Tinubu’s economic policies exclude Nigerians, SDP presidential candidate

Prince Adewale Adebayo, the presidential candidate for Nigeria's Social Democratic Party (SDP), has sharply criticized President Bola Tinubu's economic policies, stating they are implemented without the people's involvement and have exacerbated poverty and insecurity.

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Because you cannot have an unhealthy body with a healthy stomach. Because the Middle Belt is the stomach of Nigeria.

Adebayo, speaking during a consultation visit to the Middle Belt Forum in Abuja, described the region as the "stomach of Nigeria." He argued that its stability is crucial for national development, asserting that meaningful progress is impossible under a government that fails to grasp the country's diversity. He accused the Tinubu administration of poor leadership and inadequate representation.

"Because you cannot have an unhealthy body with a healthy stomach. Because the Middle Belt is the stomach of Nigeria," Adebayo stated, underscoring the region's historical, cultural, agricultural, and natural resource significance. He believes understanding the Middle Belt is fundamental to understanding Nigeria itself.

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Nobody becomes the leader of Nigeria if he doesn’t understand the Middle Belt very well because if you don’t understand the Middle Belt, you cannot understand Nigeria.

The SDP candidate also criticized the concentration of ministerial appointments in certain parts of the country under the current administration, deeming it an "insult to the generosity of the spirit of Yoruba people." He argued that an inclusive government must reflect Nigeria's diversity, contrasting this with what he called the "greed" of appointing three ministers from a single state.

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The greatest shame in the present administration, why it is difficult for the people of the Southwest to accept the government, is not just because it is a totally inept government, which nobody can be proud of, or that it is corrupt and corrupting. It is that it is an insult to the generosity of the spirit of Yoruba people, who do not have the greed to go to one state and choose three ministers from one state.

Addressing insecurity, Adebayo pledged to restructure the armed forces and adopt a community-based security approach, aiming to end criminality by severing links between criminals and government officials. He accused the current administration of economic illiteracy, alleging that its policies exclude Nigerians from economic production. "What we will do is to cure the economic illiteracy of President Tinubu," he declared.

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What is sustaining criminality and violence in Nigeria is that it is either government-sponsored or government-enabled and once they don’t have partners in my presidency, that’s the end of it.