The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adewole Adebayo, has called on President Bola Tinubu to resign if he cannot provide fresh solutions to Nigeria’s economic challenges, describing the Federal Government’s 90-day plan to ease the cost of living as inadequate.
Adebayo made the remarks during an interview with ARISE News on Monday, October 26, accusing the president of failing to address worsening poverty despite spending three and a half years in office.
He argued that the administration’s proposed intervention would not resolve the country’s economic difficulties, insisting that the president should take responsibility for the situation rather than rely on past policies.
“So President Tinubu has no excuse than to hold himself accountable. And if he doesn’t have any new programme, as he showed in the historical analysis he was giving, they were always looking to the back, to the past, every totality of the economic philosophy of Trinibunomics end with half a bag of rice.
“And that is why the only effective solution that the president can bring forward, which would deal with poverty, cost of living in 90 days, is to have a 90-minute discussion with his cabinet and resign, so that another person can give it a try,” he stated.
The SDP candidate said the president should be judged by his record in office, regardless of whether the economic problems confronting Nigerians existed before he assumed power.
“Whether the poverty is inherited, imported, or falls from the sky, he has been presiding over that poverty in the last three and a half years. And he has not found a single solution to any of the indices,” he added.
Adebayo also claimed that multidimensional poverty had worsened under Tinubu’s administration, comparing the current situation with the period before the president took office on May 29, 2023.
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“The multidimensional poverty in the country is worse now than it was when he came into power on May 29, 2023, It’s even exponentially worse than when he escorted President Buhari to power in 2015.”
Adebayo questioned the timing of the Federal Government’s 90-day action plan, which includes measures aimed at improving food affordability, harmonising taxes, advancing major projects and supporting households.
He argued that the plan, announced as the country approaches the 2027 general election, raises questions about the administration’s priorities.
“It is telling that the president who has been in power for three and a half years, going on four years, only remember a 90-day plan, 90 days to the election. So all that shows to you that they are not governing, they are politicking,” Adebayo said.
He further maintained that 90 days was insufficient to address structural economic challenges, particularly those relating to prices, purchasing power and the coordination of fiscal and monetary policies.
“90 days is a short-term plan. The content of their programme, what they say they want to do, are things that are medium-term and long-term,because when you want to affect price, you need to do what we call price mechanism, which is supply and demand.
“They want to deal with purchasing power, cost of living. You have to handle your fiscal policy and monetary policy. You can’t do any of those in 90 days,” he added.
The SDP presidential candidate accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of depending on palliatives rather than implementing policies that could deliver lasting improvements in the lives of Nigerians.
“What they are trying to do is try to, one, give a false impression that they care when they don’t. Two, to try to bring money out to bribe voters with some symbolic palliatives, bag of rice and everything, because in the medical laboratory of the APC, every problem in Nigeria, insecurity, bad roads, poor education, no health care, can be cured by a bag of rice,” he said.