Renowned human rights activist, social justice crusader and presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2023 elections, Omoyele Sowore, has scorned those who attempt to use the Social Democratic Party (SDP) as political refuge, calling it one of the branches of Tinubu’s “ministry.”
In an interview with TVC on Sunday, Sowore explained that before President Tinubu won the All Progressives Congress primary election, he had significant influence over the SDP. As such, Sowore argued that any efforts to use the SDP as a vehicle to challenge Tinubu in the 2027 elections would be futile.
“One thing I know and I will disclose here is that the SDP is a family of Ahmed Bola Tinubu as well. It is one of the branches of his ministry. So I don’t know if he has lost interest in the SDP, but if it was the SDP before he won the primaries of the APC, it’s going to be tough for this new entrance to get too far within,” Sowore said.
He further commented on the recent defection of former Governor Nasir El-Rufai to the party, suggesting that El-Rufai’s move may have been part of a strategy by opposition figures to understand the inner workings of the SDP. Sowore also claimed that El-Rufai’s experience with the party might not have gone as expected.
“I want to make another prediction; it may not come to a pass, it was like they sent El-Rufai to SDP as a circus. And it seems like when El-Rufai came, he was mauled by the first lion. I don’t know which lion mauled him, maybe it’s Adebayo or the SDP people who knew this was going to happen,” Sowore remarked.
Sowore also suggested that the momentum behind moving people to the SDP might dwindle due to internal challenges. “And I suspect that not as many people that were going to move over to SDP would do so, because I think they found out that there’s a turtle there that’s probably going to handle them differently,” he added.
Despite not being a member of the SDP, Sowore provided his insights into the political dynamics. “But like I said, I’m not a member of the party, but I’m just giving you my own understanding of the politics. I don’t know how far they can go considering these characters that are jumping over the place,” he said.
Sowore concluded by expressing his belief that the opposition coalition was not genuinely aimed at winning the 2027 election. Instead, he suggested that the coalition’s true purpose was to create distractions and negotiations.
“My own personal conviction is that this coalition is not about winning an election. I think it’s a coalition for negotiation. It’s a coalition to distract the Nigerian people, to create an impression that there’s going to be opposition to the current APC government, whereas these are APC operators,” he said.
