SDP pledges to rebuild Nigeria if elected in 2027 as Adewole Adebayo and party leaders tell youth delegates in Abuja to organise at polling-unit level
The Social Democratic Party national chairman, Professor Sadiq Gombe, and the party’s presidential candidate, Prince Adewole Adebayo, told a youth delegation at the SDP national secretariat in Abuja, Nigeria, on Friday, 18 September 2026, that the SDP would seek to rebuild Nigeria if elected in the 2027 general elections.
Also read: Ogun PDP Alleges APC Intimidation Ahead of 2027 Poll
Professor Sadiq Gombe was represented by the deputy national chairman, Senator Ugochukwu Uba.
The visitors were from the Confederation of West Africa Youth, led by regional president Israel Akinola.
Senator Ugochukwu Uba said the party’s ideology was drawn from Chapter II of the 1999 Constitution, which deals with the welfare and security of citizens.
Senator Ugochukwu Uba said rising youth interest suggested the message was landing, and that Nigeria had reached a point where reconstruction was required. “We cannot continue drifting. The SDP wants to put this country back on track,” Senator Ugochukwu Uba said, pointing to a manifesto presented to the public last week. That document, titled *Farewell to Poverty and Insecurity*, sets out the party’s 2027 to 2031 programme.
Prince Adewole Adebayo, a lawyer born on 8 January 1972 and the SDP flagbearer in 2023 as well as 2027, turned the meeting towards organisation rather than rhetoric.
Prince Adewole Adebayo told members that influence is won in neighbourhoods, not in polished speeches. “Politics is done in the neighbourhoods. We have 176,846 polling units across the country. Any amount of command of English you have that does not convince your neighbour about how they are going to vote is wasted,” Prince Adewole Adebayo said. “Politics is not a game of the mouth. It’s a game of the heart.”
Israel Akinola said Nigerians should look for a new political direction and argued that public and private actors should work together. Israel Akinola also criticised the habit of praising governments for delivering basic services that, in his view, are rights rather than favours.
The Abuja meeting comes days after the Supreme Court affirmed Professor Sadiq Gombe as national chairman, ending a leadership dispute, and weeks after the SDP adopted Prince Adewole Adebayo by consensus.
Also read: Ogun PDP Alleges APC Intimidation Ahead of 2027 Poll
The pledges remain campaign promises. Whether a smaller party can convert youth visits and a policy paper into votes at 176,846 polling units is the test Prince Adewole Adebayo himself set.
