Prince Adewole Adebayo, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to use the bullet to kill terrorists tormenting Nigeria or use the pen to tender his resignation.
Adebayo disclosed this in his remarks at the National Electoral Reforms Summit on Tuesday in Abuja.
His comments come after United States President Donald Trump recently designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern and threatened possible military action against the country over alleged killings of Christians.
Reacting, Adebayo said Nigerians should hail President Trump for showing interest in the country.
He noted that a nation’s sovereignty that conflicts with international humanitarian laws will be ignored.
“Where was sovereignty when President Bola Ahmed said he wanted to invade Niger? If he could be dreaming of invading Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso because of coups, why can someone not invade him because he is neglecting his people?
“Let’s fire the feet of our government to protect us. Let us be grateful to international communities for talking about us. But if we decide to solve the problem at home, we Muslims and Christians must come together. We cannot deny certain communities in Nigeria feel attacked by genocide. It is a subjective thing. In the last two years, they have contributed money to build up to 50 churches. I have confronted over 1000 dead. In Nigeria, the question of genocide is not a debate that the government should be discussing. If your people are losing their lives in dozens, you have failed the primary purpose of government.
“The solution to that problem is that President Tinubu can use the bullet to kill the terrorists or use the pen to resign”.
See Adebayo Full speech:
If you listen to Nigerians, we have democratized grievances. So when an ordinary Nigerian, who has been praying and working for the fruition of our democracy to come to them, when they start complaining, those who have been in government since 1999 have also learned that they too should start complaining.
So if you listen to my little friend, Governor Rokimu Amici, or Minister Rotimi Amaechi or former Speaker, or presidential aspirant , He complained bitterly about why we didn’t do reform, why the common people are not trying enough, why all the leftist movements, all the labor movements, all the social societies have failed.
And he’s very bitter by that. But I will say that, given our history, we were not supposed to have militant organizations.
Those who have had the privilege to preside over the affairs of Nigeria cannot blame Nigerians for not killing them, burning their houses, doing revolution against them.
You cannot say because Nigerians happen to be Gentiles, and we have learned from the lessons of history that we can gradually put pressure on ourselves to be better, and that we should not resort to drastic revolutionary measures.
That is not enough to say that these institutions have not been working. I salute members of ASUU, I salute members of the NLC, and TUC and other liberal unions.
Thank you. I salute the civil society, that despite all the years of discouragement, we have not stopped talking.
And I think we should not be discouraged by any feeling that whatever you do will not matter. It matters. Coming here today to talk about electoral reform matters, because not only do we need electoral reforms, we need reforms.
We need reforms in every aspect of our national life. And if we start electoral reform, it’s because it is from the electoral system that you elect other reformers.
And if the electoral system that is to bring the reformers itself is not properly reformed, you will not have a system where you are having a steel bath of your democracy.
What is wrong with our democratic system? Some of it is just a matter of age.
If you have a democratic system that has not stayed for long, that has not become part of the culture of the people, you will have certain teaching problems.
And if you doubt me, see the challenge in Europe today. Many governments in Europe are not able to form proper administrations.
You see how the French are struggling with the electoral system. You see how they are struggling in the UK with their government system.
You see the almighty America having a dictator in civilian dress testing their system for them.
And you see that the government has been shut down in Washington. And they are struggling to keep the offices open.
And their civil servants are queuing for food because their salaries have not been paid. What it means is that democracy is one school you will never graduate from.
It is one exam you will never pass. If you pass an exam in democracy, you are only entitled to the next exam.
So don’t be discouraged and say, let’s give up. These people will not give us the reform we need. We will get the reform. Even where we are today, you can go and ask Steve Sonny and many of those who survived to hold a microphone and be talking about democracy will get you totally arrested.
You will get to be imprisoned. You can ask Professor Bukadji. You can ask many of those who are surprised today that they are alive.
It shows to you that many things that were not possible in the past have become possible.
I grew up in Nigeria in the 90s. I have my friend here, Mr. Salah Zalani. We both were sure, 99 percent, that I would not do it at his birthday.
If anybody told me that I would be 30 years old, I would not believe it. Because I thought that we were going to die fighting the military.
So there is no point here. Even when I was at university, I would just think it was a point to study anyway.
We are going to die. Because this military will not live, I will not leave them alone. And all of us will die.
But in 1998, Salah Zalani came and the great thing changed their mind and said they were leaving. And we are down 26 percent. In these years, the only mistake we have made, is that we have become too comfortable.
We believe that if we just keep our democracy going, or our civil rule, which we call democracy, if we keep going, That, that in itself is another achievement.
But what today is telling us is that democracy must have meaning in the life of the people.
And for democracy to have meaning, it must play in such a way that the politics is clean, and that the politics is fair, and that the politics is predictable.
That if you are popular with the people, you will win the election. And if you win the election, you have to govern according to the wishes of the people.
If you don’t, you will lose the next election. Now, there are five issues I will mention, and I will not elaborate.
If you have further questions, I will answer them later. One, people are using politics to define Nigeria.
Nobody is satisfied with their lot in the country. So everybody is satisfied. Every election we have, we are using it to solve existential problems. So Dr. Fagundar is here now.
He is here because he doesn’t like the constitution we have. He doesn’t like the distance between us, it’s too close. If you give him confrontation, he will be very happy.
So there is nothing you do. If you don’t give him that, he is unsuccessful. Second, we have a political class that don’t know anything about governors.
But they know that if you are in government, the government will pay your bills. You won’t suffer. So politics is their own escape from poverty and underdevelopment.
So they must be playing the politics of the incumbency forever. And when you mention electoral reform, they say that we want to remove the social safety nets from them because they must continuously be in government.
The third problem we are facing is that we have a restless generation that has been denied every benefit of citizenship.
No economic participation, no social welfare, no employment, no freedom. And the election is the means by which we will resolve this problem.
But some of them, what do they do? They believe that, well, during the election time, at least these politicians will need me.
So whatever they give me, I will collect from them. And they don’t want to come forward to push. The fourth problem we have is the problem of sentiments that have no bearing on governors.
Any time we sit down in a seminar like this, people are talking about Nigeria’s problem, they will be eloquent about it.
But when we start our politics, it is sentiment we use to do our politics. It is the turn of the south.
The sun rises from the east. So it should set in the west. And all these geography lessons. And then we go to religion. The president is Muslim, the Christians are Muslims, all sorts of things.
Every election season, it becomes that. Then the last problem we have, which is the one I think we should pay attention to.
People want to be in a good country without being good citizens. So we are good at pointing at the act of another person, not our own. So when we want political party, Dan Talley is here.
He knows everything about political party. Next to him is another genius of political party, Franco.
And then you have the baby, the big baby of Nigerian politics, Peter Ameh. Everybody here knows about politics. The political parties are the worst mistakes you can make.
So we need to now build strong political parties. Reform the political parties. Reform the political parties.
Before you can reform INEC. Because you can’t do politics without joining political parties. And these political parties don’t have principles. That is the factory from which you train leaders.
So as we are working towards electoral reform, I will conclude by saying, it is good to look at INEC.
But INEC is not 100 percent of electoral reform. And the cart is out of the bag. Because we have already appointed Imaro to be in charge of the election for the next five years. And they have had their discussion inside the bedroom.
We didn’t know what they discussed. So anything you are saying now about electoral reform, it is just too late.
We hope that Mr. or Professor Amupitan will listen to you. And he will listen to what his mother and grandmother told him.
About doing good. Where you have the opportunity. But I will not fail. Without making one mistake, and I don’t want to fake, I won’t make that mistake, in speaking about the situation of Mr. Trump and his interest in Nigeria.
I will say three things. I thank Mr. Trump for showing interest in Nigeria at all. Because speaking squarely, it can ignore us. We are not that relevant to them. Second thing, it can ignore us and not speak.
And we should not be ungrateful, because he is even more mindful about our situation in what he says.
I don’t know his heart, but in what he says, he is more mindful than some of our leaders who are responsible for our security.
Second thing is that we should not be tempted to turn Trump into our own old debates. There is no solution that can come from Trump or anybody that want to help only one section of the country to survive insecurity without helping the other section.
It is not possible, even the Pope cannot do it, to come and rescue Christians in Nigeria and not rescue Muslims, or rescue other people.
So we must not use the Trump intervention as a basis to litigate our hatred, for each other, or our own grievances.
It should not become a Christian, Muslim, whatever debate. It is an insecurity question. So we must, if anybody wants to come and help us, that methodology means that we want to help every Nigerian.
We cannot help one person or the other. It is not practicable. It is not possible. Lastly, our government should be ashamed.
And if you use that shame, to, solve the problem, Trump will not come. If, Mr. President, Bala Metinugu says, in the next 30 days, nobody will be killed again.
It will take America up to 60 days, to put their command everywhere together. In that short period, you can restore order in the country if you want to.
But what they are doing now, they are using the security as an excuse, to loot all the money. The Nigerian Armed Forces, the way I know them, they can protect the whole of West Africa, if you let them do it.
But they cannot protect their own barracks, if you say they should not do it. So, it is clear that President Tinubu is in the long line of precedence, who have turned against the people, and used the insecurity to siphon money.
Why can somebody not invade him? Because he’s neglecting his people. So in conclusion, let us put fire to the feet of our government to protect us. Let us be grateful to the international community talking about us. But if we, as I prefer, decide to solve the problem at home, Muslim, Christian, animist, whatever, we must come together.
We cannot deny, there’s no way I can be told to deny that certain communities in Nigeria feel genocided and attacked.
Why do I say so? It’s a subjective thing. In the last two years, I’ve contributed money to repair, rebuild up to 50 churches.
So, I have comforted over a thousand dead. Go to any of these churches, I’ve gone there quietly without carrying camera, you can go and ask all the leaders. So it is not today that Trump told me that people are feeling genocided.
And I have met with also leaders of certain ethnic groups in certain places. I’ve had full amends telling me that in certain communities, the other groups want to kill them.
And they are running after their cattle, they are trying to kill them. So in Nigeria, the question of whether there is genocide or not, it’s not a debate that the government can be discussing.
If your people are losing their lives in dozens, you already failed the primary assignment of governance, and we should not waste our time debating the issue.
The solution to that problem is that President Tinuku can use the bullet to kill the people. So, kill the terrorists, or use the pen to resign. Thank you.
