Ahead of the 2023 general elections, Mr Adewole Adebayo, the presidential flag-bearer of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), has ruled out the option of alliance or merging with any political party.
Adebayo made the statement while speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Friday.
He said that the party had no plan whatsoever to merge or forge an alliance with any other political party, although the SDP appears to have limited scope and influence in the current political landscape.
According to him, the SDP are underdogs but will never merge with another political party ahead of next year’s election.
“We’re underdogs, but we will never enter an alliance or merge with any other party in the current scheme of things,” Adebayo said, disclosing that the party would soon spring surprises that would amaze political watchers.
Adebayo said that the party had come a long way, having won a previous presidential election that was later annulled by a former military ruler, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, in 1993.
Commenting on the face-off between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the presidential hopeful argued that poor governance and endemic corruption were central to the continued inability of the feuding parties to resolve their differences to save the education sector.
Adebayo said that if elected president, he would ensure that the government would have no business running the universities, noting that the running of universities should be the sole responsibility of universities’ councils.
According to him, universities’ funds should be controlled by governing councils of the universities, a development he said would give the universities freedom to run their affairs in learning and research.
Adebayo described the recurring ASUU strikes as “a showdown between ASUU and contractors in government’’, lamenting the negative impact of the endless strikes on the future of the nation.
