MORE APC TOP LEADERS, OTHERS DEFECTING SECRETLY
MORE APC TOP LEADERS, OTHERS DEFECTING SECRETLY Adewole Adebayo is not only a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), he was also the presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 elections. In this interview, Adebayo provides new details into the defection of a former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, from the ruling party at the federal level, All Progressives Congress (APC), into his SDP. He insinuates that the SDP is on its way to becoming a mega party ahead of the 2027 elections as, according to him, more leaders of the APC as well as those of other parties are joining the party, some secretly. Excerpts: The impression many people have is that your party’s net just caught a big fish with Nasir El-Rufai joining. It is also rumoured in some quarters that El-Rufai is probably the biggest personality in the party. Is this the beginning of more defections expected into the party? El-Rufai is not a fish at all. He is a fellow fisherman. So, he has just joined us on our fishing expedition. So, he is an outfit fisherman, who knows the waters and the ropes. He has joined us. Many have joined. So, I don’t see how the media determines who is bigger than who, but what we are looking for is that every Nigerian who understands the predicament we are in would want to join the SDP as a credible platform. Attahiru Bafarawa has joined the SDP, for example. He is a former governor in his state. A lot of people have joined him. I am not going to steal the thunder of others because everyone has their protocol of announcement. So, somebody wants to send a tweet tomorrow. If I tell you he has joined today, then you have stolen his thunder. Somebody who has to seek support from his family and associates, you go and now say today he is going to join next week. You have already upset their plans. So, many will join. The summary of it is that we are looking for fishermen because Nigeria’s ship has sunk and we need to go into the depths of the ocean to rescue the country. And I think that every Nigerian should think about what they need to do to get this country out of the situation we find ourselves in. Nothing is working. And those who want to join other political parties are free to join as well. But I think that to understand the sense of urgency the country is going through now, the SDP is a viable place for them to come. What exactly did the party induce El-Rufai, Bafarawa and others with for them to say they are coming to SDP, and how did it happen? It’s because it’s inherent in every Nigerian. And I can perceive it even from your voice that every Nigerian has that inherent patriotism in them. It is when they have ambition, they have fears, they have worries, they have animosity towards somebody, or they have something they’re looking for. That’s when they suppress and sublimate their patriotism. What we did was to go around and try to awaken patriotism in people. El-Rufai is 65 years of age with his massive talent. He has the brain of 50 people combined. He has the courage of 1,000 people and he is ready to work. So, we reached out to him and said “why don’t you come and work with the SDP? You can use the SDP to work”. And let us see, and many more will join. Imagine, even from the ruling party, they should prepare themselves for a robust and viable alternative platform that they can compete with and our democracy will be…
Dons Eze
