2023: SDP Vows to Rescue Kwara from Bad Governance

Hammed Shittu

Ahead of the 2023 polls, the Kwara State Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alhaji AbdulAzeez Afolabi, has said the party is poised to wrest power from the All Progressives Congress (APC) over what he called mis-governance; in order to provide participatory and inclusive leadership.

Already, Afolabi said the leadership of the SDP has dispatched mobilisers and party men that would enlighten the grassroots on the need to have an alternative leadership in the 24 members of the state House of Assembly, nine members of the National Assembly and crowned it with the governor of the state.

Speaking on behalf of the newly elected executives of the party at the wards, local government and state levels yesterday, the chairman said: “The present administration in Kwara State has failed to meet the yearnings and aspirations of the people as promised during the O To Ge (enough is enough) Movement that brought the APC-led government to power during the 2019 general election.”

Representative of the National Working Committee (NWC), Joseph Abu, served as the electoral chairman of the congress.

He said: “The ugly development has continued to have a serious toll on the residents of the state, and that is the reason the SDP as a party has come to provide an alternative platform for Kwarans to bring new ideas and opinions that would usher in new governance that would transform the state into economic prosperity and well-being of the rural populace.”

Afolabi added: “I want to tell you that the SDP will replicate the ‘Otoge’ movement of 2019 elections against the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government in the 2023 governorship and other elections in Kwara State.

“The victory of the current state Governor, AbdulRaman Abdulrazaq, in 2019 was facilitated by our group when we were together in APC. We were the strong advocates of the ‘Otoge’ movement.

“Even though we moved out of APC, we still have our structures across all the 16 local government areas of the state. We believe that we will forge ahead.”

The SDP chief also assured the state that the party would present men and women of substance for the victory of the party in 2023 elections.

He said: “The current dispensation is different from the previous ones. This time around, personality matters. SDP will present people of substance in the 2023 elections across board to represent our party.”

He promised that all aspirants of the party would be given a level playing ground, saying: “I am a broad-minded person. I believe in equity, fairness and justice. As far as I am concerned, all members who are aspiring for one position or another should go to the field and work.

“It is the output of their work that will tell us who will be the standard bearers of our party.

“The party will give everybody free opportunity to operate without any interference.”