A leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 general elections, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has advised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to be independent and not collaborate with politicians to manipulate elections.
He also called for the rehabilitation of the country's political class and argued that if the political class is populated by decent and upright characters, many of the problems associated with politics and politicians would be resolved.
He said: “The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) itself has a bit of collusion, whether because of the sustainability of its appointment or whether people have discovered that they can get rich by taking advantage of the desperation of politicians.
“Most of the problems in an election do not arise from INEC. They emerge from political parties. There are more political parties that commit crimes in their primaries than they accuse INEC of.
“So, whatever mistakes INEC makes, politicians and political parties make even more. People bribe delegates for elections. The presidents and secretaries of the parties change their names like in a game of dominoes.
“Then the political class is guilty. “I agree with the statement that politicians contribute to problems during elections, but INEC is supposed to be a professional class and should not collaborate with politicians to manipulate elections.”
Adebayo also spoke on the issue of rotating presidency emphasizing that if any positive result is to be achieved, it must be at two levels.
He noted that while it is good to rotate it according to the geopolitical zone so that peace reigns among the elite, it must also be rotated from the elite to the people so that there is growth and justice in Nigeria. If you are rotating from North to South and all that and rotating around the same clueless wasteful elite, you will be rotating poverty, insecurity and so on.
But if you rotate intergenerationally, that is, from the old to the young and ideologically from those who follow the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, to those who have indigenous, authentic and pro-Nigeria ideas, you would have some progress for the country ”, he stated.
On Nigeria's indebtedness and the recent statement by the Minister of Finance in this regard, he noted that as much as he would wish for a good day for Nigeria, it pains him to note that it is not a good day when the Minister of Finance believes that the day he is going to Borrowing from London is a good day.
“How can it be a good day when Nigeria goes abroad to make investments in the capital market with the excess production we have? No minister we had in the past will say that the day we borrowed was a good day,” he said.
When reminded that even countries as large as the United States borrow, he said: “The United States borrows from within. It borrows its own currency. I don't disagree with them borrowing the currency they issued. When you borrow Eurobonds, you borrow money from other people in other capitals of the world, it is a sign of crisis. Yes, you can do it but you don't say it's a good day for you.
“If you are anemic and your neighbor comes to give you blood, you should be grateful, but you don't say it's the best day of your life, because you're not supposed to be anemic in the first place.
“They need to manage the economy in such a way that we can generate capital for ourselves. Basically, I think they are uncoordinated. Although the Finance Minister is supposed to be the coordinator of the economy, he is not coordinated. The thinking is not coordinated, but if they coordinate well and work with us as a population, we should be able to generate wealth for the country.”
READ ALSO FROM Newslodge
SPD's Adebayo warns against military incursion into governance