By Chukwudi Nweje
Ahead of tomorrow’s inauguration of Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu as the eight Nigerian President since the return to democratic rule in 1999, the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic party (SDP) in the February 25, 2023, election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has charged the president-elect to decide whether his presidency is driven by a passion to build Nigeria to truly become a world leader or a fulfilment of his ambition of be Nigeria’s president.
Adebayo, who contested against Tinubu during the presidential election from the platform of the SDP stated that Tinubu has both competence and capacity to lead Nigeria but will have to decide what to do with his presidency because “you cannot advice a man with power.”
He said, “It is up to Tinubu to decide what to do with power; he has both the capacity and competence but once you grab power you will become a different person; you cannot advice a man with power.”
Adebayo insisted that the SDP manifesto, ‘Hope Again’ is better than that of Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress (APC), ‘Renewed Hope’, but that Nigerians chose Tinubu to lead.
He further said: “I have studied Tinubu’s ‘Renewed Hope’ manifesto, I still insist that it is not half as good as my ‘Hope Again’ manifesto but if it is implemented, Tinubu’s administration will be better than all the administrations before him put together.
“It is up to Tinubu to decide whether he wants Nigeria to move forward or not. But if he decides to do the same thing APC did when they brought ‘Change’ then it will be unfortunate.
“I pray that Tinubu’s motivation is that he wants to be a great leader that Nigeria and Africa will remember because whichever Nigerian President succeeds in fixing Nigeria would have fixed the whole of Africa and the Black race.”
On the insinuation that Tinubu is the most unpopular president to have been elected in Nigeria having scored less than 10 million votes compared to other presidents since 1999, Adebayo said that the introduction of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) has made numbers coming from the polls realistic.
“The figure is not an indication that anything is wrong with Tinubu, it just shows that the excitement of voting is tied to the state of mind of voters at each electioneering time. It may even be lower in the next presidential election in 2027.
“It signifies that democracy is maturing and penetrating in Nigeria. In the past politicians could cook any numbers they wanted during election but with BVAS it has become impossible. This signifies that the numbers at this election are realistic,” he said.
Adebayo said that Nigeria needed more electoral reforms to make the next transitional election in 2027 more credible.
He stated that the powers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should be whittled down to cut down on the overbearing interferences of the INEC in internal affairs of political parties.
“If you look at the way INEC is configured, you will discover that we are not looking at the best way to conduct free and fair elections, the transition is managed to conform to certain parameters that conform to the status quo.
If you go back to 1999, the transition was managed such that even before it started, they had narrowed it down to two contestants or three at most, and the military had settled for Obasanjo, and even when Obasanjo later appointed Abel Guobadia as INEC chairman, it was to realise his second term. Maurice Iwu was appointed to manage Obasanjo’s PDP to PDP transition and the idea of party registration was all part of the same narrow space. The composition of INEC and all the National Commissioners and the Resident Electoral Commissioners all came from the governors so INEC is part of the political process.
“In Nigeria from the process of registering a political party to nomination of candidates, INEC is the one responsible for monitoring and certifying all the business of the political party and through that INEC is responsible for what a political party becomes.
“I have concluded that the way INEC is currently configured those in the status quo cannot be surprised by the political outcome.
“If we want to do something about the political space, we must first do something about the overbearing influence of INEC in the internal affairs of political parties”, he said.