auxiliary services, they can generate up to 60 million jobs and many of them are willing to come over immediately. As the campaign progresses, they are coming over here. I met with them in Washington, so they will be coming over here in persons to outline how the jobs would be done. They are not interested in our politics but interested in showing you that Nigeria has the capacity to employ the entire West Africa. The only thing you need to do in Nigeria is allow agriculture to run, which means you need to have security, so that farmers don’t get killed.

Your party isn’t attaching any state as its own. Besides, it is not really popular like others. What are your chances of emerging president in 2023?

Our chances are quite bright. Let me tell you why we are not making noise. We have refused to become a refugee camp for the decampees. Even the people who went to Labour Party came to us first. Peter Obi came to SDP first. We set exams for all of them but they all failed the exams. Peter Obi failed our exams. Bola Tinubu failed the exams.

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