The Social Democratic Party presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Adewole Adebayo, says former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi are in talks to join the SDP.
Adebayo disclosed this in an interview with Channels Television on Sunday, April 6, 2025.
Adebayo said many politicians in the country, including Atiku and Obi, are ready to join the SDP ahead of the 2027 general election.
This is coming after former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the SDP.
The former presidential candidate said: “People are joining my party, and we are welcoming them. You can see how active I am in welcoming them. The only little issue we have with some of them is to change the culture where if you have not been in an environment where rules are taken seriously.
“Some of them are doing some Boy Scouts, black market operations, we are dealing with that. But we welcome them into the party. All these people you have mentioned, El-Rufai, Atiku Abubakar, and former Governor Peter Obi, are coming. A lot of people are coming, and we will welcome them.”
When he was asked to clarify if Obi is joining the SDP, Adebayo added: “Supposedly, until somebody joins, we don’t know. But people have told me, and the Financial Secretary has also informed me, that they are talking. So we will welcome everybody.
“Surely, when we come in, and we don’t become a tower of Babel; if we come in, follow the rules and allow one person to emerge transparently, clearly, without cheating, without criminality the way we did our convention in 2022, people applauded us transparently, no court case, no crisis, no allegations.”
Adebayo further expressed optimism that the SDP will defeat the ruling APC in the 2027 election, saying: “If they can stick to our culture and follow the way we do in the SDP and produce a good alternative to Nigerians, we are going to manifestly defeat the APC and retire President Tinubu to Lagos or wherever he chooses in Nigeria.”
