Adewole Adebayo, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), has predicted the ousting of President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 elections and insisted that Nigeria’s next president will emerge from his party.
Adebayo made this statement during an interview on Arise Television’s The Morning Show on Friday, where he asserted that the SDP was poised to take over the nation’s leadership in the next electoral cycle.
“Tinubu is going to be removed from power, that one is sure, and there would be an SDP president,” Adebayo said with conviction, painting a picture of a political landscape ready for a dramatic shift.
Reaffirming his own ambitions, the SDP chieftain declared his intention to contest for Nigeria’s highest office in 2027, expressing unwavering confidence that he would clinch the party’s presidential ticket no matter which political heavyweights join the party ahead of the elections.
“Let us understand something. I don’t worry about that; everybody who is coming in knows I will run in 2027. Any coward who feels threatened by people coming to his party cannot be president,” Adebayo stated, making it clear that he remains undeterred by the growing political realignments within the SDP.
His comments come on the heels of the recent defection of Nasir El-Rufai, the immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, to the SDP. El-Rufai’s move on Monday sent ripples through the political sphere, as the former governor began reaching out to key political figures in a bid to strengthen the party’s influence ahead of the next elections.
Despite speculation that El-Rufai’s defection could shift the balance of power within the party, Adebayo welcomed his entry, describing the former governor as a diligent and patriotic figure whose track record of effectiveness stands out in a government often criticized for inefficiency.
“The reason why I welcome El-Rufai to my party is that I see him as a patriotic Nigerian, hardworking, and very effective in an area where we don’t have effective people in government; that’s all,” Adebayo remarked.
