is the Leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its presidential candidate in the 2023 election. In this interview with, he talks about the party’s strengths and its plans to build a better future for Nigerians.

Well, I don’t see any crisis in particular. The party is running normally. I think that now that many people are starting early to talk about 2027, there’s now a kind of unusual attention paid to something that’s a simple matter. We have not started using the word crisis.

I think there was a meeting at the end of NWC. There were 12 of them. They are supposed to be 15. And from what we gathered from both sides of the discussion, 11 people attended, including the chairman, secretary and all of the rest of them. Now, a majority of them say that they took a decision to fill three positions in the NWC and I think there is a minority that says that they were not happy with that decision. But we are not getting involved in that because I’m not a member of the NWC and no member of the NWC has come out to speak. So, I think they’re trying to work it out among themselves.
The national public secretary is a member of the NWC. He issued an official statement and there’s no other statements issued by the NWC since that time. So, we don’t want to get involved in it. They are very close. They are closely knit. And their chairman, Shehu Gabam, has been leading them quite well. They’re very united.

First, I can tell you, Gabam of Bauchi State is the national chairman of the party, duly elected at the national convention of June 8, 2022. Nobody is contesting that. Not a single person and he remains the chairman. We like him; we’re okay with him. Dr. Olu Agunloye emerged from the same election. He was our national chairman before. And we adore him because he was our national chairman and he stepped down to become national secretary out of humility in order to balance the candidature and the party leadership. So, his position is also unassailable.

Most of the comments you get are comments that are coming from people who are not in leadership. Some who have just joined and they like to hug the media, but I can tell you, even in this latest discussion, the national chairman has been quite mature. He’s not issued any statement. National secretary has been quite mature. He has not issued any statement. And I think from what I gather at their meeting, they are working things out. The National Working Committee is the most active organ of the party and at our convention, they were given powers to make decisions on behalf of the convention, pending convention, and on behalf of the NEC, pending NEC.

I think they will work it out. It’s an intra-NWC discussion and they’re not telling outsiders what they disagree about. But, I think they made a decision and they’re working on it.

Let’s get something clear. Many people or some people who have been in politics for a while may not be used to internal democracy. We, in the SDP, are used to it. If 11 people meet, 12 people meet, and they are tasked with a constitutional duty and they want to decide it, the majority of that body will decide it. That is not something strange to us. And if someone, maybe doesn’t like that decision, a member of that body, you can complain. It’s a party that is free. So we don’t have any crisis.

As for those who want to join us, everyone is welcome to join us. And I have zero anxiety regarding what will happen at the convention. I intend to run, and I believe that the party will choose the best of whoever contests at that time. So, I’m not personally worried about that. But I don’t want you to assume that what is happening in PDP or elsewhere is happening to us. We are a democratic party. We don’t have a godfather. PDP is the Peoples Democratic Party. Are they democratic? They left the people behind and they are not democratic at all. That’s why they are in trouble.

They are more of a people’s gubernatorial party, because governors control them. In the SDP, members are equal. When you go to NWC, National Chairman and the National Secretary or whatever other person, they are equal members.

We are in power in some places. We are responsible for it. Power is not in one person. Power is in the constitution of the party. I don’t dabble into party affairs because I am not a party functionary. I’m just a member, a leader in the party, and a member who has his own ambitions and aspirations.

However, I just want to assure the public and those who genuinely want to join us that we are used to this democratic system of decision making. So, if you have 11 NWC members decide on an issue, 7 voted one way, 4 or 3 voted the other way, that doesn’t mean a crisis and the people are still coming to work. They are working together. They go to each other’s houses to have dinner.

I can tell you that it’s impossible. The party is highly united. People are enlightened. And the interest of the public is what governs all of us. I’m not sure it governs very well. I love parties. It cannot be compromised. No, no, no. It loves the party and Dr. Agunloye has spent almost all of his retirement life, which he has used to enjoy his life, after being road safety commissioner general, after being minister many times, governor on many things, university lecturer. He should have been in Lebanon or in those states somewhere enjoying overseas life. He loves the party.
So, nobody in SDP loves ambition. But, I personally, for example, love the president of Nigeria. I love the party.

No, I would not. He has not said anybody should step down.

But, there are talks by those of his friends who are already gravitating towards your party and I’m very sure that you have heard there is a possibility of SDP being used as a platform for the opposition.

Let me say something clearly. Neither me, vice president Atiku Abubakar, nor any other politician can use the SDP. The SDP belongs to Nigerian people. Nobody can use it. What can happen is that people who believe that the SDP is right and the ideologies are right, can come to the party and know that the party is open and democratic. You want to come in there and compete because you have the best chance of competing in a system that has not been bought over by anybody.

But, if you just think that the SDP is something you can use, it cannot be used. What you can do is, I like the SDP. I respect its ideology. I respect the work that has been done by those who are there. I want to join and contribute. That is okay. But, if someone is sitting down somewhere and wants to use something, we are not allowed to use it. But if you want to join us, you can join us.

What is clear, and I must respect that is that people are just speaking on his behalf. He knows what he wants to do. He has access to us. And we are not going to need a third party to tell us what he wants to do or all of that. When he wants to join the party, he will come to us and join the party. Until then, we don’t discuss him because he appears to know what he’s doing. He’s highly experienced. He’s been running for president for 32 years.

First, all of us want to unseat President Tinubu in 2027. I don’t want to unseat him or any other person.

However, Atiku Abubakar is a Nigerian leader. He meets with various people. Some like to take photos with him and put it in the media. Some want to meet him quietly. He meets hundreds of people every day. So, he is not involved in any coalition led by somebody else. What I can tell you is that the SDP is led by Shehu Gabam and Olu Agunloye and many of your leaders. He has not given me an assignment to do coalition on his behalf. He has not given any assignment to my senior brother El-Rufai.
El-Rufai is not representing the SDP in any coalition. I am not. The SDP is waiting. The SDP is expressing its own understanding of how best to come together and remove this person who has caused the APC and non-performing president called Bola Tinubu. The SDP has its own plans. We are looking at various options. We realise that at the end of the option, you will need a political party that is viable.

Maybe they don’t think that you have what it takes to defeat Bola Tinubu and the APC. Maybe that’s the reason why they are thinking, let’s use the SDP or let’s come into the SDP, let’s form a coalition. If they approach you, because they believe that Adewale Adebayo may not be a match for Bola Tinubu. Do you think this is the case ?

I don’t know about that. Let the Nigerian voters tell me that. But, what I can tell you is that President Bola Tinubu is not a match for the Nigerian people.

If I am backed by the Nigerian people, of course, he will be defeated.

Well, you can compare our ideas. What I said during the campaign and what he said during the campaign. Compare the two, you will realise that he is not the ideal.

That is a question that Shehu Gabam can answer. That is a question that Olu Agunloye can answer. But, what I know from interacting with the party leadership, party membership, the SDP is too different from the PDP for us to be led by the PDP.
You will recall that our national chairman was one of those who left PDP and came to SDP. And the reasons he left remain the same. The party is united under one national chairman. The party is strengthening itself. From what I know now, we have 15 NWC members, and all of them are coming together. The PDP has had 16 years to prove to Nigeria what it is, what it means. And the PDP is in power in so many states. You can see whether they are doing well or not.
So, what I can say generally is that the SDP wants Nigeria to give us a chance. We are not going to be under any other political party. We welcome every contestant. The fact that I am interested in running for president has not stopped me from working with the party leadership to attract people into the party.

I don’t have any personal issues with them

Let me just say something clearly. You have been in this business for a long time. How many times did you see Bola Tinubu in 2013?

This kind of work is not done on the pages of newspapers. It’s not done in front of the media. First and foremost, El-Rufai is just another person like me. He has no authority of any political party to negotiate anything.

In 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, he was the president of the United Nations. Those people were coming together. They were coming together, leading political parties. And what is going on now is going on quietly. The leaders of the parties are meeting. The real people who have control over their political structures are meeting. It is not something that we want to discuss on the pages of newspapers. But everybody has their own style of operation.

What we understand, which is commonsensical political science, is that there must be one grand leader, challenger, against President Tinubu in 2027. That person, who is the candidate, must carry along a large swath of the disenfranchised and unhappy Nigerians. Now, politicians have many ideas about how to get there. The SDP is talking to people outside our party and I think we are making a lot of progress. But what you might be reporting on the personal travels of different people is not what is going on.

…What is going on is discussion along ideology, methodology, and accommodation. And when that time is right, what we are doing must be a surprise to the government in power.

Clearly. But it’s not a series of collages of pictures of caucuses, where somebody paints caucuses. So, it’s underground… The talks are going underground. A lot of Nigerians are not aware. Yes, or you leave somebody at the airport. You take a photo together and say, yes, coalition. That is not infantile like that. It is something that is deep.

Because, in addition to having a genuine grouse on behalf of Nigerian people against the nonperforming government of President Bola Tinubu and APC, even we who are in the opposition have differences. And we must work out those differences first before we can go and challenge the person who is now there. But if we don’t work out our differences first, clearly, we will discover in the middle of the struggle that we are incongruous.

Well, they should be worried first about not serving Nigerians well.

They shouldn’t be too worried about losing the election. They should be worried about disappointing the people. The office of President is not a monarchy.

His political sagacity will be translated to the welfare of Nigerian people first. You see, all this sagacity, all these4 you are talking about, it is when you are looking for power. You are looking for power to serve the people. This is not a movie.
People are dying of hunger. There is insecurity. Every time you read the news, I see your face. You feel sad because you want good news. You want good news when you are reading the news. You don’t want people being killed. Terrorists being hung. All these things. You don’t want that. So, if you have sagacity, use the sagacity to run the lives of Nigerians.

I don’t think he wants anybody to be talking about what he is doing because he appears to have more discipline than some other people. So, you don’t see him. Peter Obi goes quietly. He has meetings with people. He doesn’t expose himself to the media. He is a highly disciplined person. He knows what he is doing. He has his own plan.

I am working with anybody who loves Nigeria.

Maybe because you are asking me if he wants to step down for me or step down for him. That will come later. But from what I see, I like what he is doing. He hasn’t said he doesn’t like what I am doing. He is serious-minded. He is having a meaningful discussion. Quiet discussion. Honourable discussion. Not that I have a discussion with you and I go on TikTok. I start putting in there and then you say, who is this person?

Whatever you are saying now, the defections are saying something different. Which is that? If you are saying that the APC and Bola Tinubu government have failed Nigerians, there are a lot of people who are moving into the APC from the PDP and some other political parties. They are moving into the APC. And it gives a sense that there is something good going on in the APC where everybody wants to be part of. Are you also planning to go there?

The suspects have moved. So, I don’t know what they are doing. You see, they are making it easier for the Nigerian people to identify where their problems are. What I see is that the people who are mismanaging the affairs of this country are in different political parties. But for some reason, to make it easier for Nigerians to identify them, all of them are now lining up with the same… You know how we do it in criminology where you have an identification parade.

So, all of them are going to APC so that it can be easy for Nigerian people to know that if you are part of a government that has been oppressing the people for the past 10 years, it is better for us to have all of them move towards APC instead of pretending to be in opposition. In fact, some of the people who are moving from APC to SDP, for example, have been advised to watch out for them. Whether they are Trojan horses. Whether they actually haven’t left the APC. They’re just coming to cause confusion on our side.

So, we are happier to have the people who have been poorly performing, mismanaging resources, who are not accountable for trillions of Naira and wasting the time of Nigerian people, let them move to APC so that when we are campaigning, we don’t have to be confused. We just point them where they are. But what is most important is that the opposition is talking seriously. It’s talking the way it should be done.

There are many heavy issues where we don’t agree with each other and we cannot come together to remove a government that is doing poorly if we ourselves don’t agree on what we are going to do when we get there. So, once that is worked out, I can tell you the people of Nigeria will be proud of the SDP and what we have brought about in 2027.