By Sunday Ani

 

Less than two years before the 2027 elections and barely two years after President Bola Tinubu assumed office as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the National Leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Prince Adewole Adebayo has declared that Tinubu’s party, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is working against the interest of Nigerians.

He strongly argued that in the last two years of Tinubu’s government, Nigerians, especially the downtrodden have been going through hell, with millions going to bed on an empty stomach on a daily basis since they can no longer buy basic food stuff, which prices keep rising every day.

He lamented that the costs of drugs for common ailments like malaria, are beyond the reach of the common man, forcing many to resort to orthodox medications. He equally noted that transportation, as well as house rents, is outrageously high, while insecurity has become insurmountable, with many losing their lives to bandits, kidnappers, killer herdsmen and terrorists, who ride roughshod on innocent, poor Nigerians.

He stressed that any government that fails to address the welfare and security of the people has breached chapter two of Nigeria’s constitution, and therefore, is working against the people. He said his party, the SDP, is not against Tinubu as a person but against his misgovernance.

“If you don’t govern well, you are working against Nigerian people and their welfare and their security, and you are breaching Chapter 2 of the Constitution, and you are violating your oath of office, we are tackling you on that basis. Your personal affairs, we don’t want to know. We don’t have any dispute with Tinubu. We have issues with his misgovernance,” he said.

Prince Adebayo described Tinubu’s administration as obnoxious, stressing that only a party with disciplined members could get rid of an incumbent government.

Speaking about politicians that are defecting from other political parties to the SDP, he advised them to abide by the rules of the party and avoid in-fighting as that would only create a gap for the ruling party to take advantage of.

“I believe that those who are coming in should also realize that they are coming in to build a system that will guide this obnoxious Tinubu administration and if you want to get rid of an incumbent, you need to be more disciplined than the incumbent.

“If you come and start fighting silliness, you are creating a gap that the ruling party would readily take advantage of and you can’t blame them then. So, this is the kind of orientation we give to newcomers. When you come in, leave your ego at the door. Leave your ambition at the door. Leave all your problems at the door.”

He also said the SDP is populated by focused personalities, who have come to work for the party and Nigerians and not their selfish interest. He emphasized that the party is not a place for drama but a place where serious business of how to deliver good governance to the people takes place

“Remember that the SDP is not a party of drama. A lot of the dramas that people are seeing are dramas that take place outside. When you come to the SDP, some of the names you are mentioning here are names that make news, and they are highly important people in our political system, but when they come to the SDP, they are just members. Strictly speaking, there’s nothing else.

“You will see that our senators and our House of Representatives members in the National Assembly don’t do drama, they face their committee work. They brief the party. When there’s an issue, we interact with them. They just want to make sure that they infuse our ethics and our manifesto into politics. And they don’t do drama. You will never find them in any act of indiscipline, fighting anybody and all of that. So, we don’t ask them to give us money but to remain focused on the ideals of the party,” he said.

Rating the party as a very strong one, he also said it could have taken Kogi State in the last governorship election but for the high wired electoral rigging and manipulations that took place. He accused the ruling APC of using the power of incumbency to deny his party the victory that the Kogi people freely gave it. He said: “Look at the numbers. We won on numbers. All the way, they rigged the election. They didn’t use BVAs in the local governments. Go and read the case. We are very fast at that with cases. All the Supreme Court was saying, yeah, we see the paper, but you didn’t front load. And they did not give it to us. So, we did very well.

“In the Ekiti State, we did very well. We’re doing quite well, but we are not going to use unethical means, like paying voters and rigging. We don’t do that because we’re not desperate. We’re just trying to help Nigerian people to get the benefit of their government. So we’re not going to come and become criminals as a result of that.”

On the insinuation that he should be concerned about characters like the former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, who recently defected to the party rather than celebrate because of the threat such personalities could pose to his presidential ambition, he said: “SDP is a benefit to those who are coming. It’s a very tough party because of principles. I welcome everybody, but I always tell people that when you are in the SDP, you shouldn’t feel big. Don’t feel big at all because the party has processes; just come in because the party recognises talent.

“You saw when I was talking about Nasir El-Rufai, people were saying, why are you talking about him; suppose he wants to run against you? But for me, it doesn’t matter. We respect talent. We welcome talent. We do a lot of debates. And we want to infuse quality people because the kind of programmes we have in SDP, cannot be implemented by unintelligent people, with all due respect.

“If you were promising people all these efficiencies, how can we now form a government and start rewarding people according to their political rascality? Just imagine if I was selfish and said, don’t let El-Rufai come in. Don’t let that person come in. I can’t do that because I want good people to come in so that when we form a government, we will have quality talents,” he said.

Still on his readiness to accept politicians from other parties into the SDP fold as the 2027 presidential election inches closer, he said the SDP is like a church that accommodates various people with different needs. “Some people go to church to cure diseases. Some go there to exercise their faith. Some go there to look for marriage partners. Some go there to look for business partners and some go there to get jobs. If you work in the church as a cleaner, that’s where you work, but the church remains the same.

“So there may be people who come to the SDP because they want to use their platform to address personal injustice they perceive. Some come to seek political office. Some are just there because they want a good country for us. But, whatever the motive of every person is, it’s a legitimate desire. What the SDP is trying to do is to be a political party that people can look at and say, this party has processes,” he said.

He, however, warned the new entrants, who may be seeing themselves as too important, to remember that in the SDP, it is the process that speaks. He used the analogy of a football club to drive home his point, saying, “When you see Ronaldo playing a match, he has competed during the training with other team members to be picked. Don’t assume that because you won the footballer of the year or the Golden Glove in training, a young boy who is 17 years old will not be competing with you.

“If you are not up to your game, the boy will beat you and he will be the next guy and you will sit on the bench, whether you like it or not. So, that is the arrangement in the SDP; very fair and open; no joiner and no owner.”