Posted by The Social Democratic Party’s (SDP) presidential candidate for 2023, Prince Adewole Adebayo, claims that if Nigerians had given him the chance to lead the country, he would have done better than President Tinubu amid the severe hardship that has followed President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies.
In this interview with twiscoloaded, Prince Adebayo stated that Nigerians were receiving what they had bargained for, pointing out that President Tinubu’s policies were exactly what the people of Nigeria had been promised throughout his presidential campaign. Take a peek!
You were cited as saying that you could perform better than the administration of President Tinubu right now. What do you think of the way things are right now?
The current situation does not surprise me, but I am saddened. We anticipated that this would happen, so I’m not shocked. This is what will happen if you implement these policies, regardless of who you put out there. We were discussing these topics and requesting that Nigerians pay attention.
We had to cope with three different policies. How should the expense of governance be addressed? What should we do about the issue of subsidies in numerous other areas as well as petroleum? How do we handle the foreign exchange problem?
I fundamentally disagree with President Bola Tinubu, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former governor Peter Obi, and many others who supported these three ideas; I knew they would fail. It has never before functioned in any nation.
In the past, particularly during the implementation of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), Nigeria did not find success with it.
It isn’t that some people are bad and some people are decent. You will receive the same outcome whether you haul me to Eagle Square or the villa and make me declare these policies. The outcome will be the same for everyone who implements these policies.
Economists will question you about countries that have implemented these policies. Are there nations in our hemisphere, in our developmental stage, with a primary production sector similar to ours, that have declared these policies and found success? In my opinion, not really.
That certain celebrities brought up the Argentina model astonished me. I know the Argentina model extremely well.
An average Argentine will tell you to bring Tinubu and give you Milei if you ask them to pick between President Javier Milei and President Bola Tinubu.
Put differently, you are implying that Tinubu was advised to follow the Argentina example, which Atiku Abubakar rejected.
Vice President Atiku Abubakar may have good intentions, but my assessment is that he lacks knowledge. It’s a mistake.
We might arrive at that conclusion if you consider the circumstances in Argentina. Though they are experiencing more suffering than we are, we are still moving in that direction, so I really hope we don’t. Inflation there is 521 percent for a month.
I’m not sure whether economics can comprehend what 512 percent temperature means. Almost all of their riches has been lost. The individual present is a member of the Austrian school of thought. Argentina’s economy is doing the worst it has since 1980, which is why the people there are often grumbling.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t criticize President Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for his ineffective administration, but you wouldn’t suggest that someone who complains about too much sun should be put in the oven—that’s not the right solution.
Regretfully, Nigerians who voted for these measures are not happy with them. We either didn’t pay attention or didn’t comprehend the consequences of the policies when we voted for them.
People reasoned that since they had experience and might be more practical than us, they should be trusted when they declare that they will support for a government that has promised to remove subsidies from the start.
President Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi all made this claim, but we disregarded them. They therefore cast that vote.
Therefore, whoever constituted the government and enacted any of these policies would have experienced, at the very least, the same or worse conditions as we do now. These policies are bad because they are structurally inappropriate for us, not because of the parties that announced them.
They do, of course, have certain advantages, which are apparent. For example, the government will receive more money because they will no longer be providing subsidies. Because they are no longer protecting the Naira in the same manner, they are making more money from the foreign exchange difference.
There are other benefits as well. For example, people claim they are exporting goods from Nigeria to Niger and other neighboring countries because our goods and everything we produce become cheaper when the value of our currency decreases. These are the marketed benefits, but we are not structurally ready for them.
The policies are horrible, as you stated. However, some well-informed individuals claimed that the nation was already in dire straits and that some of the current measures are necessary for it to recover; don’t you agree?
I disagree with every hypothesis you’ve made. This is due to the fact that while there are arguments, not all of them deal with the main problem. In economics, you will always have at least two options—and occasionally even ten. As it is, we have over 55,000 options.
We made the decision to create a world without the need for improved governance or the reduction of wealth for those in higher social classes in order to penalize the voter who contributed the least to a political campaign.
Since it’s the only product we regularly consume and the reason the subsidies were removed in the first place, people in this country only participate to some extent in the many items that are subsidized.
Secondly, no attempt was made to conduct an audit. As you remember, I spent months campaigning on the platform that 80% of our crude oil was being stolen.
Regretfully, voters were unaware that the person who could effectively combat this theft should be the one leading the nation.
It is not hard to find solutions to our difficulties. The issues are not insurmountable; rather, the approach to overcoming them will not involve carrying on with previous practices.
Do you believe President Tinubu is surrounded by the correct economic team?
For what he wants to accomplish, he has the ideal kind of team. But it’s not the right thing for him to do. Let’s sell the house if my elder brother says nay when I suggest fixing the leaky roof.
If he is given the go-ahead, he will bring valuers, auctioneers, and estate agents to sell it instead of me bringing carpenters and plumbers to fix it.
I can’t declare that his team isn’t the right one anymore. Selling the house is his goal. He therefore has the correct team to sell the house, but I will bring in a separate team to fix it if I so want.
What steps would you take to halt the bleeding if you were President Tinubu today?
I will not make any announcements about such measures if I were elected president on the same day as him.
Actually, I’m going to the national assembly right now to alter the petroleum industry laws and the appropriations act in order to do rid of these legal requirements that force you to stop receiving the subsidy.
However, the first thing I would do if I were elected president today would be to persuade the Nigerian people and the government that these policies are incorrect.
The president will not listen to you if you suggest that I give advice to someone who thinks that these measures will pay off in the future because he is devoted to those benefits. Thus, the first thing to do is persuade him that England never benefited from them.
England became industrialized
Brazil didn’t receive these benefits until (president) Lula arrived and shifted them to social investments. I’m not sure where they obtain the policies.
If they are ideologically devoted to these policies, then the only solution they can come up with is a palliative one, which is to postpone the full effect of it over time. I suspect this is coming from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the bankers, who are funding their campaign.
However, they will quickly learn that there will be so much societal suffering, as well as so much inflation and hyperinflation, that the money they have saved might not even come close to covering the cost of palliative care.
They therefore require a change of direction, even though I cannot ensure that they will be open to it at this time given Tinubu’s reputation as a cost-cutting, well-experienced accountant who has Wale Edun at his side and Cardoso as his preferred Central Bank Governor.
In my opinion, their macroeconomic policies may use a little more efficiency. If necessary, they should implement the following five measures.
One of these is that, at the moment, they are only collecting less than 20 percent of the collectibles, therefore they need to find a strategy to boost their income.
They don’t want to take money from so many sacred cows
Secondly, they must make their accounts more efficient. As things stand, managing a free market economy will require more input, greater sensitivity, and faster response times in the future.
This will require appointing more astute and knowledgeable individuals to positions of governance. Thirdly, government expenditure has to be reorganized such that fiscal spending, which is under their control, is kept separate and the governor of the CBN is given authority to manage monetary policy. This will allow the governor to act as the nation’s banker rather than just the government’s.
They also need to figure out how to create jobs
As mentioned in the second chapter of the constitution, they do not wish to spend money on social programs.
This implies that they will be traveling to Qatar and other locations in order to spend the sovereign investment funds that they must use in order to create jobs; they are obligated to do so since they adhere to IMF guidelines.
They will now be pleading with foreign investors to come invest in our nation; we already have money here, but they will be leaving; if they are ineffective in that area, they will fail.
Finally, they must take action to combat inflation by reining in expenditure, raising revenue, and making sure Nigerians are employed.
If you were Tinubu, how would you politically diffuse the tension in the country?
He must resemble the head of state and the founding father of the country. He should be less haughty when evaluating how morally sound their policies are.
They must interact with people more. At the same time, though, people must realize that you voted in favor of these programs.
It is comparable to the Israelites requesting Moses to lead them out of Egypt, then realizing that the wilderness was a difficult place to be and beginning to whine. That is typical behavior. Despite the fact that these policies are bad, the Nigerian people voted for them.
In addition to showing social justice to the populace by ensuring that those with less privilege do not bear all of the burden of this adversity, the government should employ humility to engage with the people.
Do you believe the president is capable of turning our nation around?
Anybody who is committed to improving Nigeria, who wants to hear what Nigerians have to say, who is willing to support everyone, and who is willing to look for the best talent rather than just political parties, in my opinion, will succeed.
My preference was for Nigerians to vote for me, which is why I didn’t endorse him. I believe I could have outperformed him.
However, anyone who is placed there and is committed to making use of all of Nigeria’s resources has the potential to succeed.
Naturally, the president is a highly educated, brilliant Nigerian, but his ideas are misguided. He must be receptive to new ideas and let them enter his thinking. However, the effects of the policies that people voted for cannot be avoided.