SDP charges youths to reclaim Nigeria, ending complacency

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The Social Democratic Party (SDP) has urged young Nigerian professionals to take full responsibility for the national political process, arguing that the country’s economic and security challenges present a unique opportunity for generational leadership and national rebirth.

The party made the appeal on Wednesday evening in Abuja when it received members of two youth organisations, Young Professionals for Social Change and Confederation of West African Youth, who paid a courtesy call on the party’s presidential candidate.

Speaking at the occasion, SDP presidential candidate, Prince Adewole Adebayo, accused the youths of shunning defeatism, religious divisions and elitism, stressing that Nigeria’s main struggle stemmed from leadership complacency rather than lack of talent or natural barriers.

“I congratulate you for inheriting the greatest legacy any generation can receive, which is Nigeria,” Adebayo said.

“In settled communities, young people are scratching their heads wondering what to give because all the problems seem solved. In our case, we have a country to build practically from scratch. For me, this is a great opportunity.”

Adebayo, who told the youth that he joined the SDP at the age of 19, criticized governance models that focus on individual brilliance over a unified purpose centered on chapter two of the Nigerian Constitution.

“Single shiny parts do not make a car. What we are trying to do with our work in the SDP is to sell a common philosophy to Nigeria,” Adebayo urged. “The reason why it is difficult to eliminate poverty, insecurity and unemployment is that the well-being of the people is the last thing on the present government’s mind. You have no choice but to love Nigeria because Nigeria is the only one you have.”

Addressing leaders and members of the West African Youth Confederation, Adebayo charged youth across the sub-region to take active responsibility for the political process, saying lasting progress in development depends on grassroots mobilization and goal-oriented leadership.

The SDP presidential candidate appealed to the anti-colonial legacy of the West African Students’ Union in London in the mid-20th century, urging young people to replicate that historic unity of purpose to reverse the continent’s history of underdevelopment.

“Everything that leads to the independence of Nigeria, everything that leads to the call for the British to leave, to decolonization, happened when the West African Students Federation met in London,” Adebayo said.

“They were much younger than you; ‘We need to go home and get independence and govern ourselves.’”

Highlighting Nigeria’s central role within the sub-region, Adebayo stressed that real political influence must translate into community-level voter engagement rather than abstract rhetoric.

“Let’s go back to our districts. Politics is done in the neighborhoods: 166,874 electoral units,” urged Adebayo.

“Any command of English that you have that doesn’t convince your neighbor how they’re going to vote, any influence you have from Timbuktu to Accra that can’t influence how people vote in the community you come from, that influence is academic. Politics is not a game of the mouth; it’s a game of the heart.”

Also speaking, SDP vice-presidential candidate, Prof. Usman Bugaje, said Nigeria’s development crisis is rooted in a systematic lack of political will and leadership competence.

“The main problem in this country is the lack of political will to do the right thing, and the lack of competence in the leadership to know what to do and do it correctly,” Bugaje told the assembly.

On his part, SDP National President, Professor Sadiq Gombe, challenged the visiting youth leaders to actively organize non-voters in all constituencies and warned of voter apathy as Nigeria heads towards becoming one of the most populous nations on earth.