I Can Sacrifice My 2027 Ambition For Better Candidate, Says SDP’s Adebayo

Adewole Adebayo, the Social Democratic Party's (SDP) 2023 presidential candidate, has stated that he is prepared to resign his presidential bid in the 2027 elections in order for a more qualified politician to lead his party.

This was said by the attorney on the Sunday edition of Channels Television's sociopolitical show Inside Sources with Laolu Akande.

"Everyone is aware of my ambitions. Adebayo stated, "I'm working on it, but God is the author of tomorrow; we don't even know who will be around in 2027."

"I pray to God that if someone else is more qualified than I am to solve Nigeria's problems, my ambition shouldn't deter them because we want a nation that functions. We are now working on projects of that nature.

According to Adebayo, the SDP will present Nigerians with a candidate in the upcoming presidential election that they could all support and who would be prepared to challenge All Progressives Congress (APC) President Bola Tinubu.

According to the lawmaker, the SDP will not split Nigerians along the sensitive lines of ethnicity and religion.

According to the lawmaker, the SDP will not split Nigerians along the sensitive lines of ethnicity and religion.

"What was once a straightforward conversation about religion and ethnicity has now turned explosive," he added. Therefore, we will not attempt to divide our members into several zones using the SDP forum.

What we are currently seeking is a system in which Nigerians would exclaim, "Alright, at last, this platform has given the country a chance," when we make a decision in the SDP.

Discussions about an inter-party alliance culminated on Thursday, March 20, 2025, ahead of the 2027 elections.

when opposition arrowhead Atiku Abubakar, alongside former Anambra governor Peter Obi, ex-Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai, amongst others, announced a coalition to oust incumbent Tinubu whose administration has been accused of mismanaging the economy, with all-time high inflation and unprecedented cost of living.

The coalition is banking on the numerical strength of the votes recorded by Atiku and Obi in the last poll. In 2023, Atiku of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party’s Obi came second and third respectively with combined votes of over 12 million, more than four million above the total votes recorded by Tinubu who was declared the winner by electoral umpire INEC.

With a litany of court cases arising from intra-party squabbles and protracted leadership crises rocking the PDP and the LP, as well as alleged maltreatment of some APC members, politicians in the three parties seem to have made the SDP a darling.

Already, El-Rufai and some of his foot soldiers have joined the SDP. There have been talks about Atiku and Obi reportedly making moves to join the SDP but both politicians have not made such a decision known officially.

Adebayo said the SDP is open to all interested persons but the party would disinfect all newcomers so that they won’t pollute the party with the contaminants of where they are coming from.

He said, “If you want to come to the SDP, you have to make sure that you allow us to apply disinfectant, not because we don’t respect you but because you are coming from a highly infected zone.

“The same way we did it during COVID, when you go to your friend’s house. If you love your friend, he will disinfect you so that you don’t infect others.

“We’ll do it with order. Our party’s constitution is well-sanitised. The party’s guidelines are well-sanitised. Chapter 2 of the constitution around which we are organised to render services to the Nigerian people, the quality of leadership that we want, the processes untainted by criminality, bribery, excessive use of money, the notion of ethnicity, religionism and all of that.

“They (the newcomers) told us the calamity they were facing where they were coming from. Each of them talks about injustice. When Peter Obi left PDP, he said there was criminality and injustice there. El-Rufai is not shy about his calamity; how they (APC members) embarrassed him and how they were to give him a position and they stole it from him in a disrespectful way and other things like that.

"Atiku Abubakar, the former vice president, had problems with his campaign and was not supported by everyone in his party.

We understand that everyone here has experienced a great deal of trauma, but it is our responsibility to tell them that this political party is about the Nigerian people, not politicians, so leave their jobs at the door.

"You register for membership at the ward level. Therefore, it is the responsibility of each member to read the party's constitution.