The Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Prince Adewale Adebayo, has faulted President Bola Tinubu’s recent visit to Brazil, describing it as a waste of Nigeria’s scarce resources.

In an interview with journalists, Adebayo alleged that the President travelled to Brazil in search of ideas already contained in the SDP manifesto.

He, however, expressed optimism that the trip might help Tinubu realise the flaws in his current economic policies.

According to him, Nigeria’s major problem is not the absence of ideas but the lack of good leadership.
“What Brazil has is a poverty reduction manifesto backed by concrete programmes and policies. For instance, under President Lula da Silva, the Bolsa Familia initiative reduced poverty by 27 per cent in four years. That is the direct opposite of Tinubu’s ‘subsidy is gone’ policy, which has exponentially worsened poverty in Nigeria,” he said.

Adebayo also compared Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to Nigeria’s NNPC, insisting they are run on entirely different models.
“The economic policy of President Tinubu is the opposite of what has succeeded in Brazil. By going there, he should see how wrongheaded his own policies are,” he added.

The SDP candidate further criticised the cost of the trip, arguing that the President could have drawn lessons from the party’s manifesto instead of embarking on an expensive foreign visit.
“He could have spoken to me. He could have looked at the SDP manifesto. After all, he used to be a member of the SDP in the past. Why travel to Brazil to admire their economy as if it is magical? It is simply the result of sound policies,” Adebayo said.