Leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its 2023 presidential candidate, Prince Adewole Adebayo, in this interview with OLUDARE RICHARDS, offers a sharp critique of Nigeria’s current political landscape while outlining his vision ahead of the 2027 general election.
The APC is retaining dominance in the governance of the country. Is this not shrinking opposition in the country, especially as we move towards the 2027 general election?
There is no shrinking of opposition space. It all depends on if you think democracy is about public office holders alone or about politicians alone. The way democracy is supposed to work, and that is how it is going to work in Nigeria, there is no way the majority sentiment or tendency among the Nigerian electorate will determine the state of our democracy and the direction of the country. The idea that we can play the politics of incumbency, which is basically what they are doing, is counting the ratio of the incumbents – incumbent governors. Where are they? Incumbent senators, where are they? Incumbent president, where is he? That is not how democracy works.
I am not aware of any democracy that is healthy anywhere in the world where you have an opinion poll that is counting how many senators or counting how many governors. Usually, what you count is whether the people of the country are more hopeful about the future than they were before; whether they approve the performance of the government of the day or not; whether they side with government of the day on key issues or they side with the opposition; where they will likely vote on certain issues. So, the media should stop being obsessed with the incumbents; they should try to hear from the ordinary people and it doesn’t matter how many governors you have, borrow or snatch. What matters is: Do people feel better about governance? Do they feel properly led by those who are in power and do they wish to go the direction the president or the governor of each state is taking them. Those are the issues we should be talking about. If you look in those directions, the government of the day and all the incumbents are in serious trouble.
How do you feel that the SDP is not the ADC that is merging with other parties to challenge the APC in 2027?
It’s not relevant because it’s all part of your narrative; it is not my business. What I care about is that whatever position I take on politics would align with where the people of Nigerians want to go, the Constitution of Nigeria, the objectives of our founding fathers and where they think the country should be at this point in time. If 36 governors decide to go to one party, it is not my business to comment on that because I have been in the SDP since 1991, and I am not going anywhere. I am okay with it. I have been here since I was 19. Some are more mobile and they go from season to season. That’s their responsibility. That’s their style of politics, which does not concern me. If you complain that governors are moving to the APC, for example, why are you celebrating when some lawmakers move to your side at the National Assembly?
This hypocrisy is not my line of thinking. What is important to me is what the quality of these people that are moving is. Are they moving with the people? Their own ratings are quite low. They are not solving any of the problems.
There is no state in Nigeria that is safe, secure, has a good employment record, accountability record. There is none that is not having one corruption issue or the other. No state is handling its business properly such that these failed incumbents all have something in common. If all of them are migrating to one side, it is not a problem for me.
Regarding who is the main opposition, first we are not in a parliamentary system of government. The fact that ADC has decided to be a copycat because the APC is wooing and receiving governors into their midst does not worry us. They too thought that that is how to get strong as they started looking for all manners of people, whether they believe in what they stand for or not.. That is still the politics of incumbency. We have always maintained in the SDP that ADC is a branch of APC and APC is a scion of the PDP. They are the same altogether. They are in a relay of failure, handing the baton from one failed administration to the other.
What the ADC people are trying to do is to jump the queue because in this rotational inefficiency and failure, some of them have taken their turn and they are not being favoured presently. They are trying to rearrange themselves. If you listen to how they speak, they speak in terms of personality criticism. But in the SDP, that is not our line. Our line is to lay the foundation for the ideological redirection of the country, realignment with the Constitution, particularly Chapter Two of the Constitution – Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principle of State Policy.
So, we are not aiming ever to be in the position where ADC is. They would have been in our party; there is a reason why we said ‘this your style is not our style.’ Our style is that the incumbent needs to go and we are not looking forward to members of the National Assembly crossing over to our party.
What is that style of politics that you are not in tune with?
... 2027: Why SDP Will Not Play Politics Of Hypocrisy Like ADC – Adebayo ... Sportify Post.