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?

I am not in tune with politics of hypocrisy. For example, somebody who spent 20 years in the Senate, passed four Electoral Acts, didn’t make any meaningful contribution to improve electoral efficiency, expand democracy and credibility; and spent eight of out of those 20 years in the as Senate President, received the Uwais Report and didn’t do anything to make election transparent, it’s politics of hypocrisy when you now come out because you are not the incumbent and start to scream blue murder over something you had an opportunity to deal with. You were Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation; there was no rule of law, there was corruption, lack of credibility, and total breach of trust and the Constitution. Now you are out and you are screaming.  That is the kind of politics we don’t want – politics of personality without principle, jumping from place to place.

We in the SDP are not looking for members of the National Assembly to cross to our party. We are joining the movement called FixNass, which is to say none of them should return because if you look at the journey from 1999 to date and the trillions that we passed in appropriation  and there is not much to show for it, Nigeria needs a new National Assembly with virtually no incumbent coming back. We are not asking all these failed legislators to come to our party; we are telling Nigerians that you have an opportunity to determine your 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 not come year in year out and start singing the same song of failure and under development. We want a fundamental shift in our politics.

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

Your questions show the symptoms of the three problems in Nigeria. One, 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 came together and 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, 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 would live up to 60 years in power. They gathered together as there was nothing that would ordinarily connect Muhammad Buhari with Bisi Akande; it was impossible. There was no ideological reconciliation. They 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. 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, who have practised professions, who have led groups of people with integrity, character and  push them into politics.

I used to be a critic on television for a long time before I asked myself ‘why not put your hat in the ring and propose ideas?’ So, we need more people who are not seen as politicians but as good citizens, good leaders and civic examples of what a typical righteous Nigerian should look like. We need such people to come into politics as there is nothing you can get from the present political crop; nothing!

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…

(Cuts in) Whoever thinks about that seems not to understand and know Nigerians. You think Nigerians are stupid? The problem Nigerians have with politicians is 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; there is poverty in the country and lay out a plan as we are laying in the SDP on how to solve the problems 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; they worry about how to get home safely such that their children who went to school will not be kidnapped. How can I raise a healthy family in a sound home and give them good housing, good healthcare, and education?

Those are the things politicians should be talking about and that is why in SDP, we are distinct. 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 that INEC is independent.” Once you do that, you would start 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 in forming government from time to time so that the national objectives can be met.

Will you be recontesting the presidential election 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 a turning point in Nigeria because there is no more room in the direction we are going. There is no more room for insecurity, poverty, unemployment, inflation, deficit in the economy, more blackout, and broken down infrastructure. There is no more room for hospitals that don’t function. We need to change direction and use the resources of the country to develop the country.