By John Alechenu
Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has vowed to scrap bulletproof SUVs, charter flights and other luxury perks for public officials if elected, describing the current system as Nigerians subsidising political opulence.
In a statement by the Chief Media and Communications Adviser of the Adebayo-Bugaje Presidential Campaign, Comrade Mark Adebayo, in Abuja, on Tuesday.
The SDP candidate said an SDP administration will redirect trillions of Naira wasted on executive comforts into education, healthcare and infrastructure.
“We will stop Nigerians from subsidizing the lavish lifestyles of politicians,” Adebayo declared, noting that hardship in the country is not due to lack of resources but a ruling class that “prioritizes institutionalized waste over human capital development.”
Adebayo explained that successive budgets have funnelled enormous public capital into luxury vehicles, presidential fleet upgrades, State House renovations and loosely defined empowerment schemes while families grapple with inflation, fuel duty increases and crumbling social services.
According to fiscal estimates cited from civil society tracking reports and budget analyses, the cost of political opulence runs into multiple trillions annually, with nearly N1 trillion regularly earmarked across cycles for luxury utility vehicles, presidential fleet upgrades and executive renovations.
Mid-2026 budget implementation updates, he added, show that 33 state governments expended over $300 million, about N410 billion, on governors’ offices, Government Houses and executive travel within six months, indicating an annual drain exceeding N1 trillion across all 36 states.
Adebayo also condemned multi-billion Naira deviations for luxury armoured vehicles, including single-agency procurements exceeding N10 billion for management fleets and state purchases outside appropriation bills, which he described as “criminal wastes in the midst of mass suffering induced by the anti-people policies of the current APC administration.”
He assured that an SDP government will plug the leakages, eliminate unconstitutional vehicle allowances and restructure public finances, insisting four years is sufficient for a determined leader to fix infrastructure in line with Nigeria’s history of focused governance.
The party urged Nigerians to reject leaders who treat public resources as personal accounts and embrace an economic model centred on welfare, production and transparent service delivery.
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