 The Social Democratic Party in Lagos collapses structure as party chairman leads state escrow to join the PDP. And Tinubu Obii Artiku make vague promises on security, even as the February polls draw near. This is Plus Politics. I'm Mary Anacoff. Leadership and members of the Social Democratic Party SDP in Lagos state earlier collapsed the party structure into the People's Democratic Party PDP ahead of the 2023 general election. The state chairman of the party, Ms. Dabiro Lua Adeinka, who led the party members and the state working committee and other leaders of the party to defect to the PDP revealed that the leadership qualities of the government candidate of the PDP, Dr. Abdulaziz Alajideya Deirang Jandor, his running mate, Olufunke Akin Dele, and the party's House of Representatives candidate in a tiered federal constituency, Hon. Olufunke Olufunke Olufunke Olufunke Olufunke Olufunke Olufunke Olufunke Olufunke, also known as Ban Ki-Woo, attracted them to the PDP as the only credible alternative to the inept ruling APC. While receiving the delegation at the campaign office, Dr. Adejingeral commended the defectors for taking a wise decision in the right time In the collective interest of the good people of Lagos State who have suffered untold hardship under the APC-led government. Joining us live to discuss this is Kunle Usman. He is the Lagos State Governorship Candidate of the Social Democratic Party. It's so good to have you join us, sir. And happy New Year's in order. I haven't seen you this year, have I? Same to you. Great. I was hoping actually that we would have been meeting on the better circumstance, but unfortunately today we're talking about people leaving your party. She had been quoted to say that she was looking for a more formidable party that would be able to stand against the ruling APC. Does that in any way mean that the STP is not formidable? Good evening. Good evening. So far, what we have is nothing but media drama and the usual of a plane of issues. I listened to her this morning and what I learned from the broadcast was she went to the party with 13 other people, 13. So when you talk about an executive in Lagos State that has 62 members, 62, and there are 13 people that are accompanied are, I do not believe that there is any issue but just to ignore the irritation, there was no leader anywhere in the SDP family Lagos State and I want to be contradicted. That was part of this particular drama that just took place. What happened? Diabera Oluwa and a gentleman whom I think I can only recognize, only one man there. I think his name is Mafuya. They are always together. Both of them went with some other people that none of us have so far recognized. There was nobody, no Diaputi governor, no state, no local government, nobody. So I think people went to SDP. So truly speaking, I congratulate them. But for me, I did not lose a wink of sleep over this issue because it had been there. And what I also listen to, she has been trying to determine our political fortune in the last two, three months and our activities within the party actually justifies this move. So there is no surprise. Me, I am no surprise. Nobody is surprising the Lagos State SDP family. But I congratulate her. She has acted in accordance with her constitutional right as copiously stated in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which gives every Nigerian the right of association. So if she believes she wants to associate with whom I did, I can do the Agenda, that's fine by me. But a new chairman will be announced in the next few hours. So you're telling me that overnight you lose a leadership of the party and according to you, few people that you do not recognize to the PDP and you do not lose a wink of sleep, 30 something days to the elections. Are you serious about this? You keep talking about leadership. The world leadership is a compound word and it's a bit of a complex that talks about a conglomeration of people. So you don't have one person plus one and 13 other inconsequential people move to another party and you keep talking about leadership. Get this straightened out. But she was a chairman of your party. Excuse me. Excuse me. Even if the father of a house passes on overnight, the family moves on. In our own case, she has joined another party, is one person. And I've just told you that we have always had the fear of being the SDP that this was going to happen. Where she is now was not where we thought she'll be. The assumption was she will have gone to another party. And I remember when I was a young man, she's young and listening to her. She said the attraction in PDP was youth. Youth. Right? That is the youth free age of Funghe and Jando. That was clear. And the questioner is our old presidential candidate is 50 years old. The presidential candidate of the PDP is almost 80 years old. So there's a contradiction in this connection. We can only sleep over this. We are a family. The SDP was formed in 1993. It was a party that won the Abiala election. It's the oldest political party in this country today that is contesting this gubernatorial, contesting the elections. So what's, there's no cause for alarm here. We cannot be alarmed because what we have, PDP, we congratulate them. We are glad that they are there. We are going to the polls. PDP will be there, APC will be there, youth party will be there. All of us will test our strength at the polls. Lady Anne, election is not about winning at all costs. Anybody who goes into an election with the mentality that I must win is a desperate person. We will participate in this election. I'm going to be at a co-club tomorrow. I'm also going to be in different places between now and we are going to start the open campaign. We are going to preach the message of, oh, ours is not a turn by turn mentality. Our own is not a course, you know, it is me now that will be, you know, we want people to listen. We know where we are in this country today. We know the price of oil. I bought petrol today in the black market and we have much I paid. We can't go anywhere. The cost of ticket is astronomical, going to Abuja and back anywhere in the world. So if you like, as a citizen of Nigeria that is holding your PVC, we believe that you are going to listen and you are going to take a dispassionate determination on which party you prefer. And we feel that we have a program to improve this state. We have a program to make life better for the people. So if somebody feels that she alone and 13 other people, they are happy with the PDP. I wish I know. She's a nice person. Okay. Let's go to some of the things you said before we go back to what she said in the interview she granted and her reasons for moving to the PDP. You talked about the fact that she's always been, you know, tilting towards political fortune. What do you mean by that? When you say... Me I said. Political fortune. I'm not even me. She said in the last two to three months, I also heard it. She's been trying to determine where a political fortune will be. Fortune is in court. It doesn't mean money. It could mean your prosperity. I could be in a certain school and I felt that I'm better off in another school. I would change. I could also be in a faculty in a school and I believe I should be in another faculty. Then I would change. It's still within our rights. If she sat down with this few followers of ours or admirers as they were and they decide we are going to be happier in another party, nobody can stop her. There's no need for any form of moral persuasion, no need for persuasion because she said she had the illuminating. Do you believe that money has exchanged hands? Do you believe that she was coerced one way or the other or that something was dangled in front of her for her to join? I don't make hypothetical assumptions. It's not in my character. I'm asking you a direct question. Do you think money has exchanged hands for her to move with the 16 or 30 people she worked with? The one money, you see, you cannot, when you say I don't answer hypothetical questions, I'm saying it with all sense of responsibility because you see if you are not sat in this room or in another room and we had the transaction, the only two people that will be party to that transaction, if it's you or myself, there will be no thought party. So there is no way I can answer this question. Whether money exchanged hands, whether money is the not exchanged hands is completely inconsequential. This is my point. If it was money, but I know I, she's a lady, we are in a good relationship. Dabira and I will call, we talk, we plan, I will miss her. But to see whether or not she got money from somewhere, I don't know. And truly speaking, it's not my business. She talks about the fact that the FDP was a learning ground for her. It was a learning face for her. It was building her up. So it seemed that she had graduated from your party to higher grounds. When you talk about higher grounds, you are looking at it from the perspective of one, two, three, four, five, six. There is no formula that has been devised in this country and this election to make this empirical arrangement. And when we go to the polls, it's the symbol of the party that will be there. It's not going to be the symbol of Prince Adewale or Bala Amethi Nubu or Tikuwabubaka or Peter Obie. Neither will it be the photograph of Jando, Chief Kule Uthman and any other person. We, it's a party driven matter. So for me, what she said was that she's from the Ansar's family. She's young and she joined the SDP. And now she's attracted by people like her who are in the Ansar's, which was Banki W. She mentioned a few names. Me, I also played my role in the Ansar's movement when it was there, when it became imperative to discuss the white paper on Ansar's. I was the one who dealt decisively with the issue. I was also part of the people that stopped the toll collection in Leki, Admiralty toll gate, and also the Osboni Coe. And me, I think I have a track record. And I believe that if you take me and Jando one-on-one, it was in government, the same government as myself. And I was a commissioner in government when it was just in the press call. Let's talk about what this means for the SDP going forward. Whether we like it or not, the party has lost some group of people. Whether you agree that these people. What does group mean? Well, I mean, she moved to the PDP, 15 people, 15 people. I thought when we hear defection in this country, we are somebody moved with 1,000 people. Somebody moved with 5,000 people. And you see a crowd. You see the governor receiving a mass of people, maybe in a stadium or somewhere. You will see everybody, they are receiving this, whether it's rent, but you see people there. But 13 people walk into a room and you see a group, you talk about crowd. Can we discuss something? But you started by saying that you have an executive of about 60 something. Yes. And if a certain percentage, which is 15, leaves that 60 something, you don't believe that that's enough to... No, I didn't say 15 people. I didn't say 15 members of the executive. What we saw, we could only recognize our own agent, the man called Mayowa, two, that's why the executive, the remaining 13, we don't know. So I didn't tell you 15 members of the escort. No, I said two. Two, because I've looked at the tape, I've replayed it several times and I could only see two. But maybe she should supply the list of the remaining 13 to give me a guide. Whether they are 15, whether they are 13, whether they have 20, is in consequential. We have a party structure. We are working. And if two, whether it's two or one person that left the structure, where do you start from to rebuild? Because of course, this person was in the leadership. That person has to be replaced. She has a duty that she was playing within the party. There's an acting chairman that was determined by the national. Today, it will act for maybe 48 or 72 hours. On or by Friday or Monday next week, we are going to give to the world an executive and a chairman and they will be able to make a balance whether or not we have moved forward or we are going in the right track. Do you worry that more of this might come within the party? Do you see more people leaving the party? Because again, you said you had been seeing movements. You had perceived that this was going to happen. Are there other perceptions within the party? No, I didn't tell you that. You said you have a way of dramatizing sentences. I didn't say that. I said in respect of our alone. I wasn't using the compound word, I was using singular. I said in respect of our, I didn't say people. The word people is plural. It was completely singular. But I have a question. Are you seeing such movements in other members within the party? Are you worried that this might happen in the future? Do I am not seeing that? It will not happen in the future, inshallah. It will not happen. What we are going to witness is going to be other people who believe in our ideology. Young people who were in the university yesterday I was represented by one of the assembly members. She received the Rouse Innovation. I'm going to be in other places. We are going to start our rally. We believe that as we move in the nooks and crannies of this state, we are going to win people over. And we are also looking at other parties, a collaboration between us and some other parties that have the same concept as us. The only two parties before close, they are the ones that we believe that they got us into this depth of mess that we have found ourselves in this country. We do not have a relationship with them. Don't ask what you mean. When you say a relationship, are you looking at a collaboration or a coalition? Is there going to be a collapse of party structure into another? What exactly do we need to be collaboration? So let us try and deal with those two words. The words are collaboration and cooperation. The other one is merger. Collaboration because they will work together. One is a step before you achieve the other. So one is the means to an end. So we need to first of all discuss and have a working understanding before we get to the next one. So we are at this stage one. When we get to stage two, I'll give you the privilege of you being the first person that I would tell. Does this mean that someone on radar? When I see you, it's going to be everywhere but I would just place a call to you and say, Meryem, you see, we are there. But we are poised to win this election and we are not there to jump. And when you say we, does it mean the SDP merging with somebody else to win the election or is it another party collapsing into the SDP? Social Democratic Party, legal state is poised and determined and we do all that is constitutional, all that is right. We are not going to do what they do. We'll do everything that is right to win this election. And we are hoping that... What is it that they do? What is it that you think they do that is not right, that you term as... I want to believe that, yeah, that the part of the political landscape in this country, for quite a little while, the election is always heavy monetized. There is always balustoffing and there are always so many other hanky-panky that politicians who have remained in power the last two decades have perfected over time. But we thank this administration, its excellency, Mohamadubari, for ensuring that these beavers has come to stay. The beavers has something that took about 10 years for INEC to perfect. I have listened to the INEC commissioners, I've listened to the chairman of INEC and I, my party, Social Democratic Party, with belief in the functionality of these beavers that they vote this time around the count. And when those votes count, the sincerity of those people that will vote will have a massive return of the social, democratic candidates in the national and state government elections in the further Republic of Nigeria. What are the chances, I can almost predict what a response is going to be, but what are the chances of the SDP, not just at the national level, because when we count the front runners and the people who somewhat will be pulled as the top guys, the SDP does not make the top five. But let's bring it to Lagos stage. You have the APC- Let's deal with the first one. I take the first one. I'm just going to add together, but let's bring it first to Lagos stage. You have the APC who's been the ruling party over time, a PDP who's been your position over time. And now we have the SDP, we have other parties, we now see the ADC, the PRP, all of them coming out for this race, which is now not making it just a two-horse race for Lagos stage, but what are the chances of the SDP being that? Many people have touted, some pundits have always said that the SDP only exists to do the bidding of a certain PDP. I'd like for you to respond to that. For me, for the Social Democratic Party, we are determined to contest and to win this election. Now your categorization, there is no empirical determination, no statistics to position parties in this country. What we have are those that are media visible. If you go through the streets of Lagos state, for example, you will discover that the APC, they have spent a lot of resources defacing the entire walls of this state, everywhere you find yourself, they are pasting their posters, very respective of the fact that in other countries this is done in a more civilized way. So they have acted like people who do not have respect for people's sense of sight and seeing. We don't need to be confronted by that everywhere. Now you leave posters, you go to billboards, you find everywhere. They have put billboards, they have put a million billsboards there. There's someone who arms up billboards everywhere. Now, take it from the state. If the state's government of Babaji, the someone who has performed well and they have scored themselves and in their hearts of hearts, they knew that they are delivered on their mandate, they don't need this. They don't need this because they are work with speak for them. Now, because they are being challenged now, they know they did not perform well, I am telling you that. They have performed badly because this state has become one of the second worst cities to live in on earth. Toxic atmosphere, traffic gridlock, collapsing building every day, every time. You can't go in, you can't come out of a papa. You cannot leave from one look at government to the other. Committing in this logos is complete, stand still. We are being entertained by their glory. They say they are going to have a blue red. Correct. But how many years do they take them to build this blue red? Because the blue red, as far as I understand it, I was in government of Lagos State. Start here from Babaji, what you need to write before Shala is excellent. See who is now the minister of works in housing. Acumen body, 12 years. Babaji did this on whole loop, three plus some months, 15 years. CMS to Kukumako. And we need them to tell us how much have they spent on this project from the beginning to the end. It has become a state whereby the money is so much and I think they just spend it. They wake up and they do what they want to live. Because every project in this city is always you do the end and then you start from the beginning. They've gone to put a legacy post there now. Which they have launched, right? Yesterday or today, the president came in. You have all sorts of conglomeration of heavy-duty businesses there, but there are no routes. So we complete, there is no bridge. Fort Mayland Bridge now they will, they have just signed some documents. How many years will they take then? So it's going to be necessary for people like us who live in that access to go and relocate to somewhere because the government has failed us as a people. That's just about the sitting government. Now I ask the question and I ask it again. Yes. How formidable is the STP against all of these other parties? Again, the APCS is the sitting government and I know the case that you're making that of course you think that they lost it. But now you do have, that's why I started by saying that you have not just the APC, but you have the PDP, you have the ADC, you have the PRP, you have several, you have the NRM. These are all the people that you're going to be standing up against. How formidable is the STP in this state? Being that again, there's been a little shake-up within your party. Interesting aspect of it is this APC you're talking about. APC is a conglomeration of political parties. APC, they used to be ACM. In that APC, you have ABGA, you have CPC, you have ACM and some other parties that had a working relationship to form and then they formed APC. So why this APC, APC thing? Now, in the wisdom of INEC, they have registered a certain number of political parties. And one of these political parties is this APC. You have PDP, you have so many people to contest the election. Some people have the finance, you understand, to spend and to disturb and to distort the media information. And I tell you, nobody has produced any information to do any rating. What we have been treated to by these two political parties, the first one, the media man here will abuse this man and accuse him of stealing, of robbery, of crime and also many things. This other person's spokesman will reply and he will discover that they are camouflage. The man who is abusing this man here used to be in this political party. The one who is also abusing is just a group of people that have not told us how they are going to get us out of this economic gulag. They have not told us how our lives will be. There is no manifesto. But I'm asking you, how we are going to get this election. Yes, I think so, Mary Ann. And how do you think it is? Now I tell you what, first of all, we are in a cerebral and intellectual campaign. This time around, it is not, time by time, the campaign for the 2023 election. It's cerebral. And I can vouch for my presidential candidate, Prince, I don't want to add it, but he was in the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs yesterday and he performed excellently well. And why did he go there? But I mean to you, we went to Chatham House. Peter will be Chatham House. Even the INA commission, I went to Chatham House. Why are we going to London to propagate the abuse of our nation? So we believe as a party that that's an aberration and it was nonsensical. And the better, our own Chatham House is the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs. He was there yesterday. He performed massively well and he's going to move from all the nooks and crannies of this federation. He has been doing it. And people are listening. Look, the people who are voting this time around is a youth population. They're very educated. They're people who have access to technology. They have smartphones. So they're not the people that we vote based on the facing of the streets, the world putting paper everywhere. I'm putting those books, they're intellectuals. If I was a voter, I'm not going to say I'm voting for A or B. I will listen. I will decipher. I will look at it. Who's going to give me a better life? This country, we have too many problems. And how did we get here? The PDP, the APC, APC, PDP, they got us into this place. I believe we should not think outside the box and vote the Social Democratic Party as we preach the message of hope to Nigerians. We are the hope. It's in the interest of, it will be good for us if we have a change of government. Okay. Well, I want to say thank you. Kulne Usman is the Lagos State governorship candidate of the Social Democratic Party. Always a pleasure to have you in this to you. Yeah, and always a pleasure to come in. And good luck on all your campaigns. Thank you very much. All right. Well, thank you all for staying with us. We'll take a quick break. When we get back, we will be discussing public safety and security in Nigeria. How well are we doing in that regard? Stay with us.