Peter Obi is planning to join the Social Democratic Party
In a statement released on Sunday, Adewole Adebayo, the presidential candidate for the Social Democratic Party in the election of 2023, revealed that his counterpart from the Labour Party, Peter Obi, is planning to join the Social Democratic Party, following in the footsteps of Nasir El-Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna State.
Adebayo dropped a hint about it when he appeared as a guest on the Politics Today program that is broadcast on Channels Television.
A number of Nigerians have expressed a range of sentiments in response to Obi’s association with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and other opposition politicians. Many of them have speculated that Obi is abandoning his party.
However, the former governor of Anambra State has stated on multiple occasions and in a variety of settings that he is committed to remaining a member of the Labour Party. On the other hand, Adewole stated on Sunday that he had it on good authority that Obi was going to join the Special Democratic Party.
Adewole 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, even former Governor Peter Obi are coming. A lot of people are coming and we will welcome them.”
Is Obi joining the SDP?
“Supposedly until somebody joins, we don’t know. But people have told me and the Financial Secretary (SDP) 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.
“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.”