Leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Prince Adewole Adebayo has dismissed insinuations in some quarters that the party had become a beautiful bride for disgruntled and internally displaced politicians seeking refuge.
Adebayo maintained that the party remains a movement driven by young people and women who want real change in Nigeria.
He noted that it is normal for people who are not satisfied with the state of affairs to find a remedy to such dissatisfactions by going to places where they think they could have a platform.
He, however, stressed that the first set of people who are not satisfied and who have chosen the SDP are the poor masses of Nigeria because, according to him, “the problems in our governance impact the people more than the elite when you talk of hunger, unemployment, insecurity and rising factor costs among other social problems.”
He also said they cannot prevent those who want to join the party from doing so, irrespective of such people’s ambition. He said: “We cannot criticise people’s motives for coming. A political party is a public institution, like a church or a mosque. When somebody’s presence is marked in a mosque and wants to pray, you cannot say, where were you last night? Where have you been during your life? Let them pray.
“If you come to a church, you sit at the pew and you say you want to kneel and pray, the pastor cannot say, wait, I saw you at the nightclub last night. He has to allow you to pray. So, coming to the mosque to pray does not mean that you will be made the Chief Imam. Coming to the church to pray doesn’t mean you are going to be anointed as a bishop, but you are free to come because it’s a place that allows everyone to come.”
Credit: Vanguard
