Adewole Adebayo: Politicians need shift in mindset, not new parties

Adewole Adebayo, the candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 presidential election, says politicians need a shift in mindset and not new political parties.

Speaking in an interview with journalists during the weekend, Adebayo said forming a new party without the restructuring of the mind won’t bring any development to the country.

“The idea of forming a new political party without a new mindset would be a waste of time and resources because if you have a new political party, are you going to form new politicians, a new INEC, new population of voters and new media?” he asked.

“So, let us just understand that political parties are organisations used to canvass and aggregate political opinion, political interest and political activism, and then we use it to canvass solutions to societal problems and if they give us power, we demonstrate it.

“But, it is not a mechanism to escape the responsibilities of orderly conduct of politics.”

‘TINUBU’S ADMINISTRATION MONETISING EVERYTHING’

The SDP chieftain criticised the government of President Bola Tinubu, claiming that it monetises almost everything.

He alleged that the administration is focusing on tax collection, abandoning other responsibilities it is supposed to fulfil to citizens.

“They will sell education. They will sell healthcare. They will sell citizenship. They will even sell oxygen, if possible. They are behaving like tax collectors, essentially, from head to toe,” Adebayo said.

“It is good to collect taxes but the entire government cannot have the philosophy of a tax collector and that is what is disturbing them. There are certain things you need to put in the economy that look free but they have a multiplier effect.

“Access to water has a multiplier effect on healthcare. Access to food has a multiplier effect on productivity and wellness. Internet access has an impact on creativity, productivity and attractiveness of the country, and also has a multiplier effect on security.

“We need to give them (government) a lot of reorientation, starting from the president to the vice-president, the economic team and down to the last person in the cabinet of president Tinubu. We need to reorient them to understand that it is not about money, money, money.

“Taxation is now the focus of the government whereas productivity needs to be their focus. The fact is that they do not understand that in economics there is a difference between what makes sense for a company and what makes sense for the larger society.

“In macroeconomics, you make decisions for the general good of the largest portion of the population, whereas in microeconomics, you make decisions only for the person within your value chain. They are isolating the government like a company, that the more money the government collects, the more successful the government is.

“No, a government is a representative of the entire swath of the population. Even if the government is not making as much money, but the GDP is rising, unemployment is going down and real employment is going up, you can travel faster, safer and cheaper over time, and you can use modern tools to assess wealth, and you can stay in Nigeria and do work that can be exported overseas. That is real progress and development.”

The SDP chieftain said the government needs a “rethink” in its policies and strategies for growth.

Adebayo said unless those seeking to gain power restructure their mindset or change from the way the current government is doing things, it would be difficult to make a difference.