Ahead of the 2027 elections, the Presidential Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adewole Adebayo has vowed to cure the ‘economic illegeracy’ of President Bola Tinubu.
Adebayo disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja after an interactive session with the leaders of the Middle Belt Forum.
While highlighting his strategic vision to transform Nigeria, Adebayo promised to address insecurity by restructuring armed forces to be community-based and eliminating government-sponsored criminality.
He added that his key priorities would be to revitalise agriculture, formalise the mining sector to harness mineral wealth, and promote progressive taxation.
Adebay said if elected, his foreign policy would prioritise security-enhancing partnerships and managing migration by fostering a reputation for high productivity among Nigerians working overseas.
He stated: “What I will do is to cure the economic illiteracy of President Tinubu. During the campaign, if you could piece together all the incoherent messages of candidate Tinubu, you will know that this person knows nothing about the economy and cares not about the economy, because the economy is about the people.
“The aggregate wealth of the country and the aggregate productivity of the country is the cumulation of the individual productivity of the citizens.
“So, Tinubu’s problem apart from his total ignorance and total lack of honesty, is that he wants to run an economy without the people.
“The only way a country can be wealthy is if the people of that country are producing a surplus. That is to say, a family is able to contribute more to the economy than they need to survive themselves. A company is able to run and make a profit and pay tax. A government enterprise is able to run at a surplus. That is how you create wealth. There’s no magic to creating wealth.
“What he’s doing now is to come with a band of tax collectors from Lagos, shut down the rest of Nigeria, siphoned all the money in the government, used the government asset to borrow money, and privatise and turn themselves to contractors.”
Adebayo noted that to improve the country’s economy, he would boost individual productivity, ensure transparent revenue collection, while separating government officials from private contracting to prevent self-enrichment.
“What I’m going to do differently is to stop the criminality that they are doing to the government. Two, to collect government revenue publicly and account for it. Three to engage all Nigerians into full employment so that they can be productive. Four, to remove all the opacity and the hiding that they’re hiding, and make everything clear for you. And lastly, to separate the people in government from contracting, so that the people in government are not their own self-contractors,” Adebayo explained.
The presidential candidate further explained that he would decentralised production to state and local government levels to boost agriculture and infrastructure.
He said would stop the criminalisation of mining, and make sure the era of bandits providing security for miners comes to an end.
Speaking, the Vice President of the Forum, Hon. Idi Waziri reaffirmed the Middle Belt’s commitment to justice, equity, and fairness in Nigerian politics.
He recalled that in 2023, the region supported a Southern presidential candidate to ensure power rotation, adding that the position of the region remained unchanged ahead of the 2027 general election.
Waziri, however, added that the region would also like to take a short at the presidency in 2031 with the expectation that the South would also reciprocate by supporting the region when the time comes.
He told Adebayo that having listened to his presentation, it would be reviewed by the Forum and followed by extensive consultation with traditional institutions and stakeholders before a final decision is made.