2027 must not be another coronation -Adebayo, SDP candidate

•Says no room for sentiments 

•Calls for younger contenders 

By Dapo Akinrefon

P rince Adewole Adebayo, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in this interview, speaks on Nigeria’s current political landscape while outlining his vision ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Rejecting the popular narrative that the opposition space is shrinking, Adebayo argued that true democracy lies not in the number of governors or political defections, but in the will and welfare of the Nigerian people.

He also dismissed ongoing political realignments among major parties as ‘a relay of failure,’ insisting that ideological clarity and grassroots engagement-not elite bargaining-will shape the country’s future. Excerpts:

The APC is retaining dominance in the governance of the country. Is this not shrinking opposition in the country especially as we move towards 2027 general elections?

There is no shrinking opposition space. It all depends on whether you think democracy is about public office holders alone or whether it is 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 out of it. 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 and are counting how many senators or 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 because the media should stop being obsessed with the incumbent, they should try to hear from the ordinary people and it doesn’t matter how many governors you have, borrow or snatch, what matter is, do people feel better about governance.

Do they feel properly led by those who are in power and do they wish to go in the direction the president is taking them? Or the governor of each state is taking them. Those are the talking issues we should be talking about. If you look in those directions, the government of the day, 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 to me 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 Nigeria want to go, would align with the constitution of Nigeria, would align with 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.

What is important to me is: what is the quality of these people who are moving? Are they moving with the people? Their ratings are quite low, all of them. They are not solving any of the problems. There is no state in Nigeria that is safe, secure, with a good employment record, accountability record; there is none that is not have one corruption issue or another.

Regarding who is the main opposition, first, we are not in a parliamentary system of government. The fact that ADC decides to be a copycat because the APC is wooing and receiving governors into their midst may be because they are of the same stock as the APC, as many of them came from the APC.

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?

I am not in tune with the politics of hypocrisy.

We in the SDP are not looking for members of the National Assembly to cross into our party. We are joining the movement called FixNASS, which is to say none of them should return. We are not asking all these failed legislators to come to our party; we are asking Nigerians that you have an opportunity to determine their national assembly. Send patriotic, intelligent, independent-minded people there.

That is what we are trying to do now by revamping the system and not being a beneficiary of the broken incumbency. That is the only way we will bot come year in year out and start singing the same song of failure, under development of hypocrisy of blaming the previous government and repeating exactly what they are doing. We want a fundamental shift in our politics.

Why should Nigerians trust a smaller party over large party with more visibility?

Your questions show the symptoms of the three problems in Nigeria. First, there is no political class. What we have is a rump of military apologists, those who are fronts for the military government and some people with all kinds of idleness, who came together, took over power because of the manner in which the military left in 1999. These people don’t care about any party.

What we have now are people who are desperate to belong in government, desperate to be in positions somewhere in government. Secondly, the APC is not the problem but a symptom. APC is a mutation of political cancer where desperate politicians who have nothing in common can be alarmed by the possibilities that the PDP  might live up to its boast that it might live up to 60 years in power; they gather together, as there was nothing that would ordinarily connect Muhammadu Buhari with Bisi Akande, it was impossible. There was no ideological reconciliation. What did happen was keys just came together and the things they said they were going to do, they couldn’t do them. Some of the PDP people are like rats on the ship; they realised the PDP ship was sinking and became the new PDP and joined them. Anybody who understands Nigerian politics and history will say the APC is the problem.

The APC is a flash in the pan; it is another nightmare in the management of the psyche of Nigerian politics.

By the time we defeat them in 2027, they will be gone in seven days, as nobody will remember them, they stand for nothing, they have no ideas, they just sit down there wasting their time. What we need to do in the opposition is not to poach one politician to your side or the other because they are all rotten eggs, what we need to do is to go back to the people and open this stinking room of politics so that fresh air can come in, bring fresh people who are patriotic people, who have practised professions, who have led group of people with integrity, character and push them into politics.

The Nigerian voters may not be able to differentiate between SDP, APC and ADC because they seem not to know the difference in ideology of these parties.

Whoever thought about that seems not to understand and know Nigerians.  You think Nigerians are stupid. The problems Nigerians have with politicians are that they are not speaking to their issues; they are speaking about abuse and personal certificates, ethnicity, and religion.

Speak to the fact that there is insecurity in the country, poverty in the country and lay out a plan as we are laying in the SDP on how to solve the problem of insecurity, poverty, and perennial injustice at every level of the country. These are the things people go to the mosques and churches to pray over.

That is why we are saying make the election credible, do instantaneous electronic transmission, ensure you don’t cheat in the election, no violence, ensure the INEC is independent,  once you do that, you will begin to see the shift. SDP is an old political party, as we have a long-term plan for getting Nigerians to be conscious of the choices they need to make, informing the government from time to time so that the national objectives can be met.

The primaries of political parties are now either consensus or direct primary. What is your take?

My point is that President Tinubu is not a statesman. He has mismanaged the opportunity given to him to put his signature on the Electoral Act, which he messed up.

However, democracy cannot fall or rise based on one person who is misusing his office. Politicians, even though we are complaining about the imperfections in the act, we need to remember that there was a time we were under colonial rule, we had elections and we got independence; there was a time we were under military rule, we still had election and abiola still won. It is possible if we give the people on our side a chance to succeed despite all the boobytraps in the Electoral Act. The timetable is okay as far as I am concerned.

Peter Obi just expressed uncertainty about clinching the ADC presidential ticket. Does this not show how poorly organised the opposition parties are for 2027 if Obi can’t get the nomination of his party?

I don’t understand. Why should politics and democracy rest on the personal mobility of an individual? It is not relevant.

Who is not relevant?

All these names are not relevant to the question of the day, whether one person is a sympathetic politician moving from shop to shop is not relevant.

How can you say he is not relevant when he did brilliantly well in 2023?

Nobody did brilliantly well because the president who is there now got in, even though he has the highest vote, because of a very tiny single digit mandate from Nigerians.

But today he is the president of the nation.

That is why he is not carrying anyone along as he is aloof.

That is your personal opinion.

I will assume you brought me here to say my personal opinion.

 But you should be constructive.

I am giving you my objective opinion about somebody whose economic policy is lost, somebody whose ministers say they are not getting even 1% or 2 % of their capital vote as it is in the budget, whose economic policies have not led to employment, who cannot handle insecurity.

The import of that is that the next person who wants to be president has to have a deeper connection to the people, has to have substantial participation of the voters. I want to be president with at least 40 million votes. I don’t want to be president with 8 million votes.

Do you have what it takes to get there?

You will have what it takes to get there if you have what the Nigerian people want.

Do you have what the Nigerian people want?

I have what the Nigerian people want, and honestly, just understand their issues, but I don’t want to grab power, snatch it and run away with it.

I am one who wants to go and debate issues, who wants to carry them along and who wants to make sure that on election day, every concerned Nigerian is there voting. We want issues and principles, ethics and commitment.

Will you be contesting in 2027?

By God’s grace, I have told my party that I want to be the presidential candidate of the SDP in 2027, and I want to win it for the Nigerian people on the platform of the SDP.

That is my prayer, which is why I am working. In addition to that, I want Nigerians to treat 2027 not as a year of politicians getting coronated, but as a year of turning point in Nigeria because there is no more room in the direction we are going, there is no more room for insecurity, more poverty, unemployment, more inflation, deficit in the economy, more blackout, broken down infrastructure, no more room for hospital that don’t function, what we need us to change direction and use the resources of the country to develop the country and to equitable distribute opportunities and participation.

I also want to ensure that Nigerians can be proud of their politicians and their leaders, the way the Catholic is proud of the Pope, that is how  they should be proud of their president.

At what point does criticism become alarmism to the point of weakening the public confidence in the system?

The first chance to get things right, to unite the country, to put people at ease and to put them to work is the government. If the government has failed, like the previous government, what does the opposition do?

 This administration is about 3 years old, what are the indices on the ground that would make you say the government has failed? An average person will find it difficult to believe.

I will assume the person understands basic arithmetic.  If you have a four year course in the University and you have an F in year 1, an F in year 2, carry over F in year 3, you cannot say I am new in this class because it’s a four year course.

The government does not have an internal life. President Tinubu, by the grace of God and will of the Nigerian people, was elected in 2023; by 2027, his tenure will come to an end.

That’s just a year to go. Any magic he wants to perform, any contributions to make must be made now, it is important for us to tell him that the emperor is naked.

The government is failing; instead of waiting for him to leave and start to blame him.

Are you suggesting that his absence from the country constitutes leadership failure?

No. It’s just that President Tinubu is a visitor to Nigeria.  He is a habitual traveller. You can count how many times he has traveled. Hardly can you find a month that he doesn’t go somewhere, and the timing of his travel tends to be insensitive.

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