How SDP leaders worked with APC to create ‘false opposition’ – Vice Presidential candidate

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) vice-presidential candidate, Usman Bugaje, has alleged that some leaders of the party worked with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to create a “false opposition” within Nigeria’s political space.

Mr Bugaje, a former member of the House of Representatives, said the leadership crisis that recently rocked the SDP was largely driven by the alleged relationship between some party leaders and the ruling party.

He said, however, that the crisis had now been resolved following three victories secured by the party in cases that reached the Supreme Court.

Mr Bugaje spoke during an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday.

Asked about the series of court cases involving the SDP, including the dispute involving former National Chairman Shehu Gabam, Mr Bugaje said the party had overcome the legal challenges.

“We are confident and we have put all this behind us. Today we were in the Supreme Court and we won the last of the cases that have represented the spanners that are being thrown into our works time and again,” he said.

“But we have now closed everything. We were in the Supreme Court three times. But we have won all the cases and we have put all these things behind us.”

Mr Bugaje said the disputes were primarily about the leadership of the party and alleged that some of its leaders had been working with the ruling party.

“Yes, it’s all over now. The crisis is largely about the leadership of the party,” he said.

“The leadership of the party, we discovered, has been in cohort with the ruling party. And they wanted to create those kinds of false oppositions that would be supporting the ruling party.”

His allegation comes as the SDP positions itself for the 2027 presidential election with Adewole Adebayo and Mr Bugaje as presidential and vice presidential candidates, respectively.

The party recently unveiled its 2027-2031 policy blueprint, titled Farewell to Poverty and Insecurity, which focuses on security, productivity and prosperity.

Mr Bugaje said he had initially not planned to contest the election but was persuaded to join the ticket.

“I think it’s a heavy responsibility. But also, it is something that one has always been looking forward to, not necessarily being on the ballot, but basically confronting the perennial problem of this country in the last 27 years,” he said.

Why Adebayo?

Explaining why he agreed to run alongside Mr Adebayo, Mr Bugaje said he wanted the party to promote younger politicians and ideas rather than personality-driven politics.

“First, I feel we should promote younger people. And the most important thing is not just the youth, but the ideas. Because it is the ideas that really bring about the transformation,” he said.

He said Mr Adebayo had remained committed to the SDP despite the party’s internal difficulties.

“Here is a young man. If you look at even from 2023, I didn’t get to know him. I heard about him, but I didn’t have the opportunity to listen to him. But after that, first he remained in the party. He didn’t run away.”

Mr Bugaje said Mr Adebayo’s continued membership of the party demonstrated his commitment to its politics and ideas.

He added that after listening to him, he found him to be someone with “clarity, accuracy, precision” and ideas capable of transforming the country.

According to Mr Bugaje, Mr Adebayo joined the party in 1991 at the age of 19 and had remained a member.

‘We are not doing politics of big men’

Mr Bugaje said the SDP intended to depart from what he described as Nigeria’s traditional “politics of big men”.

“What makes it different is one, we are not going to do the usual politics, which is the politics of big men,” he said.

When reminded that he was himself a prominent politician, Mr Bugaje rejected the description.

“Not at all. I just told you. Remember that I’m an Almajiri. I don’t see myself as a big man at all. And I don’t behave like one,” he said.

“Even when I was in government, I never had an ADC.”

‘Farewell to poverty’

Mr Bugaje said the SDP’s promise of “Farewell to Poverty”, a slogan associated with the 1993 presidential campaign of the late Moshood Abiola, who was the candidate of the defunct SDP in that year’s presidential election, would be pursued by expanding opportunities for Nigerians.

He identified inadequate power supply as one of the major constraints on businesses and employment.

“There are a number of ways. First, the major problem in all countries in the world is the lack of opportunity. People have no opportunity to work,” he said.

“Part of the major problem is, in this country, the energy that fires the industry, the small-scale industry, is not there.”

Mr Bugaje also criticised what he described as the huge expenditure on the power sector without a corresponding improvement in electricity generation.

He recalled that while he was in Parliament, Nigeria had spent $13.5 billion on electricity by 2007 without a significant increase in power generation.

“When I was in Parliament, by the time we finished 2007, we had already spent $13.5 billion on electricity, and that was not improving on a single watt of electricity,” he said.

“Ten years or so after, or 12 years after, they had spent up to $60 billion. There was no substantial or significant improvement in the amount of power generated.”

Recent SDP policy statements have similarly identified energy costs and low productivity as major constraints to economic development. At the party’s blueprint unveiling, Mr Bugaje said high energy costs affected transportation, agriculture and other productive sectors.

Lower cost of governance

Mr Bugaje also said an SDP administration would reduce government expenditure and what he described as the “paraphernalia of politics”.

He said this would form part of his priorities if he became vice president.

“We are going there to stop some of these paraphernalia of politics. It’s part of what we want to do, reducing the cost of governance,” he said.

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“My security will be properly taken care of without all the terrible wasting that goes about it.”

What SDP represents

Mr Bugaje said the SDP’s political philosophy was rooted in social democracy and the principles contained in Chapter II of the Nigerian Constitution, which sets out the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy.

“This is one of the oldest parties and it has a certain content. We still need to build that content to represent the true social democracy,” he said.

“And that social democracy, by the way, are basically the ideas of Chapter 2 of the Constitution on the fundamental principles of directive state policy, which basically shows that governance is about people. It’s about improving the quality of life of people. It’s not about big men.”

He said the party opposed a system in which public resources were concentrated in the hands of political elites.

“It’s not about the kind of big contracts where big men simply syphon the resources of the country and leave the poor high and dry,” he said.

Mr Bugaje also criticised what he described as the dominant political culture among the ruling APC and other opposition parties, arguing that politics had become driven by personal ambitions and the pursuit of material benefits.

He said the SDP wanted to place ideas at the centre of politics while giving greater attention to young people and women.

He linked the party’s programme to the constitutional responsibility of government to protect the security and welfare of Nigerians.