I have a plan for 30 million Jobs and to tackle poverty in Nigeria within 18 months – Adebayo

The Social Democratic Party presidential candidate, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has said that despite Nigeria’s immense difficulties, he would only need 18 months to end poverty and spur economic growth.

While pledging to create 30 million jobs if elected president, he also emphasised the importance of competence, courage, and character in selecting a good president for Nigeria in 2023, saying that only a leader with such attributes would help rebuild the country and restore hope to hopeless Nigerians.

The founder of KAFTAN Television stated these in an interview with Journalists. He says, “I have a plan for 30 million jobs and tackle poverty in Nigeria within 18 months. When people have jobs, and you put people in school, you create the middle class and solve the problem of poverty. The job comes with accommodation and other incentives then, poverty will go away”, he boasted.

He claimed that as long as there isn’t transparent and well-intentioned leadership, Nigeria may still be forced to deal with many of the issues the nation is facing.

Adebayo emphasised that only someone with capacity and capability could lead the nation out of its current predicament. Still, he also claimed that all issues, including banditry, persisted because the country’s leaders lacked sincerity in their intentions.

He said, “What we call security problem in Nigeria is the regular day-to-day problem. In Nigeria, we have mere skirmishes with bandits. Any problem that AK47 can solve is not a problem. The government is not just serious enough to attend to the problem. There is nothing serious, the Nigerian Army is very strong.

“I have done my assessment, and I think the Nigerian Army is using two per cent of its attention on Boko Haram because they have seen that it is not the government’s priority.

‘’They have a lot of people who are making money from these things, and others say, ‘let me join them because I will soon retire and they won’t pay my pension, and this moron here is claiming N1 billion a week, so let me join them.’ That is what is happening. The bandits make money, and the security people make money. That is what is happening.’

Adebayo said that those he called the big parties were “big for nothing because they have not been able to solve big problems confronting the country”, be it education, security, energy, electricity and health sectors.

‘’How can you call yourself a big party when you don’t have big ideas, and you cannot solve big issues in the country? They cannot pull the electorate out. In elections, they get about eight per cent of the electorate. If you tell them 40 per cent of the electorate are voting, they get worried that they may lose the election”, he said.

He bemoaned that the majority of parties were spending more than the amount permitted by the electoral authority and claimed that this was illegal.

Adebayo said, ‘’They are spending criminal money. So ideally, the limit set by the Independent National Electoral Commission, any serious political party should be able to meet. Look at the legal limit for spending on the Presidency, we can meet that quickly. If only our executives and willing members contributed money, we would have a better convention than APC, and PDP, more colourful, more quality and we raised the money by ourselves.

“So the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission did have to use their sniffing dogs on our people to find out if they are carrying dollars in their pockets. We had a very good outing, INEC and observers were very impressed.’’

Regarding his political background, Adebayo asserted that he didn’t need to hold any elective office in the past to learn the principles of effective leadership, noting that the party’s 1993 election winner, late Chief MKO Abiola, had never held any elective office before securing the party’s electoral victory.