PRESIDENTIAL candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, has said that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s decision not to involve himself in the campaigns by his campaigns for re-election as a clever way to avoid the ire of Nigerians.

    Adebayo stated that the President must have reflected on his performance in the past three years and found out that he did not meet the expectations of the average Nigerians, especially those that credited him with building Lagos State into a Centre of Excellence.

   Recall that while inaugurating the revised Presidential Campaign Committee and the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, the President explained that he may not be available on the nationwide campaign trail due to the pressing issues of governance.

  Also, two months ago, precisely in August, the chairman of Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) Senator Hope Uzodinma, hinted that Tinubu doesn’t have to campaign, stressing that his achievements and reforms would do the campaign for him.

   But, in an exclusive interview with The Guardian, the SDP presidential flagbearer, recalled how a foundation member of APC, the late Tony Momoh, asked Nigerians to stone the party leaders if they did not perform in line with the APC lofty manifesto.

   Adebayo argued that President Tinubu was keeping away from electioneering out of fear of citizens stones rather that any bragging rights about his performance, remarking: “All I can tell you is that Tinubu is unqualified to campaign, because the person who has written a bounced cheque cannot write another one again. Dud cheque

   “You can only write a dud cheque once. You write a cheque and bounce it, the next person you give a cheque to will say, sorry, go and clear the one you wrote before. You’re talking of Tony Momoh, President Tinubu himself said, if I cannot give you electricity for a year, don’t vote for me again.

   “The job of Hope Uzodimma is to sell false hopes everywhere. As a free agent, he will sell for anybody and every government. When (President Goodluck) Jonathan was there, Hope wasn’t far away. When (President Muhammadu) Buhari was there, Hope was his tailor, giving him a red cap and his Ishi-Agu to wear. He was always the one helping Buhari to wear Ishi-Agu. Now Tinubu is there, he’s playing the same role.

   “So, that is the (Lord) Chamberlain of the (Presidential) Villa. So, he’s not doing any of these things that you believe him. He’s just playing the role that he’s accustomed to playing. And if the next President comes from their stock, Hope Uzodinma will not be too far from there too. the same thing with (Senator Godswill) Akpabio. And that’s why you see them competing for the same job.”

   Adebayo, who is contesting against Tinubu for a second time, remarked that “beyond these court clowns that the government must have,” we need to actually let our people pay keen attention to the ideas and the vision that people are selling in the course of the ongoing campaign and to have an open mind.

   “As for President Bola Tinubu, his work should speak for him. That’s the only person that if you vote for him, you cannot say, go punish him after that because, you have already seen his record before voting. So, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. That is the motive.”

   On the comparatively lower quality of campaigns in the fourth republic compared to the second republic, the SDP presidential runner said: “I am concerned in the sense that is it due to cultural collapse and degeneration, because in the past, when choosing people for office, you choose among leaders. But, now you have dealers who are not leaders. So, whichever choice you make, you will get it wrong.”

   Stretching his analogy further, Adebayo added, “If you want to fly abroad, you choose between airlines. You either fly British Airways, Air France, Nigeria Airways. So, you know that your experiences in the various airlines will be different. But, eventually you will land where you’re going.

    “Now, you want to go abroad, you want to go to London. You are choosing between Obalanke, Kekenapep, Okada, any of them, you won’t get there. But, they are still called means of transport. Yet, they are not the means of transport fit for that kind of journey. That’s what led us to Tinubu.

   “So, Second Republic, you will choose between airlines. Each of them can get there. But in this one, none of them could ever have gotten there. And that’s why we got ourselves in this situation.”