Shehu Gabam is the national chairman of the Social Democratic Party. In this interview, he shares his thoughts on President Bola Tinubu’s administration, his party’s plan for the 2027 general election, his relationship with Nasir El-Rufai, among other issues. Excerpts:
What are your thoughts on President Bola Tinubu’s administration, now that it has been over 10 months since he took office?
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration is a bit more complicated because he applied for the job. If you apply for a job, it means you know how complicated the job is, you have an idea, you have a full brief; the large scale of the decay, the system you are going to take over from. It means that you have rehearsed, you have researched, you have proffered solutions, even before commencing your campaign, and you have come up with brilliant ideas on how to navigate through and solve the problems.
That is the expectation of anybody who wants to run for the position of president. We sympathize with President Tinubu because he cannot claim not to know that he inherited a collapsed system. He understood clearly that he inherited a collapsed system. Virtually all the structures of government were on their knees when he took over. The truth is that you cannot have any economic development anywhere in the world, no matter how beautiful your economic blueprints are without the political environment.
The environment must be conducive and inviting for the investors to come and invest in your economy. So, the political environment is very chaotic in the first place. Now, there is no deliberate attempt to douse the political tension and create a friendly environment. The political environment is very hostile.
Two, you know and you have the statistics of companies that are wrapping up and leaving Nigeria. Recently it was released, very alarming. Even domestic investors are relocating to smaller countries. The simplest thing that the nation needs to provide is an environment conducive for investors to come in. You cannot get that environment. We are sitting here, throughout today; there was no light (electricity supply). How can people operate in an environment where the temperature is very hot, not conducive, very distracting, and very drilling? How do they conduct business?
Also, will you bring your resources to an environment where first your resources are not safe; you are not safe as well? Have we ever had any nation on earth where human beings have been taken away like animals? Not like animals, like ants. Like you put ants on your fingertips and take them away.
There is no single state of the federation of Nigeria where kidnapping is not taking place today because it has turned into a business. From those who are participating in it, from the interviews that were granted, from their confessions, they say it’s a business; it’s a source of income for them because there is no other thing.
So, I will deceive myself to believe that President Tinubu will leave or will showcase anything within one year in office. I am a realist. I don’t see it. Just the way I say that it’s zero percent expectation 100 days in office, and of course, it was zero percent expectation. Now, you have a crisis of the budget. You have built a legitimacy crisis around the government; you have brought in people who have no experience to add value to you.
World over, leaders usually shop for value-added people; when you go and pick somebody who is not known, either to have an appeal because if you have individuals in government that have an appeal, it means you will attract more people to the government, that will give government listening ears. When you have people who are orators in government, it means that they will persuade more people to listen to the government and give them the benefit of the doubt.
When you have generous people, it means that they will attract more people to the government to believe that it will be better for them. When you have people who believe the life of the people must be uplifted, their standard of living must be improved. They will tell the President that the purchasing power is extremely very low. So, generally, things are in bad shape, and Mr. President needs to sit up.
What do you expect the President to do in these critical times?
What I expect President Tinubu to do is to send a supplementary budget to the National Assembly. That budget should be people-oriented. Let me give you statistics. If the money they spent on these palliatives; giving governors N2bn, N3bn, or N5bn, which nobody is sure what the figure is, if President Bola Tinubu had sought honest advice, if he had a working relationship with the governors, established centres to train three million plumbers, to train five million electricians, five million masons, 10 million furniture finishers, three million fashion industry, and buy the equipment and give them, he would have taken more than 60 million Nigerians off the streets.
Those 60 million Nigerians would also employ people to work with them. If you train an electrician, what does he need? He needs tools to operate.
Those tools might not be more than N20, 000, N30, 000 and you hand it over to him. If you train a tailor, what he needs is for you to buy the sewing machine for him; or a designer tailor, you buy a designer machine for him, even if he will be paying gradually, but you have created a job. That is a statistic America does every quarter that they have created jobs in this area, at this sector, at that sector. They are small jobs, but they keep the country busy; they keep their life going.
Also, if I am President Bola Tinubu, given the racketeering and profiteering that is happening in CBN, NNPC, Port Authority, and Maritime, I will do everything possible to ensure that those loopholes are closed. He can construct six superhighways that can link the six geopolitical zones. That alone will employ thousands of Nigerians. That will reduce the insecurity we are talking about. That will create a conducive environment that we are talking about, that will stop the high cost of flight because if the roads are of good standard and well-constructed, people know that they will arrive safely.
Now, if you want to leave a legacy behind, these are the things you need to do. I am happy I heard him mention it. I am happy that we mounted pressure; they are now investing in agriculture in Niger State. The SDP started mounting that pressure. I have maintained that the government must invest in farming. The government must be involved in farming because of a rainy day like this when we are struggling to feed over 250 million populations. If there’s food on the table, you are taking away insecurity. Those who decide to go into insecurity are doing so simply because they believe they have to be criminals to feed.
Do you have hope that this administration can achieve some of these things?
It is not a matter of hope or confidence. Look, I was one of those who believed that President Tinubu would be better than former President Muhammadu Buhari. I told Buhari he’s the worst President Nigeria has ever produced.
Yes, Buhari is the worst Nigerian President, but what happened in the last seven months suggests that they don’t understand where they are heading, or they have no people who understand what it takes to overhaul a system that was collapsing when they took over. What they needed was a radical departure from what they had inherited, a completely radical departure to rejig the system.
To give a deadline to security agencies by providing them what they need to curtail crime and criminality; Nigeria can do it. We have restored law and order in other countries. Nigeria excelled in Liberia, in Sierra Leone. You have the details. We restored law and order in Gambia; Nigerian personnel did that. And I believe we have the capability in Nigeria to restore law and order.
I believe something good will come out of this administration if President Tinubu changes a lot of people around him. I believe so. I still believe the President has a good vision for Nigeria, but he cannot achieve that vision without having supportive arms that can do it. Among all the ministers today, how many of them do you hear their names? In all honesty, between you and God, in FCT, whether you like (Nyesom) Wike or you don’t like him, you will hear him, you will see him working. So, Buhari is the worst, and President Tinubu can perform better if he changes some of these people.
Considering recent elections, do you believe that elections in Nigeria are improving?
No, because Nigerians are not aware, and you know Nigeria hardly does fact-finding on issues. Do you have an Independent National Electoral Commission? Do we have one? We don’t have one. We have the Executive Electoral Commission. Why do I say so? Simple, who appoints the INEC chairman? Who appoints the commissioners? Is it not the executive? Who appoints the national commissioners? Is it not the executive? Who appoints resident electoral commissioners? Is it not the executive? Who provides funding for INEC to convey materials to the polling units? Is it not the executive? Who creates the environment for INEC to conduct elections? Is it not the executive? The law, the Electoral Act, is clear. Unless the environment is conducive, INEC cannot deploy electoral materials.
Who is responsible for creating an enabling environment? Is it not the executive? So, what is the percentage of the role of INEC itself in the electioneering process? The only role INEC plays is producing the election materials, the ballot papers, the ballot boxes, counting of the votes, and declaring the winner. Look at it. I’m giving you a practical example. Even with the executive’s interference, the election would be declared by INEC, somebody won by counting the votes, and another arm of the government; the judiciary, would declare someone else as the winner. So, where is the independence of INEC? Where is it? The major instruments, the major fundamental instruments that define the independence of INEC are not with INEC, they are with the executive. I’m sure you are finding it very strange.
Political analysts attribute President Tinubu’s victory in the 2023 election to the division within the opposition. Is your party considering a merger or coalition with others for the 2027 elections?
Political parties are registered and if a party is registered, what the party is aiming at is to win elections, not to be subsumed by another political party. So, we are never part of that and will not participate in a merger. Merger is complicated because of treachery, dishonesty, and playing the smart game. You lure somebody into something, and you kick him out. We have seen it happen several times.
Mergers can only happen when the purpose is sincere. When there is a commitment, when we are determined to build a strong political institution, that’s the only way a merger can happen. It cannot happen because when you cheated me before, once, twice, why would I trust you? Why can’t I sort it out? Why can’t I fight it out?
So, the split of the People’s Democratic Party into multiple groups, interests, and conflicts of interests affected the chances of the PDP, there is no two ways about it. As for the SDP, we succeeded in some states. We won high-ranking senators and high-ranking House of Representatives members; we won state assemblies because we refused to compromise. There was an attempt to compromise our party chairmen, but I resisted it.
So, had it been that I compromised or collected money… I don’t want to mention those involved. Those who did it knew that they did it. But I will never be part of it. Rather, I should leave the party and go and join the party that I want to support. Why would I be here as a shadow trying to destroy the future of others while I’m supporting somebody else?
Is your meeting with former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai and others about 2027?
I wish I could understand the brouhaha behind it, because first, when Nasir El-Rufai came here, I didn’t know Nasir because of the All Progressives Congress; our relationship dated back before 1999 and we were all in PDP together when he was a minister of the Federal Capital Territory. Now, many people in the government have visited me in this office. Why didn’t they make the noise that they were defecting to another political party?
I know a lot of ministers that are my friends; the NSA is my friend. If the National Security Adviser visits here, does it mean that he is defecting? Does it make sense? Are we practicing democracy? Are we creating a friendly environment to strengthen political parties that won government? Why are we hostile to opposition parties that are even extending friendship? That election is over, it’s a period of development, and it’s a period to work. You are putting us on the spot because somebody visited us; it was a casual visit, and we extended that friendship.
He (El-Rufai) is a friend. I’ve not seen him for a while. Of course, we met, we broke our fast in his house, and thereafter, he said, ‘I need to visit you too because we have not seen each other.’ I said, ‘Okay, if you want to come to the office, fine.’ He said yes, he wanted to come to the office. It was a casual discussion. It took place; the NSA was there. So, will the NSA be part of a conspiracy against the government that he is protecting? Does it make sense? The NSA is my friend. Will I work to undermine him, knowing that he’s one of the major pillars protecting the President? Do I have mental issues?
Are El Rufai and others preparing your party for Atiku Abubakar or Peter Obi for the 2027 election? Have they reached out to you?
No, that is my party’s strictly confidential issue. It’s not for the public domain. We’re discussing with a lot of prominent Nigerians beyond your imagination.
You are in the SDP headquarters. You know I was in the PDP. Those in the APC, the PDP, and the SDP were all in one platform before. We know ourselves and we know what is going wrong. We have to go beyond partisan politics now. We have to be bipartisan in solving the Nigerian problem because partisanship has brought Nigeria into a deeper problem but has not solved the problem. So, we have to change the model. Looking at the SDP where you are seated today, is the PDP more structured, and more sophisticated than the SDP today?
Yes, they have more governors but in terms of structure, in terms of organisation, is the PDP better than the SDP? Is the APC better than the SDP? So, we invested our experience, and our goodwill in the SDP. That’s why the whole attention of the country is on the SDP today. We eliminated all those things that caused crises in the APC and PDP. If you are coming to the SDP, and you want to contest, you just go to the bank and pay for your form. There’s no other way you will bribe this, bribe that before you get your form. No, those things are out.
So, our party is in discussion with multiple prominent Nigerians. It cuts across all political parties. Why are we a political party? We aim to win the election. 2023 is over. The President has won; he has been sworn in. Now, our target is also to win the presidency in 2027. It’s the target of every political party, not just the SDP, including the PDP; they (the PDP) want to get power again, they want to take over power again. Why shouldn’t we (the SDP) deploy our skills to take it? What’s wrong with that?
Has Atiku or any of his allies reached out to your party?
My relationship with Atiku dates back. Maybe you may forget. I was the deputy director general of his campaign. We were together at the PDP conventions and all those things in 1999. Atiku has not reached out to our party for now. If the youths of Nigeria will stand by what is right, they constitute 70 per cent of the registered voters in Nigeria. The youth can produce from the President down to the councillor in Nigeria but because of the weaponization of poverty, some of them compromise the process and that’s what we are paying for today.
Are you suggesting that Nigeria doesn’t need an Atiku, who would be 80 years old in 2027?
No, I didn’t mention Atiku to you. But whether Atiku is young or elderly does not prevent any young man from running for election. After all, our presidential candidate was one of the youngest, Prince Adewole Adebayo, and it’s deliberate. We thought that the youth would take advantage of his young age and vote for him. It didn’t work. But then the channels are still open for the young and the old. So, since the young people don’t want to come together as a bloc, maybe they want to spread their votes.
So, you have an option of a young person who is vast, very experienced. Of course, you have an option of an elderly person who will be working just maybe six hours and sleep, and the country will be sleeping until he wakes up. It’s our choice. That’s why we have multiple political parties. A party can decide to put whoever they want to put. But the final choice of casting votes rests with the youth who control a large chunk of the votes in Nigeria.
How do you intend to strengthen this party and ensure you get the buy-in of more Nigerians in the 2027 election?
We are doing a lot; we are reaching out. We are consulting and we are telling everyone, let us build an institution. We are not focusing on any presidential candidate for now; we are focusing on building an institution that can deliver a credible candidate for Nigeria irrespective of where he comes from. We are not considering religion; we are not considering ethnicity. We are not considering zones. We are considering a Nigerian who believes in Nigeria.
So, the SDP is working to be the next alternative political party. I do not doubt that if we are alive, by the grace of God, we will continue to strengthen this party.
Don’t forget, this is the party that produced Abiola and Kingibe. This logo is one of the most loved logos in Nigeria; the horse. And it has the right leadership now that is target-oriented.
We don’t look at ethnic, religious, or regional factors in dealing with any individuals; we look at Nigeria as a constituency. God will not forgive me if I operate this party based on ethnicity or religion. Those who made me who I am are not my tribe people. They are collections of Nigerians of various tribes who imputed in me and made me who I am. My loyalty is to my country, not my tribe.
