Adebayo’s Four-Year-Old Warning Returns To Spotlight As Nigeria Revisits State Police, Economic Reforms

Abuja, Nigeria– A conversation held about four years ago with the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), , is drawing renewed attention as Nigeria once again grapples with two of its most persistent challenges — insecurity and economic hardship.

The interview, conducted ahead of the 2023 presidential election, featured Adebayo outlining positions on state policing, revenue generation, taxation and economic management that remain central to current national debates on constitutional reforms and governance.

At the time, Adebayo was responding to questions about why anyone would seek to govern a country struggling with mounting debt, rising inflation, unemployment and widespread poverty.

Rejecting the notion that Nigeria’s challenges should discourage leadership ambitions, he argued that public office was meant for solving problems rather than avoiding them.

Using the analogy of a firefighter, Adebayo said leaders should move toward crises instead of running away from them.

“If a building is on fire and a firefighter sees the fire and runs away from it, then he is not fit to be a firefighter. The reason you seek office is because there are problems to solve,” he said.

According to him, Nigeria’s economic difficulties were not primarily caused by a lack of resources but by poor governance, weak accountability mechanisms and persistent leadership failures.

Adebayo maintained that the country’s revenue crisis had been exaggerated, arguing that government was collecting only a fraction of what should ordinarily accrue to the federation.

He insisted that rather than imposing additional taxes on already struggling citizens and businesses, authorities should focus on plugging revenue leakages, ending crude oil theft and strengthening collection systems.

“The problem is not that Nigerians are not paying enough taxes. The problem is that government is not collecting what it should collect and is not managing what it collects properly,” he argued.

The SDP presidential candidate said the economy had been weakened by widespread diversion of public resources and the inability of government institutions to secure productive sectors of the economy.

On taxation, Adebayo strongly opposed blanket increases in taxes, warning that irrational tax administration often drives businesses into informality and encourages corruption.

Drawing from personal experience, he recounted receiving a substantial tax assessment against one of his companies despite the company allegedly recording no profit.

He argued that taxation should be based on actual earnings and transparent accounting records rather than arbitrary projections by tax officials.

“I have had situations where tax authorities brought huge tax bills to a company that did not make any profit. Tax should be based on actual income and actual profit, not assumptions,” he said.

According to him, a more integrated system linking company filings and tax obligations would improve compliance while reducing opportunities for extortion and abuse.

Adebayo further identified solid minerals as one of Nigeria’s most underutilised economic assets, alleging that large-scale illegal extraction of resources across several parts of the country represented massive losses to government revenue.

He argued that stronger regulation, better governance and effective control of natural resources would significantly increase government income without placing additional burdens on ordinary Nigerians.

“We have resources that are being taken away every day without proper accounting. If government manages those resources properly, there will be no need to overburden citizens with taxes,” he stated.

However, it was Adebayo’s position on security and policing that appears most relevant to current national conversations, as debates over state police and constitutional amendments continue to gain momentum.

Reacting at the time to incidents of police brutality and unlawful killings, he called for comprehensive reforms of Nigeria’s law enforcement architecture.

According to him, policing in Nigeria had become too detached from local communities and excessively centralised to effectively deliver justice and security.

He argued that the police should function primarily as protectors of citizens rather than as instruments of state power.

“The police should see themselves as protectors of the people. Their loyalty should be to justice and the public interest, not merely to those in authority,” he said.

Adebayo also advocated placing policing within a broader justice framework and strengthening the office of the Attorney General to serve as a defender of public interest rather than simply acting as government’s lawyer.

Most notably, he openly endorsed the establishment of state police and local government policing structures.

He based his argument on the principle that every level of government empowered to make laws should possess a corresponding capacity to enforce those laws.

According to him, it was illogical for states to enact criminal laws while depending entirely on a centrally controlled police institution headquartered in Abuja for enforcement.

“If a state can make laws, then it should have some authority to enforce those laws. It is difficult to explain why a state government should make laws but have no police structure connected to enforcing them,” he argued.

Using examples ranging from traffic violations to serious criminal offences, Adebayo maintained that effective policing requires close proximity to the communities being served.

He cited situations where state governors must depend on federal police authorities to address incidents occurring entirely within their jurisdictions as evidence of a structural imbalance in Nigeria’s security framework.

According to him, community-based policing would improve accountability, enhance response times and strengthen public confidence in law enforcement institutions.

“People are more likely to trust a policing system that understands their communities, knows their challenges and can respond quickly when problems arise,” he said.

The presidential candidate also warned that rebuilding trust between citizens and security agencies was essential to achieving lasting stability.

He maintained that without public confidence in law enforcement institutions, insecurity and broader social unrest would continue to threaten national development.

Beyond security and economic reforms, Adebayo framed governance as fundamentally a question of accountability and public trust.

Throughout the interview, he repeatedly argued that political leaders should focus less on electoral calculations and more on addressing practical issues such as poverty, insecurity, infrastructure deficits and economic productivity.

While acknowledging that the SDP was not regarded as a frontrunner in the race at the time, he insisted that issue-based politics offered a more sustainable path than campaigns built around personalities, ethnic considerations or entrenched political structures.

“We need to talk about solving problems. We need to talk about poverty, jobs, security and development. Politics should be about improving the lives of citizens, not just winning elections,” he said.

Years after the interview, and amid renewed debates over constitutional amendments, state police, fiscal reforms and economic restructuring, Adebayo’s comments have resurfaced as a reminder of ideas that remain part of Nigeria’s unresolved governance conversation.

As policymakers revisit questions surrounding decentralised policing, revenue generation and economic management, many of the arguments advanced by the SDP leader nearly four years ago continue to echo through contemporary discussions on the future of governance in Nigeria.