Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Get together (SDP) within the 2023 common election, Prince Adewole Adebayo has attributed the present wave of insecurity in Nigeria to what he referred to as “absent-mindedness of Tinubu authorities”, which he mentioned, had turn into rudderless.
On this interview with Ihechukwu Sunday, he takes a panoramic views of the present safety scenario in Nigeria, risk of invasion of the killing of Christians continues by the US president, Donald Trump, the presidential order to cordon off forests, significantly in states the place bandits are operating riots, the order to with police particulars from the VIPs and the function of the opposition within the prevailing safety risk, amongst others. Excerpts!
How would you describe the state of Nigeria as at this second?
Nicely, it’s nonetheless orderless from the perspective of governance, and first duties of the totally different tiers of presidency nonetheless lie unattended to, and the dire scenario that our individuals discover themselves, or all of us discover ourselves stays unchanged. There are indications that the federal government has misplaced its map, and it’s simply waking up each day reacting to any new incident, or the umbrage, whether or not native or worldwide. There isn’t a rational observer who would say, ah, that is the trajectory of the place the Tinubu presidency was headed to.
What is going on in November 2025 was what they deliberate in November 2024. President Tinubu has misplaced management of his personal authorities, which he hasn’t had time to place collectively to begin with.
And nevertheless a lot you communicate for the federal government; you can not say that the place they’re now in 2025 was the place they deliberate to be once they had been planning a 12 months in the past or two years in the past. They positively are within the wilderness, and if the captain of the ship can not discover his solution to the bridge, and he’s not in a position to find the place the ship is located, he can not decide the path the ship goes, he has no management over the velocity of the sail, the passengers on that ship are entitled to a brand new captain, or they provide up on that ship, and you can not quit on Nigeria. So, it’s simpler to say that we have now a nasty authorities in a very good nation than to say we have now a nasty nation, as a result of I do know that this nation, if nicely managed, is second to none.
If you say that this authorities has failed Nigerians, are you not making governance so simplistic; is it that straightforward? Are you saying that the federal government is deliberately wanting away from the individuals?
The primary enemy of the federal government is the federal government. The primary enemy of the individuals is the federal government. You can’t commit a criminal offense and final one week, one month, when you don’t have authorities individuals cooperating with you.
I can not go now to the financial institution supervisor in my financial institution and say to them that I need to withdraw N6 million. They won’t reply me. They are going to say rip-off, EFCC, cash laundry, no matter.
However persons are paying hundreds of thousands of naira in ransom. The individuals who acquire the ransom will not be apprehensive about the place they’re carrying the cash to. If you wish to strive it out, simply maintain gathering your wage and taking it to money. When it’s as much as N10 million, attempt to take it to the financial institution and the financial institution will inform you all types of tales. What I’m letting is that President Tinubu, in my very own humble view, has misplaced management of his authorities and is flailing round.
He must put his ass collectively, set up his authorities, and be sure that he understands that police cowl this nation successfully as a result of each native authorities in Nigeria has a police division. There’s a DPO. In some massive or massively populated native governments, you’ve multiple division of police there.
And are you telling me that in Eruku, in Isapa, and all these locations, there’s no division there? Are you saying that if there’s a youth corps member in Eruku criticizing the APC or criticizing the federal government, they won’t go and arrest the particular person?
This can be a authorities that would seize someone in Nairobi, Kenya, and convey right here for trial and sentence the particular person. However they can not seize people who find themselves going round. How do you go and carry lots of of individuals? Have you ever been a nursery college instructor earlier than? To get 35 kids to cooperate with inside the category, is it simple? How are you going to hold 35 individuals and carry them someplace?
Some individuals have accused the opposition of exploiting the present misfortune beneath President Tinubu’s administration simply to attain political factors. Do you assume your criticism is definitely serving to the nation proper now?
Nicely, if the president needs to be helped, from what we are saying, he can choose up sufficient assist. However when you say we’re making capital of misfortune, then they’re producing too many misfortunes as a result of when you assume that the opposition is profiting from your misfortune, then it’s best to cut back the quantity of misfortune you’ve. You possibly can’t fail in each facet, vital, main, primary and even tertiary. You fail in safety, fail within the economic system, fail in tradition and fail even in sports activities. So, you fail in all the things. And also you count on that persons are not going to comment on these failures. Are you saying {that a} group with individuals operating helter-skelter, the place even you, individuals in your administration, don’t really feel protected, the place even the group you come from doesn’t really feel protected, is okay? And the huge assets of Nigeria are positioned within the northern a part of Nigeria.
All the north is nearer to Somalia than it’s to what Nigeria was. So, you can not Afghanstanise your individual nation and count on individuals to sing your praises. You can’t take each index that you simply met and make it worse. Unemployment is worse, inflation is worse, safety is worse, the worldwide profile of the nation is worse. You both don’t have the competence to nominate ambassadors, or you may’t discover competent ambassadors to nominate. Both aspect of the coin is a failure. So, you may’t police the state, you may’t safe the state. You fail. You don’t even have sufficient psychological capability to elucidate your failure.
The US President, Donald Trump, just lately repeated his description of Nigeria as a disgraced nation. Do you consider that may be a honest description?
I don’t agree with President Trump of the USA that we’re a disgraced nation. However, he’s talking the language of worldwide diplomacy. If you see the president of a rustic, you say Nigeria is right here. So, what he meant is that the Tinubu administration is a disgraced authorities.
The Secretary to the Authorities of the Federation instructed that current surges in assaults could also be linked to overseas pursuits, significantly from America. Does that rationalization maintain any water for you?
It is sort of a goalkeeper saying that the attacker or striker from the opposite aspect is taking pictures the ball too quick. That’s an admission of failure. Your job is to catch the ball. So, whether or not the assault is coming from inside or from with out, your duty is to cease the assaults. And each software on the earth that it’s good to cease the assault is given to you, and each time, at each alternative, at each juncture, you fail to make use of these instruments for what they’re meant for use for. Nigeria has sufficient cash, sufficient manpower and sufficient institutional expertise within the navy, sufficient affiliation of friendships all around the world, sufficient technological and scientific and different abilities inside Nigeria to defend this lovely nation.
You don’t consider there’s any rationalization that is sensible as to why Nigeria is scuffling with the dimensions of insecurity that we’re coping with proper now?
The reason that is sensible is that we have now a failed authorities; that’s it. There’s no different method as a result of the type of problem or challenges that we face is one-tenth or one % of what Ukraine is going through, or what different international locations are going through, together with what America itself is continually going through.
Are you saying that Ukraine has the type of assist that Nigeria doesn’t have; I imply the assist of Europe and the US?
The place Ukraine is in the present day, the place it is going to be tomorrow and the place it was yesterday is a mirrored image of the type of management it has at each cut-off date. If you happen to had a management that’s extra severe than the one you’ve now, even the struggle wouldn’t occur. And when you’ve got one that’s not as robust as you’ve now, they might have fallen way back. Allow us to perceive one thing clearly; the job of the federal government of a rustic is to safe that nation, and also you want assets to take action. And when these assets can be found to you, you haven’t any excuse to offer. Why keep on the job when you may’t do it? A few of the causes they’re giving that the job is hard or that it’s unpredictable, are causes you give whenever you’re resigning. These will not be causes you give whenever you’re on the job.
So, when you convey a safety guard to your home, and he says, oh, the gate is just too heavy, the intruders are too many, he’ll inform you he’s on his method out and why he can’t do the job. You can’t say that you simply have no idea, otherwise you didn’t know, in 2023, whenever you had been saying it’s my flip, it’s my flip, that you simply didn’t know that it was your flip to battle Boko Haram, your flip to repair the economic system, your flip to develop the potentials of the nation, your flip to characterize the nation internationally and your flip to make Nigerians completely happy.
If it’s simply your flip to occupy the seat and nothing extra, then you definitely’re taking that flip to go away, as a result of the discussions we’re having will not be surrounding issues which are non-obligatory. We’re not discussing subsidy, worth enhance, we’re discussing life or demise. We’re discussing the continuity of the nation or a fracture.
Do you see the present insecurity as an existential risk to Nigeria?
In fact, it’s. Two issues we have now. Drawback primary, non-state actors have infiltrated the federal government. The federal government is absent-minded, absent from responsibility. Now, it’s additionally deceiving itself, politically in a method, to elongate its tenure, despite the fact that it can not do the fundamental perform. These are the issues. The residents have been coping. They need to have been on the road way back, however I don’t suggest that. I like to recommend that you ought to be affected person, however our individuals have been overly affected person. The disturbance within the nation is now inflicting worldwide concern to the purpose the place world powers are debating whether or not to take over the entire thing, as if we’re not a rising concern. The way of their intervention, the angulation of the argumentation, is suggesting that they’ve a selected part of their inhabitants that they really feel sympathetic in the direction of, and that’s going to create inside alienation within the nation.
The presidency introduced that the US has reaffirmed its readiness to deepen safety cooperation and share intelligence. Isn’t this a optimistic improvement and a doable method out of the disaster?
There’s no ending but. There’s nothing to be completely happy about but. There are three issues in these first statements. One, what they are saying the USA authorities is keen or able to do is what they’ve at all times been able to do, and so they have been doing. Lots of the platforms our armed forces are utilizing come from the USA or from the allies of the USA who would ordinarily not give these platforms to us, besides the USA agrees. The Tremendous Tucano that was bought to President Buhari throughout Trump’s first time period is a mark of US willingness to cooperate — not like the Obama days, the place Obama was, to my view, unfairly and unreasonably non-cooperative with the federal government of President Goodluck Jonathan as a result of they had been political about it. That they had turn into partisan in Nigerian politics. So, the US beneath Trump, has at all times been keen to assist, however he’s like making an attempt to hold a toddler and the kid refuses to lift his palms, or you might be dragging him and kicking and screaming. The federal government, till this hearth was turned in opposition to them, didn’t take this matter significantly, it was enterprise as traditional, and so they had gotten comfy with the enterprise of the industrial facet of insecurity, the making of cash and turning issues over, and buying and selling in insecurity and taking that as a establishment.
So, a few of the fire-brigade method that they’re utilizing now has at all times been out there to them. Even when you wouldn’t select ambassadors all around the world, you’ll select ambassadors to the USA, to the UK, to Russia, to China, to France and to be a member of the Safety Council of the United Nations. That’s widespread sense. If you happen to can’t try this, there’s no motive so that you can be calling your self President of Nigeria. So, it’s possible you’ll select to not ship an envoy to Estonia or another nation, however you can not fail to ship ambassadors to Germany, to different locations the place you’ve your core enterprise individuals. In india, for instance, you can not fail to do this. You must ship a excessive commissioner to India. So, you didn’t try this. Now, you might be sending a nationwide safety adviser to go and have discussions with individuals who, as a member of the opposition, as a identified politician in Nigeria, once I go to Washington, these identical individuals have discussions with me. I can not final two, three or 4 days in Washington or London or wherever. As soon as they know I’m round, there would be the ambassador or someone who will say, oh, you’re a chief of a celebration in Nigeria. We need to speak about your nation. So what’s particular about that?
With your individual worldwide contacts, have you ever and different opposition figures been working behind the scenes to calm tensions or have you ever merely been watching the Tinubu administration battle?
We’re not bystanders as a result of it’s our nation. It’s not Tinubu’s nation. Tinubu is a mistake. The nation is a actuality. Primary, I’ve been to the Home of Lords. I’ve been to London. I’ve talked to individuals there. You possibly can’t say, no person can say, they don’t have a Nigerian intelligence company to offer them reviews. No one can say I spoke in opposition to the nation. I’ve been chatting with People for a very long time. I’ve by no means spoken in opposition to the nation. So, we communicate for the nation. However, we can not deny the truth that what is clear to the individuals you might be speaking to, when you don’t need to lose credibility, is that they know you don’t have a correct authorities at house; a authorities that behaves like a authorities. So, they are going to ask you, what are you able to do to make issues higher, as a result of they too, in some areas, need a greater companion to take care of at house? I used to be in London two weeks in the past. I used to be admitted to the Home of Lords. I sat with them throughout their proceedings. We talked about Nigeria.
After that, we had dinner, lunches, the place they had been elevating individuals to speak about Nigeria, what you concentrate on this? You will need to have seen my intervention, my opinion in The Unbiased of the UK. You’ve seen a few of my intervention within the media, together with the worldwide media. I’ve at all times been supportive of my nation. I’ve at all times mentioned, don’t invade Nigeria. Don’t throw bombs into Nigeria. Strive as a lot as doable to cooperate with the federal government that’s in Nigeria. They’ve shortcomings. They’re not a severe set of individuals however keep in mind that there’s a longstanding relationship between Nigeria and your nation, and it’s best to increase your interplay with members of the civil society, with the opposition, and all of that, and to see that, total, we’re not handled like a banana republic, despite the fact that we have now an newbie authorities in energy now. However, we’re a regional energy in our personal proper, and I reminded them of the function we performed in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Lebanon and Congo and in lots of locations. So, we deserve respect, and so they perceive that. However they’ve, through the George Bush administration, until you abandon your work and begin impersonating members of the federal government, which I’m not, you can not lay their mattress for them. They are going to scatter it by themselves. They’re not orderly. So, for instance, they’ve a diplomatic downside. They’re making it seem like a public communication downside. So they’re sending argumentative, loquacious individuals to go on overseas media and annoy everyone. As an alternative of going to Washington, go to London, go to Paris, go to Moscow, go to Delhi, go to Beijing, and begin to discuss softly to individuals, attempt to know and use relationships with individuals. Overlook about opposition, you may say perhaps we’re going to sabotage you alongside the best way. You could have people who find themselves impartial within the nation. You could have consultants, you’ve retired ambassadors, you’ve a complete institute of worldwide affairs, and I’ve spoken to individuals there.
There have been some navy deployments and rescues in current weeks and the president has ordered the withdrawal of police personnel from VIP safety duties to the frontlines. What do you make of the federal government’s response to date?
I don’t have police guarding me. Nonetheless, what I can let is, primary, nothing’s fallacious with the armed forces. They’ve the fallacious commander in chief, full cease.
It was the elected commander in chief. Yeah, you may elect the fallacious particular person. You should buy the fallacious shoe that doesn’t suit your toes.
So the problem is, you should use somebody to purchase the fallacious shoe and have foot poisoning. The issue going through Nigeria in the present day is that the commander in chief will not be a very good commander in chief. He could make a very good commander in chief out of himself if he needs, however he’s neglecting that mission.
Now I’m completely happy that he additionally is aware of that he doesn’t must go all around the world on a vogue parade, that he can really sit at house, go to the scenario room, and work together together with his safety chief. Isn’t that what he’s been doing? I imply, he didn’t go to South Africa, he shelved a few of his worldwide engagements to remain again house. We’re speaking of episodic, reactive actions. We’re not speaking of systematic work of a commander in chief.
I noticed an image of the president speaking with the chief of military workers. As commander in chief, that’s not how I’m going to do it. So he must take a cue from earlier commanders in chief.
Ibrahim Babangida is sort of articulate, discuss to him. It doesn’t matter what your political disagreement with him, he’s bought to know be a greater commander in chief. As a result of I did all of these issues, making ready myself to be a commander in chief. He’s not commanding the armed forces correctly; he’s not interacting with them.
