Leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Prince Adewole Adebayo has decried the worsening insecurity in the country, blaming it on the nation’s leadership failure.
He lampooned President Bola Tinubu for the worsening insecurity currently pervading the entire landscape of the country, stressing that the “president is a full-fledged mascot of leadership failure”.
Adebayo made the statements in a recent interview where he said he agrees completely with the late literary icon, Prof. Chinua Achebe, who several years ago, had traced the problem of Nigeria to poor leadership.
He was responding to the latest attacks in Bassa and Bokkos, Plateau State, as well as in Benue State, where scores of Nigerians were brutally murdered in cold blood.
He placed the blame squarely on the failure of leadership.
He said: “I’m directly saying it’s a failure of leadership. Achebe said it four decades ago, and he was right, leadership is Nigeria’s problem.
“And I don’t need to tell you that President Tinubu is a full-fledged mascot of leadership failure. A living example of how leaders fail while still alive.
“Insecurity is not new. Nobody can say, ‘Oh, when I was running for election in 2023, I didn’t know there was insecurity.’ The insecurity that we have now is a sign of poor governance.”
He advised President Tinubu to check those working with him and do the needful because he is the commander-in-chief, whose primary responsibility is to protect lives and property of Nigerians and not to wear agbada and celebrate while his country burns.
“But he needs to look around. The office of Commander-in-Chief isn’t just about wearing agbada. The president is the head of state, the father of the country, whom we can be proud of “he is the comforter of the bereaved.
“His position requires compassion, it requires presence. Even if the problem is outside your jurisdiction, the President must show empathy. When a boat capsizes and people die, he must be a comforter of the bereaved; a co-celebrant in joy and a co-mourner in pain,” he added.
He advised Tinubu to resign if the job is too much for him to carry.
Using the analogy of a weightlifter to justify his advice, he said: “Have you seen weightlifters? When they can’t lift the object, they drop it. You will train more and try again, but if, after everything, you still can’t lift it, what do you do? You resign. That’s why the Constitution provides for voluntary resignation.”
He added that in President Tinubu’s case, he hasn’t even tried lifting anything, instead he is just celebrating with the trophy and claiming to be champion.
“That’s why you choose a capable vice president. If anything happens to you, or if you quit, the person steps in. But in Tinubu’s case, he hasn’t even lifted the weight. He’s just sitting there, enjoying himself, doing fashion. Not doing the job, but holding the trophy and calling himself a champion,” he stressed.
