As political campaign intensify ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has said that it would not be involved in renting crowds for campaign rallies during its electioneering.
The SDP National Chairman, Alhaji Shehu Musa Gabam said this Thursday in Abuja at a reception organised to celebrate the National Honours Awards conferred on two members of the party, Olorogun Keneth Gbagi and Prof. Wale Suleiman by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
He asked Nigerians to ignore the support base or membership figures being brandished by other political parties.
While Gbagi, who is the Delta State governorship candidate of the party was awarded Order of the Niger (OON), Suleiman, the party’s Kwara South Senatorial Candidate, was honoured with the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) award.
“Ignore those figures, they are fake. We have the support of Nigerian masses and voters,” Gabam said when asked on the number of supporter the party has compared to other parties.
He also said that only a holistic restructuring of the country could solve the numerous challenges bedevilling it.
According to Gabam, elections are not about crowd renting, the party would rather give priority to major issues affecting the country like insecurity, education, and collapse of the health sector among others.
He also assured Nigerians that the party will soon make public a complete list of members of its Campaign Council, saying the SDP “don’t want to be a copycat”.
“Elections are about issues not about crowd renting. It is about dealing with major issues that affecting Nigeria like the issue of insecurity, education, assistance, collapse of the health sector. So we are dealing with issues first before renting crowd, because basically politics are about renting crowd.
“As a party, we are strategic in our operations. We’ll be dealing with strategic issues that affect every one of us. We will unveil our campaign council very soon.
“We are going to start from zonal Town Hall meetings where everybody will have access to our candidate and ask him questions. The party will also respond to virtually every issue. We don’t want to be a copycat. We have our own timetable, programme and we will unveil them at the right time. Nigeria is in a very delicate situation, so it not about rush hour but about doing the right thing and putting the right thing in place,” Gabam said.
