Prince Adewole Adebayo is a lawyer, businessman and the 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). In S this interview monitored on Channels TV, he takes a critical look at President Bola Tinubu’s recent condolence visit to Benue State, where over 200 lives were lost in yet another wave of brutal killings. Adebayo describes the President’s conduct as “unbefitting,” and warns that without real accountability, Nigeria will continue its bloody cycle of violence and political showmanship, among others. TITI JOSEPH brings the excerpts:
You were reported to have said that the President’s visit to Benue where he held a town hall meeting was grossly sickening. Some people will say isn’t that a little harsh given the fact that the president had little or no control over some of the things that happened?
My sympathy to the government and people of Benue state again and the same thing with the almost forgotten people of Bokkos and other places in Plateau State and many parts of the country where these massacres, killings, kidnapping, banditry go on and on.
What is clear is that the president cannot say he didn’t know or has no control over the state. He is the governor-general of every state in Nigeria. So, he’s the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and these things that are happening in many parts of the country, especially Benue and Plateau, are things which are supposed to be the daily features in his security reports that he receives; that’s why he’s the commander-in-chief.
When I said control, I wasn’t talking about security. It does appear that your criticism bordered around what some have termed the fanfare that preceded the president’s visit. That was what I was referring to?
What I see is a general pattern where the president politicizes everything. If he’s going to commission a road, there’s always this cartoonish aspect that has to do with singing and all of that. He goes to National Assembly in a country where people are suffering and he’s making some efforts, but those efforts have not yielded significant results yet and people feel these things. And when he goes there, they sing these various anthems that they wax all the time. Now they’ve gone one step beyond reason by going to a place of mourning, a place of massacre, where even during the civil war it would be newsworthy if 200 lives were lost at one time. When he was giving awards on June 12 and all the struggle, there was no time during the resistance to the military that the military or anyone killed 200 people at a go. So such a place is a somber occasion, and he’s in charge of all the people who followed him there, and what you get there is like another political rally. That sombreness is not there. And some of the theatrics they were doing there with the Chief of Defence Staff giving the president a salute, these are things they should have done in the situation room. The president, I think, should have gone there as a chief mourner. The language should have been sober. The responses should have been better controlled. And he should have made sure, come rain, come shine, come anything, that he got to the venue of the attack in Yelwata. He should get there and see the people. You cannot say as commander-in-chief that there is no part of the country that’s unreachable by you. People are living there and you leave them there and you’re responsible for their welfare there. The notion that by merely going to Benue, which is a place where his heart should be as commander-in-chief, is enough sacrifice is not true.
Which of the reactions now?
The general atmosphere and even the speech he made, the content of it.
Is it at the venue or the speech initially made?
In that hall which looks like a banquet. The whole setting is not the setting you would find for mourning. Even the effort they put into it, the whole staging of it is not sympathetic enough and is not appropriate enough and that’s our understanding of that. And it doesn’t portray to the president that he understands that using that visit is to address all these similar issues because God forbid and I will pray it doesn’t happen; if it happens elsewhere is he going to carry the same theater to those places? So when you go on an occasion like that, you set the tone. You let the people know that you understand the situation. You clearly identify and indicate some solutions to them even if you don’t give all of it. The whole business should look like this is a place of mass death and the head of the family is here. If you play that tape again a hundred times, you will not have that feeling at all.
Starting from the moment he landed in Benue, how do you think he should have handled what would have come off as sympathetic?
The basic thing is that you should realize that those people died because of you, because you are the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. You’re the one running the police, running the armed forces. If you had done your duty, the people working for you in uniform and out of uniform had done their duty, that thing wouldn’t have happened. So the first thing you do is to take responsibility. And then you let your protocol people know that I’m going to this event. I’m going only with people who are relevant to security and the local people there. And as we’re going, make sure that you have given me sufficient briefing about the families who were lost, their names. I’m not the commander-in-chief yet but I have the names, family by family, which family lost how many people. I have some names and the president will have verified those. Make sure that in anything we’re doing, select members of these families. I’ve been bereaved before. I know how I will conduct myself if I lost members of my own family. I won’t go there with the fanfare. I’ll interact with them. I’ll get information. How did it happen? You talk to the people, they’ll see you interacting with the victims and the survivors yourself. And then you indicate, and then the leaders who are there, they would be made to know that the president is not coming here as a politician. He’s coming here as the head of the family.
This is the head of state function. Remember I keep saying there are three functions in that office. You’re head of state, you’re the chief executive, and you’re commander-in-chief.
So, this hall should have had victims’ families, right?
Victims’ families mainly. And the rest of the fanfare should have been cut down. Indication will have been given to traditional and political people that taking children and asking them to lie on the streets and wait for so long is out of it because this is not Independence Day. This is not Democracy Day. This is not you coming to give them roads or food or something. This is you, coming to say, I’m sorry I failed you. One thing that people have pointed to in that particular town hall meeting was when he spoke to the Inspector General of Police, the Chief of Defence Staff and the intelligence agency heads. That statement he made to the Inspector General of Police—a lot of people understood when he said no arrest has been made.
Isn’t that something that points to the kind of demanding accountability from his security chiefs?
No, that’s a failure of his own Commander-in-Chief position. It shows that the President may have other good qualities but totally not a good Commander-in-Chief because before you go there you’ll know whether arrests have been made. This Commander-in-Chief thing is not a joke. It’s not the same thing as being chairman of a party or wearing agbada.
If I’m the President, I know what is going on, how many vehicles pass a road, unless it’s not relevant to me. The information is there. The information apparatus was paid billions and trillions of naira for this kind of information. You’ll know who has not been arrested. You’ll have gotten pictures of the area where people went. If they go to a foreign country, within 24 hours you’ll be in touch with the foreign country. You’ll know. It’s not there that you will behave like a pedestrian and be asking “no arrests have been made?” No—you will know if arrests have been made, if there has been an investigation.
I don’t think he said it because he didn’t know. I think in many ways, saying it out there was showing that you’re not doing well as Inspector General of Police on this particular matter?
Thereby showing that he’s not doing well himself as Commander-in-Chief. Because normally, if there’s any aspect, if for example arrests have been made, the security may not want to tell you that arrests have been made because it may affect the investigation. If you want to communicate to the people, you communicate that: one, we’re sorry; two, we’re on it. So if you need to let people know that arrests haven’t been made, it is not there that you’ll be asking your Police Head. He’s talking to you in public; you’re the boss. Even if he says something that is not correct, yes sir. If you tell a soldier anything, he’ll give you a salute—yes sir. Police, the same thing. But if you want to communicate with the people, you have to ask them. Either you communicate confidence to them that we’re on it or you keep quiet. That kind of question is not appropriate for that. If you want to communicate that you need their cooperation, then you let them know: Please give us more information. We know we’re bereaved, but please come forward, give us more information.