Anayo Ezugwu 
Prince Adewole Adebayo said the Social Democratic Party (SDP) will take the lessons learnt from the 2023 presidential election defeat to power to victory in the 2027 edition.
He said the SDP would not emulate the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) by bribing delegates and buying votes during primaries to impose unpopular candidates.
The SDP’s candidate in the last presidential poll said: “What we don’t do in our party is that we don’t bribe delegates, and we don’t breach the rules. “If you win, we support you. If you lose, we support another person.
That’s our style. “We have learnt from the mistakes of the PDP and the APC, and we are not going to allow our party to become a basket case.”
Adebayo accused the Bola Tinubu government of lacking the capacity to give Nigerians direction. According to him, the government is populated by people who are only interested in sharing the wealth of the nation while the masses die of hunger and penury.
He said he was sure that they did not have any programmes for Nigerians and would soon lose popularity, so he continued to work for victory in the 2027 election; a development that has culminated in his assurances that his party would roundly defeat Tinubu and his APC in 2027.
The party chief said: “We knew that when they started sharing the spoils office, they would all scatter. “We knew that the programmes that all of them had would not work for the people, and they would lose popularity. So we started preparing and managing our party. We have no crisis.
“When they were offering positions, we didn’t want to join them. We remained where we were. “We kept talking to the people. Many more will join us as the year rolls by.
“It is like that. If you are consistent and you build your house and you are not distracted, and you focus on what you are doing, those who say they are experts will come back to you to work with you when their own has failed. Tinubu is going to be removed from power; that one is sure.”
He added: “We are a free and very well organised party. We have institutions that work. “We have learnt from the lessons of APC and PDP that if institutions don’t work and if you follow personalities up and down, you will fail.
“So, what we are trying to do here is to make sure that whatever is chasing people from wherever they are coming does not come into our party.
“Your grievances, your problems and your historical issues that brought you to the SDP end at the door when you join. Follow SDP as an ordinary member. Go from your word. If you have other ambitions, other plans, they are welcome.”
On former Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s defection from the APC to the SDP, Adebayo said: “He is a great talent, I respect him and he is even more honorable in our interaction. He has told us what he wants to do, but it’s not our job to tell anyone. But what is clear is that we want them.”
