National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) Malam Shehu Musa Gabam, in this interview with EMEKA NZE, says there’s no national leader in SDP and warns that both old and new members should abide by the rules and not to be dishing out preconditions before joining the party. He also speaks on sundry issues.
Mr. Chairman, there has been much discussion about a coalition or alliance involving different political parties. Members of the public want to know whether your party will be the instrument that galvanize this coalition or alliance.
It’s not about the party, it’s about the willingness of who wants to join the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to make up their mind that yes, we found the SDP, we like it, we want to abide by the code of conduct of the party. The SDP is a very strong institution and we are positioning it to be like ANC of South Africa where the party is supreme, like NPN, during the Shehu Shagari administration, with the manifesto of the party, so that whoever is the elected president would abide by the manifesto of the party, not that he would bring his own private manifesto outside what the party has, to change the narrative and the standard of living of Nigerians. For instance, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) manifesto was never implemented, people started implementing their own personal agenda. The same thing is happening to APC, none of their manifesto was implemented, people are implementing something they can wake up from the sleep and start implementing with no recourse to the party manifesto. So the mistake of the PDP and the APC is what is giving us the courage in SDP to change the status quo and come up with a model that will protect every Nigerian and protect the system itself.
Some members of your party seem to be uncomfortable with some people coming to join the party. Is this true?
Who are the members of the party, not comfortable with anyone joining the party?
Okay, for example, we heard recently that the National Secretary, Olu Agunloye, said some persons were trying to force him to resign. How true is this?
No, it’s not true. Did he say so? He did not say so. The person he’s talking about is not an exco member of the party at the headquarters. They had a misunderstanding with two party chairmen in his state and he was on air few days ago and explained it vividly. He petitioned two people in the state to the Inspector General of Police (IGP). So it has nothing to do with the party.
Again, the former presidential candidate of the party in recent media interview has been talking that those joining the party should drop their ego and also should know that they were not in any way fighting with the current President. I’m assuming that there is a friction already caused by the new entrants. What’s your take?
No, if there is a friction, you are the one creating the friction. The former presidential candidate of our party is not a spokesman of the party. The party has its elected members in the NWC. We have spokespersons here. Apart from that, the constitution of the party is very clear. Let me read it to you so that you will understand. “There shall be a national chairman of the party who shall be the Chief Executive Officer of the party”. So we don’t have a national leader.
The national leader of the party is the chairman who is also the Chief Executive Officer of the party, okay? So we have so many people who have contested under SDP before who are willing to come back. SDP is open for all Nigerians. We know the process. We are trying to run an institution. We are not new to it. It’s not about making public statements. If we had not maintained our standards, perhaps we wouldn’t have been here today. So we know the processes and we understand the processes and we have implemented them. I was one of those who fought for the restoration of democracy in 1999 from G7. I don’t see anyone who has CV better than me in this politics right now. They can’t tell me these are the processes or these are not the processes. You know, one thing about people is that a lot of people like showbiz. But as a party, we are well-entrenched in our system and we abide by the rules of our own system. So people should be very careful how they talk because efforts have been made in the past to see that SDP have issues. We blocked all those loopholes. We have the antidote to some of this rubbish. And we are capable of facing any situation. After all, political parties are about crises and crisis management.
How do you intend to harmonize all these different political personalities who are probably coming to your party? Are you ready to welcome them and to ensure that they don’t inject any kind of crisis in your party?
Absolutely. We are ready to welcome them; and we are welcoming them. They are coming. Maybe if you have picked the statistics, I have over 300 resignation letters from different states of the federation. Some of them were ministers, some of them were senators, some of them were House of Reps. Some of them were governors who have resigned and joined SDP. It’s just that we don’t make noise about it. But we have the resignation letters. Some of the resignation letters are in social media all over the place.
So our doors are open. And our conditions are simple. You want to join SDP? It is Simple. Go to your ward and register. Collect your membership cards. Then you are a member of SDP. We will also send updated member registers to INEC for record purposes. And then you are free to contest from councilor to president. There is no obstruction at all. What we said is that we don’t want precondition. Because precondition leads to crisis. It’s a foundation for crisis. And we say we don’t want merger because merger is designed to create crisis. We don’t have the resources to meet our conditions.
Like instance, anybody who is coming with a group, we say you give us this, you give us that. We don’t have it. We are trying to build an institution that will accommodate all sorts of Nigerians. Irrespective of where they come from. When we are building this party, we didn’t give condition. People that are sacrificing here are not on salaries. Okay? Nobody should come here and tell us that, oh, we have condition. If you have condition, you will return to your party that you were before.
It’s because you lost control of where you are. Your crisis was too much. You are looking for an environment that is conducive. If you are coming into a conducive environment, don’t come with virus. That’s what we are saying. We are welcoming everyone.
Party is about crisis and crisis management. It takes a fool to think there will be no crisis. But the capacity to contain the crisis is what defines a political party or leadership. So we are not afraid of crisis wherever it will come from. We had it before. Probably you forgot. We were in the court for five or six years. Court struck it out. Okay? We went up to Supreme Court between Donald Duke and Jerry Gana. If you read the judgment of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, it’s the same reference that other parties are using today. We liberated some of those black spots.
So what you’re saying is that every position in your party, I mean, tickets, all tickets are open to be contested?
All tickets are open. All tickets are open for contest. All are open for contest.There are no reservations. My own seat is also open for contest at the convention. Like I said, we want to build an institution. You will not understand something. I was part of those as the youngest Nigerian from the G7 to G18 to G34 that led to the registration of PDP. It pains me that that institution has been crippled. It’s not about the institution. It’s about Nigerian institutions that have been destroyed. It’s about our freedom, all of us, that have been destroyed. A party that has ruled for 16 years has been decimated. No responsible Nigerian or Democrat will be happy about that.
None! So we should strengthen institutions, not to kill institutions because of some parochial interests. It will affect all of us, irrespective of what you do because if we choose democracy, which means the environment for you to function has to be created politically. If there is no conducive environment, the journalism you are doing, you will not do it. So once you allow the system to be modelled by a few individuals who don’t believe in transparency and accountability and the rule of law, we will all be victims. No one will be spared. Dictatorship will key in. Then I wouldn’t know the difference between it and the military regime.
As an opposition party, what do you think you would have done differently if you had won the presidential election in 2023?
Everything would have been done differently, because the constitution is very clear. One, protection of the live and property of Nigerians. Once we are elected, irrespective of your party, it is no longer about your party, because you were sworn with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to abide by the rules. Okay? Securing every citizen is your primary responsibility as President and Commander-in-Chief. Two, you create a friendly, conducive environment that is inviting for both domestic and international investors.
And you will create deterrence for those who feel they are above the law. Nobody is indispensable. The moment you allow people to feel they are indispensable, you will never have peace. It is the reason you have non-state actors challenging the state of Nigeria. It is the reason you have commissioners of police, directors of SSS in the states, brigade commandants. A major crime will happen without tracing them.
It is the reason you see people kidnap children and others in the school in large numbers as if they are ants. You put them in your hand and they disappear. It is lawlessness. It is not because we don’t have competent people in Nigeria. We have them in excess. When you don’t engage them, you don’t deploy them, and you don’t have skillful people around, you will fail as a President. It’s not about you as an individual. It’s about institutions. And that’s why there are ladders there. There are divisions of levels. Because the expectation is that you will have weakness as a human being. Somebody has to strengthen where you are weak. That’s what governance is all about. But the moment you apply principle of monopoly in running the government, you have failed already. So that’s just what we are saying.
If your party was in power, would it have handled the Rivers state situation differently?
What did the Constitution say? Did the Constitution provide powers for presidents to suspend elected governors and elected state assembly members? There’s no such provision in the Constitution. I’m not the only one. Virtually every legal mind, international community, have contended.
You can declare the state of emergency; Jonathan declared state of emergency. Was any governor or elected member removed? So there are processes that are known to the law. You can’t apply impunity, recklessness, and rascality simply because you are the President and Commander-in-Chief.
There were presidents before you. And we have presidents who died in office. The incident was there as a lesson to everyone. Those who beat their chests that nothing will happen, they are ignorant of nature. You can’t confront nature. You can’t step into shoes that are not your own. So if they feel that they cannot reflect back and get their memory right, there will be a lesson. A serving president lost election. A serving president placed a call and conceded defeat before INEC announced the election. That is a lesson for the nation. It’s a lesson for the nation.
A serving president wanted to go for third time, Nigerians did not agree. Often people are underrating average Nigerians on what they are capable of doing at the last minute. Once they enter the office, they believe that all is done and the President and Commander-in-Chief, nobody will move. People are moving, people are coughing, people are reacting. There’s nothing you can do about it. The Constitution protects them. But some of you have to say the facts the way they are because you have the archives, you have the history. What is the essence of recycling things that don’t work for the country? What is the essence of protecting people because there are interests attached to it? Is the interest helping you? Do you have a different market? Do you go to different schools? Do your children go to different schools that you don’t pay for it? Do you have free buses that convey you around? Don’t you buy fuel? Don’t you go to market to buy foodstuffs? So it’s not about all these sentiments and emotions that led us to where we are today. We have to outgrow all these emotional issues and face the business of building a nation where all of us and our children can be grateful to us. That’s what we are into in SDP.
What is your party doing to bring back some of your members who left the party?
Was there any statement from SDP that we are not going to get them back or they came here, we chased them back? Many of them have come back. Many of them came here and we have brought them back. We are a political party, and the court described it as an association. If you are not happy with the conditions of the association, you are free to leave. That’s the judgment of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. A political party is like an association. You join willingly and if you are not comfortable with some of the rules and regulations, you are also free to leave. A court cannot impose the decision of a political party. These have been the Supreme Court’s judgments. Time and time again, the learned justice echoed it.
That’s why I say you have no jurisdiction. It’s only a convention that determines the leadership of parties. But when you cut corners as leaders of parties, you create room for litigation. Then you are responsible for it. But the court cannot impose decision on a political party. Recently, at the Ondo gubernatorial election, 48 hours to the election, a Court of Appeal imposed gubernatorial candidate on Labour Party. Where does it happen? The law says party sponsors candidates. Judiciary is sponsoring a candidate in this country and we think it’s a normal thing? Are we are a responsible society? Is that what we think as an opposition leader?
The President withdrew my security And you said you people are for justice, a right of every Nigerian? Did any one of you talk about it? I wrote to the IG, I reminded the IG. Up till now, my mobile policemen were still withdrawn. Only me, in the guise of the fact that IG said all mobile policemen attached to people should be withdrawn to be deployed to crisis areas. But only mine was withdrawn. For three months now, for three months.
Didn’t you make it public?
I made it public. There is no media station that I have not spoken to. You are running a system and the government can narrow down to an individual, single individual? You think of intimidating or harassing him because I’m doing my job as an opposition party? And you think we are running a country that is decent, that respects the dignity of human beings? This is about all of us. It’s not just about me.
When the National Assembly endorsed the state of emergency, why didn’t you ask your members there to oppose it?
Do I need to ask them? The party’s position was made known before the National Assembly decided. We said it clearly there was a breach of the law. There is no provision of the law that approved or gave the President the power to suspend an elected person or persons. We made it very clear. But you know the kind of system we are running. You know the quality of people we have at the National Assembly.
There is no institution as strong as the National Assembly. If the National Assembly was doing its job, oversight function, some of these things would never happen. You would never see them happening. They have so much power to an extent they can impeach a President. They can impeach a governor. Where is the deterrence? The only time I knew we had a parliament that checkmated the executive, was when Ghali Na’abba was a Speaker. Late Ghali Na’abba, then when Chuba Okadigbo was a Senate President, when Bukola, to some extent, was a Senate President. To the best of my knowledge, maybe you know better, that was the only time you saw the arms of government operating independently.