We reject politics of hypocrisy and personality without principle – Adebayo

In this wide-ranging and candid conversation, Adewole Adebayo, the leader figure of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its 2023 presidential candidate, offers a sharp critique of Nigeria’s current political landscape while outlining his vision ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Rejecting the popular narrative that the opposition space is shrinking, Adebayo argues that true democracy lies not in the number of governors or political defections, but in the will and welfare of the Nigerian people. He dismisses ongoing political realignments among major parties as “a relay of failure,” insisting that ideological clarity and grassroots engagement—not elite bargaining—will shape the country’s future.

From his criticism of the ruling administration’s performance to his call for a new generation of principled leadership, Adebayo positions the SDP as a platform for structural change rather than political opportunism. This interview captures his uncompromising stance on governance, his rejection of what he calls “politics of hypocrisy,” and his belief that Nigeria stands at a critical crossroads.

The APC is retaining dominance in the governance of the country, is this not shrinking opposition in the country especially as we move towards 2027 general election. 

There is no shrinking opposition space. It all depends on if you think democracy is about public office holders alone ir democracy is about politicians alone. The way democracy is supposed to work and that is how it is going to work in Nigeria,  there is no way out of it is that the majority sentiment or tendency among the Nigerian electorate  will determine the state of our democracy  and the direction of the country. They idea that the we can play the politics of incumbency which is basically what they are doing is counting the ratio of the incumbents, incumbent governors, where are they? Incumbent senators, where are they? Incumbent president, where is he? That is not how democracy works. I am not aware of any democracy that is healthy anywhere in the world  where you have an opinion poll and is counting how many senators or counting how many governors. Usually what you count is whether the people of the country are more hopeful about the future than they were before. Whether they approve the performance of the government of the day or not, whether they side with government of the day on key issues or they side with the opposition, where they will likely vote on certain issues because the media should stop being obsessed with the incumbent,  they should try to hear from the ordinary people and it doesn’t matter how many governors you have , borrow or snatch, what matter is, do people feel better about governance.  Do they feel properly led by those who are on power and do they wish to go the direction the president is taking them? Or the governor of each state is taking them. Those are the issues we should be talking about. If you look in those directions, the government of the day, all the incumbents are in serious trouble.

How do you feel that the SDP is not the ADC that is merging with other parties to challenge the APC in 2027? 

It’s not relevant to me because it’s all part of your tvs narrative, it is not my business. What I care about is that whatever position I take on politics would align with where the people of Nigerians want to go,  would align with the constitution of Nigeria,  would align with the objectives of  our founding fathers  and where they think the country should be at this point in time. If 36 governors decide to go to one party, it is not my business to comment on that because  I have been in the SDP since 1991, and I am not going anywhere. I am okay with it. I have been here since I was 19. Some are more pathetic, they are more mobile and they go from season to season. That’s their responsibility.  That’s their style of politics which does not concern me. If you complain that governors are moving to the APC for example, then, why are you celebrating when some lawmakers move to your side at the national assembly.  This hypocrisy is not my line of  thinking. What is important to me is what is the quality  of these people who are moving? Are they moving with the people? Their own ratings are quite low, all of them. They are not solving any of the problems. There is no state in Nigeria that is safe, secure, has good employment record, accountability record; there is none that is not having one corruption issue or the other.  No state that is handling it’s business properly such that these failed incumbents all have something in common. If all of them are migrating to one side, it is not a problem for me. Regarding who is the main opposition,  first we are not in parliamentary system of government.  The fact that ADC decides to be a copycat because the APC is wooing and receiving governors onto their midst,  and the ADC may be because they are of the same stock as APC, as many of them came from the APC. They too thought that that is how to ge strong as they also started looking for all manners of people whether they believe in what they stand for or not. We are not worried about that. That is still the politics of incumbency and we have always maintained in the SDP that ADC is a branch of APC and APC is a scion of the PDP.  They are the same altogether. They are in a relay of failure, handling the baton from one failed administration to the other and the ADC people are trying to do is to jump the queue because in this rotational inefficiency and failure, some of them have taken their turn and they are not been favoured presently. I have nothing against them, they speak in terms of personality criticism, but in the SDP,  that is not our line. Ours is to lay the foundation for ideological redirection of the country, realignment with the constitution, particularly chapter two of the constitution  fundamental objective and direct principle of the state policy and accountability, investment and social investment. Going from place to place is not our style. We are not aiming ever to be in position where ADC is. They would have been in our party, there is a reason why we said this your style is not our style.  Our style is that the incumbent needs to go and we are not looking forward to members of the national assembly crossing over to our party.

What is that style of politics that you are not in tune with.

I am not in tune with politics of hypocrisy.  For example, somebody who spent 20 years in the senate, passed four electoral acts, didn’t make any meaningful contribution to improve electoral efficiency, expand democracy and credibility  and spent eight of out of those 20 years in the senate as senate president, they didn’t do anything to make election transparent, to make it work, now, the kind of politics of hypocrisy is where you now come out because you are not the incumbent for the day, you start to scream blue murder on something you had an opportunity to deal with, there was no rule of law, there was corruption, lack of credibility,  total breach of trust and breach of the constitution and now you are out, you are screaming.  That is the kind of politics we don’t want, politics of personality without principle,  jumping from place to place and whose attitude to politics depends on whether it favours them today or not. We in the SDP  are not looking for members of the national assembly to cross into our party. We are joining the movement called FixNass which is to say none of them should return because if you look at the journey from 1999 to date and the trillions that we passed in appropriation  all gone with not much to show for it, Nigeria need a new national assembly  with virtually no incumbent coming  back. We are not asking all these failed legislators to come to our party, we are asking Nigerians that you have an opportunity to  determine your national assembly.  Send patriotic,  intelligent, independent minded people there . That is what we are trying to do now by revamping the system and not be a beneficiary of the broken incumbency. That is the only way we will both come year in year out and start singing the same song  of failure, underdevelopment of hypocrisy of blaming the previous government and repeating exactly what they are doing. We want a fundamental shift in our politics.

Why should Nigerians trust a smaller party over large party with more visibility?.

Your questions show the symptoms of the three problems in Nigeria. One; there is no political class. What we have is a rump of military apologists, those who are fronts for the military government and some people with all kind of idleness, came together , took over power because of the manner in which the military left in 1999. This people don’t care about any party.  What we have now are people who are desperate to belong in government,  desperate to be in positions somewhere in government. Secondly,  APC is not the problem but a symptom. APC is a mutation of political cancer where desperate politicians who have nothing in common can be alarmed by the possibilities that the PDP  might live up to its boast that it might live up to 60 years in power, they gather together as there was nothing that would ordinarily connect Muhammad Buhari  with Bisi Akande, it was impossible.  There was no ideological reconciliation.  Some of the PDP people are like rats on the ship, they realised the  PDP ship was sinking and became the new PDP and joined them. Anybody who understands Nigerian politics and history  will say the APC is the problem. APC is a flash in the pan, it is another nightmare in the management of the psyche of the Nigerian politics.  By the time we defeat them in 2027 they will be be gone in seven days as nobody will remember them, they stand for nothing,  they have no ideas, they just sit down there wasting their time. What we need to do in the opposition is not to poach one politician to your side or the other, what we need to do is to go back to the people and open this stinking room of politics so that fresh air can come in, bring fresh people who are patriotic people, who have practised professions, who have led group of people with integrity, character and  push them into politics. I used to be a critic on television for a long time  and  I realised that why not put your hat in the ring, propose ideas so we need more people who are not seen as politicians but good citizens, good leaders and civic examples of what a typical  righteous Nigerian should look like,  we need such people to come into politics as there is nothing you can get from the present political crop, nothing.

The Nigerian voters may not be able to differentiate between SDP, APC and ADC because they seems not to know the difference in ideology of these parties. What do you think? 

Whoever thought  about that seems not to understand and know Nigerians.  You think Nigerians are stupid. The problems Nigerians have with politicians  is that they are not speaking to their issues, they are speaking about abuse and personal certificate, ethnicity, religion. Speak to the fact that there is insecurity in the country, poverty in the country and lay out plan as we are laying in the SDP  on how to solve the problem of insecurity, poverty, injustice at every level of the country; these are the things people go to the mosques and churches to pray over, they worry about how to get home safely such that my child who went to school will not be kidnapped,  how can I maintain a healthy family in a sound home and give then good housing, good healthcare and education , those are the things politicians should be talking about and that is why in SDP,  we are distinct. That is why we are saying make the election credible,  do instantaneous electronic transmission,  ensure you don’t cheat in the election,  no violence, ensure the INEC is independent,  once you do that, you would  agart to see the shift. SDP is an old political party as we have long term plan for getting  Nigerians to be conscious of the choices they need to make, informing government from time to time  so that the national objectives can be met.

The primaries of political parties is now either consensus or direct primary, what is your take?

My point is that President Tinubu has mismanaged the opportunity given to him to put his signature to electoral acts. However democracy cannot fall or rise based on one person  who is misusing his own office. Politicians even though we are complaining about  the imperfections in the act but we need to remember  that there was a time we were under colonial rule, we had elections and we got independence,  there was a time we were under military rule , we still had election and Abiola still won. It is possible if we gave the people on our side opportunity to succeed despite all the boobytraps in the  electoral acts.  The time table is okay as far as I am concerned.  What will make the difference whatever the antics of Bola Ahmed Tinubu can be is what my aspirations might as a person,  it is where the Nigerian people stand, if they are aloof,  If they are disaffected, if they are pathetic, then democracy  is not going to take root.

Peter Obi just expressed uncertainty of clinching the ADC presidential ticket, does this not show how poorly organised the opposition parties for 2027 if Obi can’t get nomination of his party? 

I dont understand. Why should politics and democracy rest on the personal mobility of an individual.  It is not relevant.

Who is not relevant ? 

All these names are not relevant to the question of the day,  whether one person is a pathetic politician moving from shop to shop, it is not relevant.

How can you say he is not relevant when he did brilliantly well in 2023? 

Nobody did brilliantly well because even the president who is there now; even though he has the highest vote, because of a very tiny single digit mandate from Nigerians.

But today he is the president of the nation.

That is why he is not carrying anyone along as he is aloof.

That is your personal opinion.

I will assume you brought me here to say my personal opinion.

But you should be constructive. 

I am giving you my objective opinion about somebody whose  economic policy is lost, somebody whose ministers say they are not getting their even one percent or two percent of their capital vote as it is in the budget, whose economic policies have not led to employment,  who cannot handle insecurity.  The import of that is that the next person who wants to be president  has to have a deeper connection to the people, has to have substantial participation of the voters. I want to be president with at least 40 million votes. I don’t want to be president with 8 million votes.

Do you have what it takes to get there? 

You will have what it takes to get there if you have what the Nigerian people want.

Do you have what the Nigerian people want ?

I have what the Nigerian people want and honestly understand their issues but I don’t want to grab power, snatch it and run away with it. Who wants to go and debate issues, who wants to carry them along and who wants to make sure that  on election day every concerned Nigerian is there voting? That is why we are have been complaining about the electoral act so that people can come out and i pray that Nigerians should come out so that we can have at least 75 percent turn out in the electorate so that whoever get the majority will have substantial involvement  because the task ahead requires the people of Nigeria to dig themselves out of the hole and contribute to the solution of the country with their productivity and to do that they have to, believe in the government and that is why all the names you mentioned  are not the way to go. The way to go is to mention the issues at stake and the understanding and the  relative differences about these issues do that  if we have an election based on issues that touch on the lives of Nigerians  that addresses their deepest concern for the country. That is the focus of he SDP. There are many people that have joined the SDP  that we don’t make celebration about, some state houses of assembly  have substantial shift towards the SDP.  If you say you are joining the SDP  we just tell you to go to your ward.  We don’t have former this, former that, when all the expired credential people said they wanted to join us, we said join us to do what? Tell us what you want to do,  when they couldn’t convince us, we said we can do away with you.
We are not interested in all these personality parade. We want issues and principle, ethics and commitment.

Will you be contesting again in 2027? 

By God’s grace I have told my party that I want to be the presidential candidate of the SDP in 2027 and I want to win it for the Nigerian people on the platform of the SDP,  that is my prayer which is why I am working. In addition to that, I want Nigerians to treat 2027 not as a year of politician getting coronated, but as a year of  turning point in Nigeria because there is no more room in the direction we are going, there is no more room for insecurity, more poverty, unemployment,  more inflation, deficit in the economy,  more blackout, broken down infrastructure,  no more room for hospital that don’t function, what we need us to change direction and use the resources of the country to develop the country and to equitable distribute opportunities and participation  and ensure that Nigerians can be proud of their politicians and their leaders, the way the Catholic is proud of if the pope; that is how they should be proud of their president.

At what point has criticism become alarmism to the point of weakening the public confidence in the system?

The first chance to get things right,  to unite the country, to put people at ease  and to put them to work is the government.  If the government has failed like the government of the day,  previous government have failed relatively too, what does the opposition do?

This administration is about three years old, what are the indices on ground that would make you outrightly say the government has failed ?

I will assume the person understands basic arithmetic.  If you have a four years course in the University  and you have F in year one , F in year two,  F in year three, you cannot say I am new in this class because it’s a four year course.  The government does not have internal life. President Tinubu  by the grace of God and will of the Nigerian people  was elected in 2023, by 2027, his tenure comes to an end, that’s just a year to go. Any magic he wants to perform, any contributions  to make must be made now, it is important for us to tell him that the emperor is naked, the government is failing, instead of waiting for him to leave and start to blame him.

Are you suggesting that every absence from the country constitutes leadership failure ?

No. It’s just that president Tinubu is  a visitor to Nigeria.  He is  habitual traveler. You can count how many times he has traveled , hardly can you find a month that he doesn’t go somewhere  and the timing of his travel tends to be insensitive.  Apart from that he happens to have a peculiar case of incompetence in the sense that he has surrounded himself with people who cannot act in his absence  such that whenever he is out, you will see the gap immediately.  His security architecture is not tight enough.

Does the SDP have the financial muscle to contest the 2027 election ?

SDP does not believe in money politics. We believe in people’s politics  and where you have more people, you are likely to have more money,. Based on legitimate income, not diverting public fund, there are enough people here with legitimate verifiable income substantial enough to run election across the country. However, we have policy in our party on the maximum amount that you can contribute to the party because we want to make sure more people contribute than having fewer people or party of moneybags. Money isn’t our problems. We want credible election as we don’t know how to cheat or buy votes or rig selections because it’s not in our tradition.  We don’t support election that has violence and with intimidation.