JUNE 12 AND THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Can the SDP bounce back after 30 years? asks
Martin Iorsamber
It was on 6 June 2018 that President Muhammadu Buhari, the 15th President of the Federal republic of Nigeria declared June 12 the day of democracy in Nigeria. During the declaration, the president also conferred a posthumous title of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR) on Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. With this declaration, Chief M. K. O. Abiola has been officially recognized as the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election which has been adjudged as the freest and fairest in the history of the country. Before President Buhari’s declaration, June 12 was observed as a public holiday across the six states of the south west. With the presidential declaration, the day has been set aside as a public holiday throughout the country.
Chief MKO Abiola ran his presidential campaigns on the platform of the Social Democratic Party of Nigeria, commonly known as the SDP. It was created alongside the National Republican Convention NRC by then military president Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. During the third republic, the SDP was seen as a moderate party attractive to young radical intellectuals and socialists. In its manifesto, it called for concerted efforts to improve welfare and fight for social justice. The party manifesto cut across areas of energy, rural development, mining and petrochemicals, employment and workers’ welfare, education, defense and Police reforms. The party was out to end the issues of poor pay for workers and unemployment in the country. The SDP won 57% of Senate seats and 53% of House of Representatives seats in the 1992 National Assembly election.
The frontline members of Chief Abiola’s Social Democratic Party then included Atiku Abubakar, Jerry Gana, Abubakar Rimi, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, Umaru Yar’ Adua, Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila, Dapo Sarumi, Sule Lamido, Magaji Abdullahi, Tony Anenih, Lamidi Adedibu, Albert Legogie, Iyorchia Ayu, Fidelis Tapgun, Moses Adasu, Boss Mustapha, Bola Tinubu, Mohammed Arzika and among others. These people have joined other political parties in the fourth republic and left the ideologies of the SDP. For instance, Iyorchia Ayu is the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party; one of the Presidential aspirants of the SDP in 1992 Mr Atiku Abubakar is the presidential candidate of the PDP; Mr Bola Tinubu who was elected senator on the platform of the SDP in 1992 is now the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress. The SDP was then completely forgotten by the founders in the fourth republic. Even the governors of the southwest region who kept declaring public holidays on June 12, never remembered the SDP.
In 2014, a new party emerged in the name of SDP. It was formed by a coalition of 13 parties and contested posts in the 2015 general elections. A chieftain of the SDP and one of its first presidential aspirants, Chief Olu Falae was quoted to have said SDP was revived to address the failings of the two prominent parties; PDP and APC and to provide credible alternatives to Nigerians, as the SDP predates both the APC and PDP and has a history of winning elections. However, the winning prowess of the party is yet to be felt.
As we mark the 29th anniversary of June 12, a curious observer may ask, what are the possibilities of the Social Democratic Party gaining back her glory in Nigeria’s democracy in a situation where its founding members such as Iyorchia Ayu, Bola Tinubu and Atku Abubakar are taking prominent roles in other political parties? The answer lies in the hands of young Nigerians. In 1989 when the SDP was formed, most of its members were young people in their thirties, forties and early fifties. The party attracted young radical intellectuals and socialists who wanted a better country for themselves and their generation. Today, one may wonder if the youths or young people in their thirties and forties are ready to take over the affairs of the country for good by grouping themselves into an ideological movement like the SDP.
In the end, the baton still lies in the hands of young intellectuals, young business men and young socialists to rise up like Abiola and his comrades did. Abiola played his part and left, the problems he came to solve are still staring in the face of Nigerians. It is left for young people of the day to join ideological parties like the SDP and make it a viable platform. Luckily, the presidential candidate of the SDP Barr. Adewole Adebayo is also a young man who has just clocked the golden age of 50. It is therefore time to rally round the young people of Nigeria into one voice in reinventing the social justice platform under which Abiola won his election so that by 2023 during the 30th anniversary of June 12, Nigerians will be remembering the day with a president on the platform of the Abiola party and not necessary with a president who is one of Abiola’s friends.
Comr Iorsamber is Convener, Movement for Advancement and Peaceful Nigeria.
