‘El-Rufai Has Learned Lessons In APC’- Former SDP Presidential Candidate

The 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Adewole Adebayo has said former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has learned some lessons he will never forget in the ruling All Progressives Congress APC.

On Monday, March 10, 2025, El-Rufai, a northern political heavyweight and one of the strong support systems of ex-Lagos governor Bola Tinubu in the 2023 presidential poll, announced his defection from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to one of the opposition parties, the SDP.

Speaking on Channels Television on Tuesday, Adebayo described the new addition to the party as an asset with a proven track record of exemplary public service.

Adebayo extolled the intellectual sagacity of El-Rufai, a two-term former governor of Kaduna State, but said the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has some weaknesses to work on.

“The issue is that I see him as an asset, as a hard-working person and he has a verifiable and measurable track record of public performance,” the SDP chieftain said.

“What I believe is that he has his weaknesses which he needs to work on but I am not his mentor or therapist.

“What I know is that Nigerians have a bird’s eye view of El-Rufai, they will consider some of the comments that he’s made and some other aspects. Overall, Nigerians will say: ‘Here is a very good public servant.”

The former Kaduna governor said the APC has strayed from the dreams and vision of its founding fathers. El-Rufai was involved in the merger of parties that formed the APC in 2013.

Adebayo said El-Rufai was welcomed into the SDP. He said, “Nigeria is diverse and you will find patriots on all sides. It doesn’t mean that if you narrow the discussion to particular areas, I will agree with Nasir El-Rufai on many of them but I agree with the fact that he is a hard-working person and a highly intelligent person.”

The SDP politician lampooned the APC as a party of lousy people with the overriding goal of state capture.

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“I consider APC to be a lousy coalition of people who do not know what governance is all about and who are very good with politics of how to capture power.

 “When El-Rufai joined them, I thought that that was a loss to the more intellectual side of our society, and I am not surprised that he had a head-on collision with them on many issues,” he said.

Adebayo said it took some engagements to get El-Rufai to dump the APC and join the SDP. He said the SDP won’t accept some of the ideas that the former Kaduna governor has been used to over the years.

He said, “The idea of the SDP is that if you are going to be in charge of Nigeria, you need to persuade people; El-Rufai did not run or crash into our party; we had discussions with him, we had ideological interactions, and even now, there are works in progress – some of his ideas that he is used to over the years, the SDP will not accept, and we are working on that.

“But my welcome note to him is to say: this is the place you can come to; not that he is fit for every job in the SDP, or every position in the SDP but with time, because he has intellectual curiosity, he has the ability to test ideas and he knows that we are very strong when it comes to social services and social intervention; we don’t believe that you have to privatise everything – we believe that some should be left to the government.

“Don’t be surprised that you’ll hear in two weeks’ time, or in two months’ time, that Adebayo and El-Rufai disagree vehemently on an issue in SDP.

“He has what it takes to understand the SDP and he’s a hard-working person, and if we work with him, I believe that we can achieve specific outcomes that can be of benefit to the country and that is our focus.

“It doesn’t mean that tomorrow, we are going to have a meeting of the party and he is going to say something or push a position I don’t agree with, and I would say: ‘Now El-Rufai is now my buddy’. No.”

Adebayo said his party needs to aggregate all talents to throw out the APC in the 2027 poll. “We are going to give Nigerians a chance to defeat the APC and I can tell you that there is nothing good about President Tinubu coming back in 2027, he won’t do well at all; we have seen the record. So, the best thing to do is to be the platform that can make it easy for Nigerians,” he said.