Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party SDP in the just concluded February 2023 general election, Prince Adewole Ebenezer Adebayo has advised Nigerians to move on from the last elections, monitor and participate in governance to enable the President-elect to succeed in the task of rebuilding the country.
Gatekeepers News reports that Adebayo, who spoke during the rights advocate Segun Awosanya’s organised open space on Twitter, said government efforts at repatriating Nigerians caught in the Sudan war have been quite reasonable given the complexity of the situation there.
According to Adebayo, rescuing Nigerians through the land borders, instead of air, as advised, was the best because with the closure of the Sudanese airspace, “it’s a lot easier and next option.”
“Rescuing them by air would have been good because it is faster, but the problem you are going to face in the process is better imagined. You will need air clearance. Send details of the aircraft. Check if the aircraft is well insured; ask the insurers if they can make the trip to the said location. I think a lot of criticisms of the action of the government in Sudan arose from ignorance,” he said.
On politics, the SDP chieftain said, “Governance should start immediately after the winner of an election is announced; expressing reservations, just like other Nigerians about the conduct of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC organized election but added that such should not stop governance from going on.
He said, “Politics is a leadership selection process for you to have good governance. I lost the elections. I have complaints about the election, and I have ventilated it. As of 6.05, my votes in Adamawa on the day of the election was 157, 000, which is more than the total votes nationwide INEC announced for me. I mentioned that in my initial reaction.
“I cannot say it was APC that denied me. There are three things I don’t do. I don’t like a contradiction. That the election isn’t good where I didn’t win but good where I won. I don’t go to court if I don’t have enough reason to.
“For those who have cases, you go to court, which you can not be denied. When you are in court, should I join you so that the winner should not be sworn in? Should I join you to continue to attack the supposed winner with all the campaign stuff (he was born the wrong day; he has 2 left eyes; his legs are bad even as he is being sworn in and you are writing everyone in the world that don’t touch him, he is a criminal)I don’t agree with that. You are only insulting yourself as a country.”
“For Nigeria to be counted among the greats,” Adebayo said, “The country, particularly the leadership, must do away with playing ethnic and religious politics.”
“We have mixed ethnicity with religion for too long. If you look at the candidates, some would not have been supported except if they had come from their ethnic region and religion. And they are even investing in it. I don’t play such politics.
“If you have Muslim Muslim presidency, the country will survive if the two of them are good people. If you have Christian Muslims, the country will collapse if the two of them are useless people. If you get Christian Christian, the country will do well if the two of them are good people.”
