By Sunday Ani
Leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo has declared that President Bola Tinubu and his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) would be shocked by Nigerians in the 2027 general elections. He stressed that the election would be a referendum on Tinubu’s leadership since he assumed office on May 29, 2023.
In this interview, he spoke on a wide range of issues, including the chances of his party winning the election.
Some Nigerians see the SDP as the newest bride in town, while others perceive it as a safe place for disgruntled and aggrieved politicians. Is it actually a clearing house for spent political forces or a haven for new politicians?
Well, the position of the party is that every Nigerian who believes in it is welcome to join. And others who are not even involved in politics at all, who want to participate in politics, should come and join. That is the position that I am following. That is the directive of the leadership of the party; anyone and everyone, who loves Nigeria is welcome to join the party and that is where I stand.
Of course, some people who are joining the party are of special interest to the media or other interests. And the message that we are giving to the public and to those who are joining the party, is the same. It is not targeted at any person. It is a general directive to everyone that when you are coming to the SDP, you should pay attention to the Nigerian constitution.
Pay particular attention to chapter two of the constitution, a fundamental objective and directive principle of state policy that states how we should govern ourselves and avoid the misgovernance that we are seeing now.
Then, they should also pay attention to the constitution of the SDP, because we take this constitution seriously. The SDP is not like other parties where they are coming from, where they violate their constitutions at will. In the SDP, since I joined the party, I have rarely seen any instance where any officer or institution of the party or group of members is trying to violate the constitution.
Thirdly, they should look at the manifesto of the party. It is basically for the welfare of the people. That is why we ran on farewell to poverty and insecurity. And even from the news that you used to introduce the programme tonight, that poverty and insecurity are still hanging around, close to two years after the APC government produced President Tinubu, and 10 years after the APC came to power, if you started counting from President Muhamadu Buhari’s time. That is the focus of the SDP.
You were quoted to have said a recent social media post that Nigerians will shock the establishment and the powers that be. What do you mean by that?
Well, what we see is that in every government, including this one, there’s always this fear of incumbency. People always say, oh, it cannot be done. Of course, until 2015 when the APC came and it was done, people kept saying it cannot be done. So, that’s one part of it. And the other part is that, why it may look difficult is that there is a crop of politicians who find themselves in a position by accident. When they set out in politics, they are part of the establishment. But, the establishment is getting tinier and tinier because of the greed of the establishment. They are not baking a larger cake for the country. They are only fighting at the table, and the pieces of cake that they get are getting smaller in size, and their greed is increasing. So, some don’t even get anything at all. So, once those people have been excluded from the stolen buffet, they now come and become opposition, then when people see them, they say, what do you have because the paradigm that they see them using is a paradigm of the establishment. But, what is clear as of today in Nigeria is that any opposition that is genuine enough and people see credibility in that opposition, that opposition will defeat the incumbent any day. In 2015, the marauders of Nigerian politics realised that nobody would listen to them.
So they went and fetched Buhari, who had captured the imagination of the poor masses of the vast swathe of northern Nigeria. And they now added yeast to that and baked a very large cake, talking about change and all of that. So, people bought into that. Now in 2027, the pathway for opposition is to first define what opposition is all about. The fact that you’re falling off the wagon, or you have been disfavoured by the establishment doesn’t make you an opposition, it makes you unemployed. The critical contradiction in opposition politics in Nigeria is that we now have many people whose opposition consists of changing only the incumbent without changing the system. They want to change the party in power without changing politics, whereas the party in power is not the cause of the problem in Nigeria. The party in power is a product of the problem because it is only bad politics. Only bad politics can produce a President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for Nigerians. He’s a product of bad politics.
Would you say the new set of politicians who have found a home in your party understand the party’s ideology? If not, what is the party doing to ensure that they do?
I joined the SDP at the age of 19, when the late Chief Lateef Jakande was leading the party. That was in 1991 and when the party was banned, I did not join another party. When Chief Olu Falae and many of our leaders brought the party back and I wanted to go back into politics, that is the party I came to. I’ve met many people who still believe in the manifesto of the party.
However, over time, generations of politicians come to the party from other political parties and some have taken time to inculcate the ideology of the party. You cannot blame those who are coming newly, because they’re just coming and if someone is in the party for two weeks or two months, you cannot say that they have become die-in-the-wood SDP members.
Some of them had a different background where they’re coming from and some have entered the party initially not for ideological reasons, but just because it’s convenient, because for some politicians a political party is a transactional vehicle. They don’t believe in what the party is saying. They just think that they need a party.
But, when we come to the party we all get tutored by what the party stands for and we all get challenged from time to time.
So, the people who need more education than the rest are the political elites, especially the class that came into politics in 1999, who believe that politics is about what you can grab, steal and run away with and that the people don’t exist, they’re just noise in the background. You only need them on Election Day and all you need to do is package some money and give to them and you don’t need to bother about them after that.
So, these people have difficulty dealing with the SDP but we believe in the redemption of everyone and we believe that if you pay attention, you can perfect it, and you can understand it because the country needs a good political party if we are going to be saved.
Do you see the SDP as the alternative to APC or PDP in the 2027 general election?
Well, I believe so. The 2027 election, from where I’ve seen it, is going to be about the people of Nigeria. And it’s going to be a referendum on the performance of President Bola Tinubu because he came to power with such a narrow margin and a controversial margin for that matter. And since he’s been governing, he’s been governing as if he had the majority. He’s not been consulting well. He’s not even going around the country, even from the report you read today, he sent the National Security Advisor to go and speak to the people who are bereaved. That’s not the job of the National Security Advisor. That’s the job of the head of state. He should have gone there. And he needs to govern the people better. People’s welfare is not better. Economy is slightly worse than before. And he hasn’t got a handle on the Naira so that people will not be poor just by keeping their money in the banking sector. So he needs to do a lot of things for employment. He needs to run two budgets that are sensible and developmental. And he needs to bring more talent within his party. Nobody in the SDP is available to serve him. He needs to go to the APC, and maybe, borrow more people from the PDP or other Nigerians who are not in any political party and strengthen his cabinet and run the government better. So, by the time we get to 2027, Nigerians will have to choose between what he will have done by that time and what we are offering.
You were quoted to have also said you’re willing to step down for a stronger candidate. What could have led you into saying different things in a space of one month or two? Some concluded that you may have been bullied, is that correct?
What I have said to the media is that it is not about me. My interest in serving the country is not unknown to anyone. But, my waking up in the morning, breathing, working for my party, and working for the country is not just about me. It’s about the people of Nigeria who are suffering. And I said that if there is any person whom God says is going to be able to solve the problem of Nigeria better than me, I don’t pray that my own ambition should stop that person.
I, personally, haven’t seen such a person yet. And I’m not closing my eyes to any person. What I’m saying is that as a person, I believe that Nigeria is not so unfortunate that I will be the only patriot in the country and I’m the only good man in the country. I’m doing my best for my country and I’m offering myself, but in the course of time, if there is anybody that is also a patriot and is there only for the people, and I believe that this person is good, I will support him.
And I’m not going to sabotage the contest. If God says that’s the person who is going to defeat me, I’m not going to sabotage the person or work against the person. As for bullying, I don’t know. Who is to bully who? I don’t think anybody who says that knows me at all. And in the SDP, we don’t use bully tactics anyway. The key issue is that those who are coming to our party are welcome. Those who have ambition, we’ve advised them.
The party will be fair, reasonable and transparent. And the party is not going to say, oh, because you have just joined the party, you stand no chance.
No, the party will go through a transparent process. If you can pass away the delegate, persuade the leaders of the party and the members that you are better than the other person, you have an equal chance.
We don’t use bribery. We don’t rig delegates. We don’t have double lists. We don’t do double nominations. We don’t do all these other wrong things that other parties are used to.
When I ran last time, everybody who wanted to run against me did run. And they had their fair contest and nobody went to court. So, that was the attitude. But, long and short of this is that it is not about personal ambition.
This country is in a lot of trouble. It shouldn’t be. And let us allow the best talent to come out. And I’ve offered myself.
Some are already wondering if the SDP is any different from the APC or the PDP because about a year ago, your national chairman, Shehu Gabam, had confidently said there was no merger discussion within the SDP. But, today the party is talking about merger, what has changed? There are also reports that the party executives across the country have been dissolved, is that true, and if true, why?
Number one, our national chairman, Shehu Musa Gabam, is speaking about the position of the party and he has been consistent. I think people who covered reports or speeches should try to reconcile them together. It’s very simple.
The SDP is not against people coming together, groups of people coming together, and trying to better the lots of Nigerians and fashioning out better politics for the country.
We all agree that the politics that has produced the PDP and the APC have not been good for the country and you can see the result, even from their members. So, what we’re trying to do is that you conform; associations and all come together.
But the SDP, as a party, will continue to be in existence. It will not change its name. It will not merge with another party. But, it can receive politicians and other interested parties.
What we are trying to do is to make sure that those people, however large they are, are united by ideology and that they are all singing the same song.
You all go to churches or concerts and everywhere. It is not about how large the orchestra is. It is how they sing in uniform and in unison. And that is what we are trying to do. The cacophony that is in PDP, where the principal leaders of the PDP are working for the other party, or the contradictions inside the APC, between the CPC wing, even within the ACN original wing, and all the selfishness and prejudice that is going on within the CPC wing, we don’t want that to be the lot of the SDP.
So, what do you call the kinds of meetings and conversations that have been going on between the former vice president, Atilu Abubakar, who is of the PDP, and Nasir El-rufai, who is now of the SDP, and their constant visitations to the former President Muhammadu Buhari, who is of the APC? What do you call that?
What I call it in clear terms is freedom of association, social gathering, consultation, dialogue or courtesy call. And those who go to those places are not going on behalf of the SDP. I believe that, and you will agree with me, Nashir El-Rufaiis a senior brother of mine.
He has no mandate of the SDP. He has no mandate of the SDP to negotiate a merger with anyone. He has no mandate of the SDP to change the name of the party or to form any alliance with anyone.
He is not an official of the party. Just like I am not an official of the party, we are members of the party, senior members of the party by virtue of what we have done with the party and the positions we have set in government.
But, he has no power higher than that of his own ward chairman or ward secretary, where he comes from. So, he can’t speak for the party.
However, he is a man of great talent, who can bring to the attention of the party opportunities that could be of benefit to the party and it is for the party to consider those opportunities and you can see that many of them, as attractive as they might be, may still not be considered by the party if they are not in line with the principles on which the party stands.
The same way I have had many occasions to introduce some ideas to the party and the party will consider some. They will decline some and say, Mr. President, this idea you have brought, maybe, it’s not the right one for now and I respect that.
So, he is welcome, but I don’t think he attends all those meetings as the leader of the SDP. If anybody is confused about that, it could be the media and I hope there is nobody in politics who is speaking to him on the basis that he has the mandate of the SDP to speak on any matter