Alhaji Shehu Gabam is the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). In this interview with TAIWO ADISA, he speaks about his disappointment with the administration of President Bola Tinubu, the failings of the All Progressives Congress and declared that ahead of 2027 politics, his party has become the beautiful bride. Excerpts:
We’re almost two years into the administration of President Bola Tinubu, I recall at the inception that you vouched for him to do well as president. How will you rate his government so far?
Well, those were my projections for the fact that I was in Lagos when he was the governor. And I saw the level of performance and the kind of cohesion in leadership when he was the governor of Lagos. Two: my backup fact was that he was elected senator under SDP then. And when the military aborted June 12, they went into exile when Abacha was the head of state. So anybody who has this background and has been around the corridors of power and was privileged to be a governor for eight years has been part of shaping the political future of Nigeria. And at that age, was privileged to be a president of Nigeria. The simple assumption is that he’s not looking for luxury cars, he’s not looking for luxury houses or anything. His duty is to serve the country, is to leave a legacy behind. I’ve never thought that the Bola that I know will be ethnic champion in terms of leadership. Considering his ethnic base. Perhaps he’s copying what President Muhammadu Buhari did during his administration. But if that was a plus, Buhari would have been the best president Nigeria produced. But despite the northerners that dominated Buhari regime, Buhari ended up being the worst president so far. Perhaps Bola will perform worse than Buhari in the way things are going. Because when Buhari left, the cost of fuel per litre WAS about N200. Today we are talking about almost N1,000. The skyrocketed prices of foodstuff were unprecedented in the history of Nigeria. The security situation that we thought they would handle because they campaigned on it is nothing to write home about. Well, we thought that being a civilian president, his first responsibility is to equip the Nigerian police force because the Nigerian police force is ill-equipped. And then internal security of Nigeria lies with the Nigerian Police Force. We haven’t seen what he has done to equip the Nigerian Police. So a multiple of issues, you know, cracked our thoughts that Bola will be the saviour. He will build a new wall in Nigeria. He will build a new generation, a new thinking, a new dimension to the whole space. And he will create a political environment that is inviting for both domestic and foreign investors. Unfortunately, the reverse is the case.
Apart from the ethnicity you talked about, the government has praised its steps in the economic front as necessary, like pains of childbirth, don’t you agree with that?
Which steps? When you are saying that, are you trying to suggest there’s an improvement in the economy. The statistics of economic improvement are physical. They are not theoretical. They are being elitist about it by generating statistics. But those statistics are not on ground. There is no any measurement that suggests that the economy is improving. There is no cost of living that have improved so far. Rather, poverty is eating deeper. A nation that used to feed itself is no longer feeding its population. Our food supply chain has dropped. The cost of fertilizer is over N50,000. So how do we expect an average farmer in the village to procure a bag of fertilizer and increase food production? And then what is the interest rate? The essence of CBN is to improve the financial sector. They have increased the interest rate. So if you go and borrow 10,000 naira to invest in a business, you will end up losing the entire thing and you will end up selling your properties to pay the debt. It cannot even pay the debt. Look at the inflation. Look at the fluctuation of the currency. So how do we run an economy where today, in one week the currency will fluctuate about three, four times? So if we import a good at the cost of 2,000 naira, within one week it will have fluctuated to a cost of 2,500 naira. So how do you stabilize economy with inconsistent policy of currency fluctuation? Naira has turned to a dustbin.
But data from the CBN would not agree with your submissions…
Why would the CBN say so? But the CBN killed the economy. If the CBN was doing okay, why would he constitute a committee to investigate the CBN? Why are they persecuting the former CBN governor? And what is new that this CBN governor is doing? What policy shift has this new CBN governor introduced? Was it an independent arm of government? CBN is part of an arm of executive. So if he can take decisions that are not complementary to local economic development and invite foreign investors he is doing more harm than even the man who left it where it was.
Now the oil sector is one area that the government is praising itself. They said that the Port Harcourt an d Warri refineries are back on stream and then we also have local refinery with Dangote. Are those not indices that the economy could be heading the right direction?
Well, I don’t know why it took them over 20 years. The investment, the quantum of money. Former President Buhari invested in Port Harcourt refinery. In any case, what quality of petroleum products, and other products are they producing in Warri and Port Harcourt refineries? And, why try to create an environment that the private investor cannot come and invest and feel free? Why witch hunting of Dangote? Thousands of people have been employed in Dangote refinery. He did not steal the resources of Nigeria and invest outside Nigeria. Yet the system is not protecting him. Now you have government refinery with Nigerian citizens, funds been injected there for decades and there are no results. But I also saw when they were pleading with independent marketers to start going and collect the product in Port Harcourt. So if it was easy and there’s a comparative advantage that it will be cheaper for them to get it in Port Harcourt than the one in Lagos, certainly nobody need to beg them to go and take the Port Harcourt products. There’s no country that I have known that does not subsidise one thing or the other. Every country subsidises certain things for its citizens. You see, transportation is subsidised by every responsible government. Education is being subsidised by every responsible government. Health is being subsidised by every responsible government. Infrastructure and other issues are part of what government subsidises for the citizens. Because not everybody has the resources to pay the bills. But in our own case, in Nigeria, the reverse is the case. The subsidy, the product that God had given us, we are surcharging Nigerians instead of subsidizing for Nigerians and that affects the entire strata of the economy, including transportation sector. No government ever succeeded when sycophants took over.
Are you talking about Presidential Liaison Officers, PLOs?
Exactly. You know, so you don’t have that now. We condemn, we destroy the entire structures.
We are beginning to see the influx of political bigwigs into your party, is the 2027 race starting already?
Well, I’m not going to speak on behalf of anybody. But as a party, as a responsible party, we are open to all conversations. What is fundamental to us is our country. How do we preserve our country. How do we create political space? How do we create an environment that gives everyone a sense of belonging? SDP stands for that. And therefore, if political actors saw SDP as an environment that will accommodate them, that they will achieve their ambition, but patriotically, fine. So you only saw a few, but there are more people that are coming here virtually on daily basis. They have a broom that cannot sweep anywhere. So we are certainly ready to accommodate all that is needed to keep Nigeria together.
We’ve seen loyalists of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, we saw Otunba Segun Sowumi and also former governor Nasir El-Rufai and others, is a merger in the offing?
You need to speak to them on that. I am not the spokesman of anyone of them. But I can tell you that this is not the first time Segun Sowumi came here. We’ve been comparing notes on a lot of issues. We’ve been in the battle together in PDP trying to rescue PDP. Mallam Nasir, Major Al-Mustafa, Segun, Senator Gada and a host of others were here and that set the social media agog. But there are more, people that have been coming here. We decided not to be public because of individuals that are coming for so many reasons.
So why is your party the beautiful bride?
Well, you know, our record has been very outstanding. Even if you go to INEC and check, SDP has a distinct record. In all the states, we have a distinct record. This party was audited by INEC; it was audited by outside auditors. We also comply with the law. We publish the accounts of the party in two national dailies. I think it’s the only party that I’ve learned so far. We are very transparent in our dealings. Now 2025, January, we started well by unscheduled visits that you saw here. Which means our intention to see a greater Nigeria is emerging. For me, I’m happy and I’m grateful to God that people are now realizing that we cannot weaponize our electoral process and change it from value process, decent process, transparent process, to a purchasing process as if we have to buy goods, that we have to sell goods. This is the lowest a nation can go through. And that is the distinction between military regime and democratic governance. In a democracy, you don’t go close to buying votes, which means you have no difference with the military regime. So the best that can happen is for us to allow the process to develop at its own pace. And the best that could happen is to change and checkmate the moral conscience of people that are in strategic positions that are allowing the country to collapse today, including executive, including the National Assembly that is not checkmating the excess of executive, including the judiciary that is allowing every rubbish to pass away. And who are those that are paying for it? All of us are paying for it. From the executive to National Assembly to the judiciary, all have been victims of one crime or the other. So which means corrupting the system has a consequence that is beyond what we can control. It destroys a generation and it destroys our democracy. The biggest democracy in Africa. Today, Ghana produced one of the decent election Nigeria couldn’t produce. Are we not ashamed? We have over 100 million registered voters. We end up with about 8 million voters to produce a president. How do you define legitimacy? And who do you blame? Because Nigerians don’t have confidence in the electoral process anymore. They feel that going out to cast their vote is a waste of time. How do you change that narrative? How do you restore their confidence back into the system of their own country? How do you restore their confidence to believe in their own franchise that the constitution has provided? This is a challenge. Not for me as a head of the party, for all of us, all Nigerian citizens. There is no single political party that have progressively advised this government more than SDP. There is no record today progressively advising this government on the way to change some of the policies that have no human face. Two, we contributed tremendously to the stability of the political space when we were in turmoil before the pronouncement of the winner of the election, the parties came together and ensured that INEC was allowed to do its job and pronounce a winner. Okay. Three, I was among the first parties to organize a press conference and advise those who have lost to go to court, which is a constitutional thing because we want stability in Nigeria. So as a party we have been faithful to the country and we are not surprised stakeholders are recognising that.
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