ABUJA, Nigeria — In a direct and unsparing critique of the current federal administration, the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has strongly faulted the socioeconomic policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Assessing the national landscape, the opposition leader stated unequivocally that the lives of ordinary citizens have failed to improve since the former Lagos State governor assumed the mantle of federal power.
Adebayo made these highly critical remarks during an extensive broadcast interview, where he systematically accused the ruling government of failing to effectively tackle the country's most pressing challenges, specifically deep-seated economic hardship and rampant insecurity. According to the Social Democratic Party standard-bearer, the real-world impact of the administration's aggressive fiscal policies has completely failed to translate into improved living standards or increased purchasing power for the average Nigerian family.
Addressing the interviewer directly and speaking on the collective trauma of the citizenry, Adebayo stated that the plain fact of the matter is that absolutely no one’s life is better off under the current regime, except for the tiny elite who happen to be directly embedded within the government architecture. He challenged the media and the public to look at the objective data, arguing that anyone asking the question already knows internally that their personal life has not improved when measured against any valid economic indicator. The opposition figure added that his own life has not improved, and the lives of his immediate neighbors and associates have similarly deteriorated under the weight of current macroeconomic pressures.
The legal practitioner turned politician argued that the country’s economic situation has continued to experience a steady, downward spiral that is actively devastating citizens across all social classes, from the vulnerable working poor to the rapidly evaporating middle class. He maintained that contemporary governance discussions must completely abandon defensive partisan interests and instead prioritize the basic welfare, security, and survival of the citizenry.
Adebayo’s latest public intervention follows a sequence of similar critical commentaries he raised, when he previously accused the Tinubu administration of intentionally implementing harsh structural adjustments that place an unfair, heavy financial burden on the shoulders of ordinary Nigerians. During a previous appearance on the same analytical program, he described the President as an executive who is overly, destructively focused on revenue generation through aggressive, multi-layered taxation rather than wealth creation or industrial stimulation.
Characterizing the administration's fiscal philosophy in highly satirical terms, the Social Democratic Party leader described President Tinubu as a clever tax collector who appears determined to extract taxes from citizens for virtually everything, warning jokingly that the public should prepare themselves for an oxygen tax very soon. He cautioned that if the populace is not highly vigilant, the administration will eventually find a way to tax the very air people breathe, insisting that if the political class is given enough time, that is exactly where the current policy trajectory will lead.
The opposition candidate also directed severe criticism toward the volatile import duty policies enforced under the current administration, describing the constantly fluctuating customs tariffs as anti-people, economically disruptive to small-scale businesses, and entirely inconsistent with Tinubu’s historical pro-democracy background.
He expressed profound disappointment in the President's ideological evolution, contrasting his current corporate governance style with his past activism during the military era. Adebayo noted that the version of Tinubu that used to operate within the old Social Democratic Party framework, actively supporting Chief MKO Abiola during the historic Hope 93 presidential campaign, has practically abandoned those progressive principles to stand firmly on the side of elite financial interests and international lenders.
The politician alleged that the current managers of the state machinery view the Nigerian populace as mere customers to be billed rather than sovereign citizens to be protected and nurtured. He joked that if a family is blessed with twins or triplets in their household under the current fiscal regime, the administration's immediate instinct would likely be to devise a specialized twins tax or a multiple childbirth tax. He concluded his assessment by asserting that the government's singular focus on extracting more money from an already impoverished population is fundamentally wrong and economically counterproductive for the long-term stability of the federation.
