Nasir El-Rufai Has Been Warned Against Hijacking SDP’s Existing Structure – Femi Olaniyi

The Forum of Social Democratic Party Chairmen has come out to warn Nasir El-Rufai to abide by the party’s constitution and desist from seeking to change the party leadership or its existing structure.

Lagos SDP chairman, Femi Olaniyi recently had his say at a press conference in Abuja, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, with or without an influx of new converts, Social Democratic Party is in no way seeking to change the leadership of the party or alter its logo and manifesto.

He added that new members must be admitted and registered through the SDP internal structures, and democratically elected structures of the SDP at the state and national levels must not be truncated or dissolved to appease new joiners.

His words, “We warmly welcome the influx of new members to our party, including prominent politicians from across the country, and we are committed to collaborating with them to ensure victory in upcoming elections. We acknowledge that some structural adjustments may be necessary to accommodate them.

However, fundamental issues such as changes to the party’s name, logo, insignia, slogan, or any drastic alterations to the party’s constitution or manifesto must not be undertaken lightly. Any such changes should be thoroughly discussed among NEC members before any action is taken.

Our democratically elected structures of the SDP at the state and national levels must not be truncated or dissolved to appease new joiners or at the whims of any individuals or interests. Elected officials should be allowed to serve out their terms.

We are not afraid anybody will hijack our party. We are welcoming the influence of new members into the party. But we don’t want those manipulators, especially from APC, PDP or Labour Party, to do a kangaroo registration for them.

We acknowledge that some structural right adjustment may be necessary. So we are going to harmonize and see how we can go about it. If you are bringing 30,000 people to my 40,000 structure, I cannot expect to have the chairman and secretary.

But we must go with it in a very rightful manner and allow the internal mechanism to decide the situation.”

WOW.