Leader of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, and the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has lamented the level of disunity in Nigeria, declaring that the country began “accidentally” as a trade zone rather than as a product of shared philosophy or national vision.
Speaking on Nigeria’s 65th Independence anniversary, Adebayo said the nation’s foundation lacked the guiding hands of great thinkers or unifying figures who could have forged a collective identity from its diverse ethnic groups.
“If you study the history of some kingdoms, some countries and some societies, it will be indigenous warring tribes or groups, disunited by many factors including politics, but united by culture. And a great leader rises among them and says, let me unite my people. That’s not the history of Nigeria. Nigeria started accidentally; there are no great philosophers or great thinkers within our population who said, oh, let us all come together. Let me unite people,” he said.
Adebayo attributed the country’s persistent disunity and governance failures to its evolution from a colonial business enterprise rather than a consciously built nation.
“So, Nigeria started merely as a trade zone, just like you have a free trade zone or export processing zone; it’s a zone. It is like the arbitrariness with which they created areas for discos. We created Lagos disco, Ibadan disco, Benin disco, Yola disco and others,” he said.
“So that’s how Nigeria was to the Royal Niger Company. It was just a trade zone. Let’s have this trade zone and those trade zones are different kingdoms and communities and all of that. And somehow for the efficiency of the business, they decided to hand it over back to the British government and run it as a protectorate and part of it as a colony.”
He added that the eventual amalgamation of the protectorates in 1914 and subsequent independence merely transferred control from colonial powers to inexperienced local elites.
“And then after a while, they ran it as protectorates, you know, next to each other. In 1914, they said let’s amalgamate together. So, but 46 years later, the people who put it together just said, we’ve had enough of it, let’s hand it over to the locals now. And young people who had never run anything before, but who were united by the philosophy that these are indigenous people, right from Herbert Macaulay in Lagos, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ahmed Bello and others took charge,” he said.
Adebayo expressed optimism that the SDP, which he described as an independent and ideologically distinct party, was prepared to steer Nigeria out of its current challenges.
He said the party’s philosophy was fundamentally different from that of the major political blocs.
“It is very rare to find a true SDP person who will have interest in the APC or the PDP because the idea of what they are doing is totally opposite to what the SDP is preaching,” he said.
On preparations for the 2027 general elections, the former presidential candidate disclosed that internal dialogue and restructuring were ongoing to strengthen the SDP and insulate it from saboteurs.
“When I ran for president, there were elements that worked against us in the party. There were party agents who would not show up and state chairmen who collected our agent card and then went and gave it to another political party,” he said.
“I went to Kwara and discovered that from our research sheets, we scored 122,000 votes, but they recorded only 22,000 for us and the people who were working with us; who were supposed to protest and do everything, thought that they could have a relationship with the ruling party and then they messed that up. So, we’re changing those leaderships, we’re bringing new people in.”
Adebayo said the ongoing reforms were aimed at building a political movement driven by service and patriotism. “So it takes a while to get a political party, whose majority of members will be people that are selfless, patriotic and in politics because they want nothing other than a better country. That’s what we are building in the SDP,” he said.
