A combined photo of Nasir El-Rufai and Adewole Adebayo
By Akeem Atoyebi
The Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 Presidential election, Barrister Adewole Adebayo has heartily expressed his excitement as he welcomed the former Kaduna state governor Nasir El-Rufai to the party.
Describing the former governor as avid worker for the people, he said “On behalf of the teeming members of the
@TheSDPNg
and patriotic democrats who believe in Nigeria and her promise of inevitable greatness, I heartily welcome my dear brother @elrufai
to our party.
“With the hardworking and sagacious Mallam joining our ranks, an avid worker for the people has been enlisted in our forces against poverty and insecurity. Now is the time for us to put our collective shoulders behind the efforts to fulfil Chapter 2 of the Constitution and rescue Nigerians from bad governance and underdevelopment to restore #HopeAgain 2027 to the suffering masses callously left behind in the locust years of the @OfficialAPCNg
and its co-traveller@OfficialPDPNig
He stated that “All genuine democrats and true nationalists who believe in order, decency and honesty are welcome to the
@TheSDPNg
where we are governed by law, not men, constitution not constipation of money or personal ambition. Together, following the law, the constitution and manifesto of our party, we can set a good example of clean and ethical politics to emulate and rally Nigeria to the forefront of the liberation of Africa and peoples of the Black World. Good politics begets good governance. Let no one sit on the fence any further. There is no time to waste. Join us on the March Again! God bless Nigeria.
After weeks of speculations and denial, the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory finally joined the SDP referencing growing misalignment between his personal values and the current direction of the APC as the primary reason for his decision.
El-Rufai made this known in a press statement released on his X handle on Monday, where he expressed his disappointment with the APC’s leadership, accusing the party of straying from the progressive ideals of its founding members.
“As a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), I have fond memories of working with other compatriots to negotiate the merger of political parties that created the APC. Since 2013, I have hoped that my personal values and those of the APC will continue to align until I choose to retire from politics.
“Developments in the last two years confirm that those who currently control and run the APC do not desire to acknowledge, much less address, the party’s unhealthy situation. I have raised concerns in private and, more recently, in public regarding the party’s capricious trajectory. Therefore, at this point in my political journey, I have come to the conclusion that I must seek another political platform to pursue the progressive values I cherish.
“Founders rightly feel attached towards institutions they helped create, but one must be pragmatic enough to admit when a divergence appears unbridgeable. I have diligently served the APC and made my contributions to its viability as a political platform, but I recognize that the party has since strayed and left me stuck in the vision of its well-meaning founding fathers and mothers. As a loyal party man, I worked to help secure the APC’s election victories in 2015, 2019 and 2023. I was one of the many governors elected on the party’s platform in 2015 and 2019 that stood for certain democratic and progressive principles to advance nation-building,” he stated.
