With party primaries likely to hold in about a year and Nigeria’s 2027 presidential elections less than two years away, the Social Democratic Party is exhibiting confidence and talking about plans to defeat the ruling APC
Fresh political alignments have been activated in many circles with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) expecting several presidential aspirants already, according to the party’s National Secretary, Dr. Olu Agunloye
The ex-power minister said on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television.
Though he did not mention the names of the aspirants, he said the SDP can’t afford to lose any of the interested politicians to other parties.
Agunloye said loyalists of the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, have also approached the SDP to prepare the ground for the ex-Anambra governor who is yet to officially declare his intention to join the party.
The SDP chieftain said, “Obi’s people came to us to say if Obi comes, would you take him? Of course, we told them: ‘Yes’. I was in that meeting. Some of them are with us saying that they are preparing the ground, but you have to join SDP. You can not be in the Labour Party and be telling us Obi is coming without joining us. Otherwise, we can’t open our doors for you.
“But Obi may have no plan to come or he may want to come. People do all of this, but where we stand is that we must do well in our platform.”
Ahead of the 2027 polls, talks about an inter-party alliance reached a climax on Thursday, March 20, 2025, when opposition arrowhead Atiku Abubakar, alongside Obi, ex-Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai, amongst others, announced a coalition to oust incumbent Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) 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.
SDP’s national secretary Agunloye said the party’s “gates are open. So, if all of them want to come, we will take them”.
But he quickly added that the party won’t allow the newcomers to displace the landlords but would find a way to synergise the two groups and explore their collective strengths for the interest of the party in the next poll.
He said, “We will not allow people to come and sweep the people out from the place. We must synergise; we must maximise the opportunities because these are people with a lot of experience.
“Whatever anybody wants to say about El-Rufai, you can not take his experience away, you cannot take his expertise away, and you can not take his energy away. And he has money because anybody who is able to win elections has money – whether he is able to raise it or has it from inheritance. So, it is a plus that he joins the party but we must find a way to work together with him.”
He disclosed that the party has a presence in all the 774 local government areas in Nigeria, and “those who want to come must follow the pattern that we have”.
Agunloye addressed speculations about alleged plans to remove him as SDP National Secretary, clarifying that his petition to the IGP was strictly about threats to his life and not connected to former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s reported interest in joining the party.
“It is true that I petitioned the IG. It has nothing to do with El-Rufai joining the party. It also has nothing to do with my alleged removal. I petitioned because my life was threatened. A crime was committed,” he stated.
He specifically accused the SDP Chairmen of Plateau and Nasarawa states, Abubakar Dogara and Musa Danlame, of being behind the threats.
“Two people especially, the Chairman of SDP in Plateau State, Abubakar Dogara, and the Chairman of Nasarawa State, Musa Danlame—they tried to frighten me, to harass me so that I can leave. They also said I should leave because I am undergoing trial at the court.
“The trial I’m doing is not for an office committed during my tenure. The offence was committed before you were born. For a useless offence being robbed on me because I’m disappointed—‘you should have been on my defence’. After the Chairman intervened on their behalf, I thought everything was okay. But they came again. This time now with a letter.”
Agunloye also weighed in on the political crisis involving the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, Rivers State Governor Sim Fubara, and President Bola Tinubu He criticized all three, arguing that their handling of the situation lacked depth and foresight.
“It is a very disappointing moment for me. It’s a sad moment,” he said. “My party’s official position is that the action of the president is unconstitutional. It’s really unwarranted. And, above all, it appears that the government or the president did not think it through. Like it was hurriedly done. It was hastily done and badly done. It may have consequences.”
He further asserted that all parties involved failed to manage the crisis properly. “In my own personal view, there are three players here, and none of them did well. One is Wike himself. The second one is Fubara. The third one is their father – the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They didn’t handle this thing well at all.”
