2023: SDP faction may adopt Tinubu as presidential candidate

The national leadership of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has given hint that it could adopt the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator Bola Tinubu, in the forthcoming general elections.

The party said it’s untrue that SDP is in a hostile relationship with Bola Tinubu, adding that majority of the SDP stakeholders actually rooted for Tinubu before his emergence as the flag bearer of the ruling APC.  

Another faction of SDP had nominated Adewole Adebayo as its presidential candidate.

But in a statement signed Sunday in Abuja, the SDP’s national publicity secretary, Alhaji Alfa Mohammed Esq, said he “would not be surprised if the largest body of the SDP decides in near future to adopt Tinubu for president.”

According to Mohammed, there is no any serious minded politician in Nigeria today who will deny the fact that Tinubu is the most viable candidate in the forth coming presidential election, and therefore, no serious party will ever turn down an opportunity to have him fly it’s ticket or go to sleep while fielding a candidate against Tinubu. 

He said: “Contrary to the widely reported claim by the factional presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party, Mr Adewole Adebayo suggesting that SDP is in hostile relationship with the Presidential Flag Bearer of the ruling All Progressive Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the truth is that the majority of the SDP stakeholders actually rooted for Tinubu before his emergence as the flag bearer of the ruling APC.  

“While party members in their large number across the states of the Federation inundated me with calls on daily bases as the party’s spokesperson, asking for confirmation and expressing excitement over the prospect of Tinubu loosing the APC ticket and crossing over to the SDP, there was the consensus of opinion by many of us in the party caucus that all other aspirants would be persuaded to step down for Senator Bola Tinubu if he had decided to run under SDP. 

“The simple reason for this assertion is that,  apart from Tinubu’s well oiled independent nation wide structures, abundant goodwill, the widely spread credits of I.O.U of various forms of generosity which are waiting to be cashed on the election day, as well as the enduring legacies of economic boom, several job creating agencies, inclusive administration, ethnic and religious tolerant Lagos which he bequeath his successive administrations after his tenure as the Governor of Lagos state stand him out amongst other contestants as a creative thinker who can think out   effective solutions for addressing the crashing Nigerian economy and the grave insecurity bedeviling the entire country and thus earn him the wining votes even from his opponents’ camps. 

“I would not be surprised if the largest body of the SDP decides in near future to adopt Tinubu for president and thus cause further division in the party. Especially if the court fails to determine which of the SDP factions is authentic shortly.”

The presidential candidate of SDP Adewole Adebayo is yet to comment on the latest statement of his party.