Our Reporter, New York
The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 election, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has said that results from the Edo State election have shown that Nigerians are yet to reach the limit of their ability to absorb the hardship that has been imposed on them by the policies of the APC government. He made the remarks during an appearance on the online interview programme, 90MinutesAfrica, hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo on Sunday.
“I have seen that I was too worried that APC was punishing Nigerians. I was worried because I thought, how can a people be so unfortunate to have a government that is giving them all kinds of torture.
“But when I saw how people voted in the Edo State election, I realised that I was exaggerating the pain of the people. So I think maybe Nigerians have not reached the limit of their shock absorber yet,” the lawyer cum politician asserted.
The SDP presidential candidate further said that following the Edo State election, some of his anxieties about the level of suffering meted out to Nigerians by the APC government have reduced. He also drew similarities between the just concluded Edo State governorship election and that held in Ekiti State in 2022, where his party came second behind the APC.
“This election reminded me of the election we had in Ekiti State in 2022, where SDP came second,” Prince Adebayo informed the viewers. “We (SDP) worked hard, but we realised that the people of Ekiti were not as angry with the APC as we had thought.”
He said though a lot of money was exchanged during the process, the election results ultimately reflected the way people actually voted in both cases.
He said that Edo people ignored their welfare when voting. Rather, their attention was on mundane things like who would teach a lesson between Adams Oshiomole and Godwin Obaseki, the candidates’ local government area of origin, and other similar considerations.
While talking about the state of the economy, Prince Adebayo expressed fear that if things continue on this trajectory, many middle-class people will soon fall into poverty.
“We may begin to see poor doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other professionals.
“The country is on a slippery slope,” he lamented.
He accused President Tinubu of only being interested in winning elections but lacking the capacity to govern the nation. He said that the brand of politics in Nigeria is blind to the realities confronting the country. He likened it to someone with a chronic terminal disease going to the hospital to register in a maternity ward.
