•SDP’s Wadada: No Space for Opposition in 2027

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State yesterday, attributed his support for the second term bid of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027 to the economic reforms his administration has initiated and implemented since May 29, 2023 in the country.

Soludo made this known while speaking with newsmen shortly after a closed-door meeting with President Tinubu at the State House.

In the same vein,  Senator Aliyu Wadada,  representing Nasarawa West Senatorial District, on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), yesterday, declared that there would be no space for the opposition political parties to contest the position of president in 2027.

But asked why he opted to endorse the President for a second term even though he belonged to the opposition Alliance Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Soludo, who canvassed the unity of all progressives in the country, said: “I don’t have any apologies about it.”

According to him: “President Tinubu is my friend. He has been my friend for 22 years now and counting. So, you don’t deny your friend. I began to be quivering about who he is. He is my friend.

“I support him, and I’m impressed by the bold steps he has taken, particularly in the areas of the economy, the structural reforms, and I have said so severally times, we’re taking the right steps and we need to stay the course.”

On what he has been doing to tame insecurity in his state, the Anambra governor said: “If I have to tell you all the details about what we have done, it involved a holistic approach to the issue of security.

“If you realise, in January this year, we passed our Homeland Security Law, which is trying to deal with insecurity from the foundations. All the deadly native doctors are on the run from the state, because these are the guys giving false hope and so on and deceiving our young ones and luring them into criminality and all of that.

“But very fundamentally, we’re approaching it very comprehensively, what they call the kinetic and non-kinetic approaches. The Kinetic is gone and the usual, but the non-kinetic, especially with what we are dealing with, the youths, the empowerment, the job creation.

“We have a unique programme for one year through skills that is like no other; where we trained and empowered about 5,000 of them, and another 8,700 will be receiving some billions this month or next month. And we’re creating several thousand youth millionaires right away within the first three years.

“This is cascading all over the state. The youths are very much involved. And we’re also dealing with the issue of hardship, beyond the massive infrastructural transformation, beyond fixing our schools, fixing our health and so on and so forth.

“We’re also very intentional about the economic and social empowerment of the youth. So, we’re doing quite a whole lot; the kinetic, the intelligence gathering and those who run foul of the law definitely, will be decisively dealt with”

Also, Senator  Wadada representing Nasarawa West Senatorial District, on the platform of the the SDP, declared himself a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) despite having not formally defected to the party.

Wadada also said there would be no space for the opposition political parties to contest the position of president in 2027, emphasising that no candidate has what it takes to defeat President Bola Tinubu.

The Senator who disclosed this while speaking with reporters after meeting behind closed doors with the president at the State House, described the PDP as one of the ingredients put in the pot to cook the APC, saying he has not seen any member of the coalition African Democratic Party (ADC) that might do better than Tinubu if voted into office in 2027.

According to him, the ADC coalition party was “membered by Nigerians that we respect, we have respect for. But look at them. Look at each and every one of them who stands to do anything better than what Asiwaju Bola  Tinubu administration is doing. Tell me, I haven’t seen any.

“Ask any of them if you are given the chance to preside over Nigeria, that may come beyond 2027 maybe after 2031 because between now and 2031 anybody can say what he or she wishes to say, but the space is already taken, occupied by President Asiwaju, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

“Who amongst them will have the courage, the impetus to tell Nigerians and the world that if I am given the opportunity to preside over Nigeria, I will return subsidy?”

Clarifying his stance, he affirmed his support for President Tinubu’s leadership, not out of sentiment to their shared APC roots or personal relations, but due to Tinubu’s transformative agenda, which has brought unprecedented changes despite resistance to change by some quarters.

Wadada cited infrastructure projects such as the Sokoto-Badagry and Abuja-Kano roads and the transformation in the Federal Capital Territory as tangible evidence of the administration’s commitment to national development.

He thanked President Tinubu for honouring him with a national felicitation during his turbaning as the Maga Jindengi of Lafia early in August.

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