Presidential ticket: S-West PDP group rejects zoning

…I won’t allow issues like zoning divide us — Olawepo-Hashim

…Vows to rebuild damaged bridges of national unity

By Dapo Akinrefon & Luminous Jannamike

LAGOS— A group of South-West leaders in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday, rejected the party’s decision to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South, declaring support for Dr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim.

This came as a PDP Presidential aspirant, Dr. Olawepo-Hashim, yesterday, promised to  repair the damaged bridges of national unity occasioned by the manipulation of Nigeria’s ethnic religious fault lines by desperate and failed politicians who use divisive strategies such as zoning and other extra constitutional measures to hold the nation’s polity to ransom.

The South West PDP leaders, who met in Lagos under the banner of the Gbenga Hashim Solidarity Movement, included representatives from Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun and Lagos states.

Their position came following the PDP’s 102nd National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting in Abuja, where the party zoned the 2027 presidency to the South.

Speaking after the meeting, the South-West coordinator of the group, Alhaji Abass Olaniyi (Osun) said the group’s stand was based on competence and inclusion, not sectionalism.

Olaniyi said: “The South West will not sit idly by while regressive forces within the PDP try to truncate the aspiration of Dr Gbenga Hashim through unconstitutional zoning. Nigerians are ready for leadership not driven by ethnicity or sectional manipulation.”

Also speaking, the Lagos State coordinator of the group, Mr Ola Azeez, argued that zoning had not delivered results.

Azeez said: “Despite having a Lagosian as president, the masses are suffering like never before. We are ready to support a leader with a detribalised orientation who is competent.

“Nigeria cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past. What the country needs now is not zoning, but competence.”

I won’t allow issues like zoning divide us — Olawepo-Hashim

Meanwhile, a chieftain of the PDP,  Dr Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has promised to  repair the damaged bridges of national unity occasioned by the manipulation of Nigeria’s ethnic religious fault lines by desperate and failed politicians who use divisive strategies such as zoning and other extra-constitutional measures to hold the Nation’s polity to ransom.

Olawepo-Hashim, who spoke at an interaction with senior media executives in Lagos at the weekend, said: “Despite the fact that Nigeria’s electorates have demonstrated over and over again that they care less about where a leader comes from, a new tribe of political opportunists continue to distract the nation and the polity from clear issues of economic development and security which is the urgent concern of most Nigerians whether they are Northerners or Southerners.”

Speaking against the backdrop of the zoning of the PDP ticket, the presidential aspirant said he would be committed to issues that unite and not divide the country.

He said: “We, on our part, shall continue to rally the Nation around issues that unite us rather than issues that divide us.

“Commitment to National Unity was what defined the politics of the Founding Fathers of our Nation. That was why Dr Herbert Macaulay, a Yoruba man, could hand over NCNC to Dr Nnamdi Azikwe, a Nigerian of Igbo descent. That was why late Chief Obafemi Awolowo could rally support for Ernest Ikoli, an Ijaw man in Lagos, during the Western regional election against the aspiration of a fellow Ijebu man, Sam Akinsanya, for the presidency of the Nigerian Youth Movement/Lagos Legislative Council.

“It was the same spirit of commitment to national unity that was demonstrated when the legendary Joseph Tarka, the political leader of the Tiv nation, rallied behind Kashim Ibrahim, a Kanuri muslim man, to win the Gboko constituency, a Christian Tiv-dominated constituency, during the Northern regional election in First Republic. The great people of Kano voted massively for Chief Mko Abiola against a bonafide and accomplished indigene of Kano, Alhaji Bashir Tofa, in the June 12, 1993 Presidential elections.”

“We draw our inspiration from the noble spirit of commitment to National Unity passed down by our heroes past, we shall not allow the lit flame of Unity in diversity to be extinguished by the activities of some political rascals polluting the polity with the filthy lucre that they have gathered from the public till.

“On our part, we shall endeavour to amplify the best in us, not our worst.”

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