The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Prince Adewole Adebayo, has pledged that the party will rescue Nigeria from poverty and insecurity, arguing that the country has more than enough natural resources to achieve prosperity.
Adebayo spoke on Wednesday in Abuja at the SDP’s September National Convention, themed, “Consolidating the Blueprint for a New Nigeria to Secure Our Homeland and Defeat Poverty.”
He said Nigeria’s economic hardship was not caused by a lack of resources but by the failure of successive governments to provide visionary leadership and effectively harness the country’s wealth.
According to Adebayo, Nigeria has abundant oil, gas and mineral resources capable of supporting an economy that rivals those of major countries.
“If God wanted us to be poor, he would not deposit under us sufficient minerals that no civilisation in human history had got before,” he said.
Adebayo also linked the party’s current campaign to the SDP’s role in the political struggle surrounding the annulled 1993 presidential election, widely believed to have been won by the late Chief MKO Abiola.
He said the poverty the SDP sought to defeat at the time had worsened over the decades.
“The poverty that SDP fought with Nigerians’ mandate to defeat and eradicate in 1993, that poverty has grown up and has consumed babies,” he said.
He maintained that the SDP differed from other political parties because its members were driven by a collective desire to rebuild the country rather than personal enrichment or political self-glorification.
Adebayo said the party would pursue a grassroots campaign, including door-to-door mobilisation, to persuade Nigerians to support its agenda.
He urged members to reject transactional politics and unite around the task of rebuilding the country ahead of the 2027 elections.
“Our intention is known to God, and it’s simply that we will get Nigerians to accept that we don’t desire to be poor, and we don’t desire to die of insecurity. Everything we need to succeed is already here,” he said.
The SDP’s vice-presidential candidate, Prof. Usman Bugaje, also called for greater ideological commitment among party members, warning against a political culture centred on money and personality.
Bugaje said Nigerians should prioritise structural reforms over the pursuit of political influence or the size of a party.
“People should be here not because they want money; people should be here because they want this ten-page change,” he said.
He called for integrity, sacrifice and ideological clarity among SDP members, saying those qualities were necessary to address the country’s economic and security challenges.
