We won’t rent crowd to win elections – SDP

The Social Democratic Party on Thursday said some of the political parties which have kicked off the campaign for the 2023 elections were renting crowds to deceive Nigerians that they had been accepted.
The party said that it would not be involved in renting crowds for campaign rallies during the electioneering period, and also declared that only a holistic restructuring of the country could solve the numerous challenges in Nigeria.

The national chairman of PDP, Shehu Gabam, stated these at a reception organised to celebrate two of its members who were recipients of the National Honours Awards conferred on them by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), in Abuja.
The beneficiaries were the SDP governorship candidate of Delta State, Olorogun Keneth Gbagi and the governorship candidate of Kwara State, Prof. Wale Suleiman.

While Gbagi was awarded the Order of the Niger (OON), Suleiman was honoured with the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) award.
Gabam explained that elections were not about crowd renting, adding that the SDP would rather give priority to major issues affecting the country like insecurity, education, the collapse of the health sector among others.
He assured Nigerians that the SDP would soon make public a complete list of members of its Presidential Campaign Council, saying the SDP “don’t want to be a copycat”
Gabam said, “Elections are about issues, not about crowd renting. It is about dealing with major issues that affect Nigeria like the issue of insecurity, education, assistance, and the collapse of the health sector. So we are dealing with issues first before renting the crowd because basically, politics are about renting the 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 timetable, programme and we will unveil them at the right time. Nigeria is in a very delicate situation, so it is not about a rush hour but about doing the right thing and putting the right thing in place.”
Speaking on restructuring, the SDP chairman maintained that the structure and composition of the country have changed compared to what was obtained in the past.
“During independence, the population of Nigeria is about 30 to 35 million. Today, you are dealing with over 200 million Nigerians, you must restructure.
“We must amend the Land Use Act to allow states to generate revenue and take care of their bills in the state and give some to the federal. So, we must restructure, it is inevitable. There are no two ways about it. If we want to move forward, deal with our population, we must do that”, Gabam said.
While applauding the Independent National Electoral Commission, for adopting the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, he expressed confidence in the ability of the commission to deliver free, fair, and credible elections in 2023.

Gabam described the BVAS as classic and unique, noting that the innovation would ensure a reduction in voter apathy.
He said, “This is because why we’re having voter apathy is that some people feel that their vote is not going to, count. With the BVAS system where they will be a finger or visual captured, things will change for good. INEC can also go further and announced the number of accreditation in each polling unit to all people that are around that particular polling unit. This is will give them more credibility.

“INEC has done marvelously well. Never in the history of INEC, we have had this kind of transformation. However, beyond that, INEC is not the one to deploy security agencies to ensure there’s a conducive atmosphere for the election to take place, that is within the purview of the president and Commander-in-Chief. He controls the security apparatus and he is the one to ensure that there is law and order virtually everywhere. So INEC is interdependent in terms of deployment of security, but in terms of supply of the needed material for the election, yes, they are independent.”