2023 Presidency: ‘Nigeria Needs President To Unite Country’

To start the process of re-steering the ship of the Nigerian state to the right path, businessman, rights activist, and 2019 Presidential Candidate, Mr Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has urged Nigerians to elect the best candidate, irrespective of ethnic and religious colouration in 2023.

Olawepo-Hashim, who regretted that the country’s value system has regressed exponentially, said side-stepping and sacrificing competence and ability to deliver on the altar of zoning in producing President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor in 2023 would be counter-productive to the polity.

According to him, zoning or rotation may not foster national unity and development, adding that the country needs a good president from any region who was prepared and capable of mid-wifing socio-economic development of the country.

In a chat with journalists in Lagos, yesterday, the former presidential candidate said those who want power must construct a national platform and build a national consensus behind their programme.

He said that Nigeria needs a president that will unite the country, secure it, and transform her economy from an under-developed one to a modern productive economy.

In 2023, he said Nigeria’s president “should not be based on tribe, religion or region but on an ability to support the all-round social and economic development and provide sustainable employment for Nigeria’s massively unemployed hands.”

Olawepo-Hashim stressed that “Nigerians from every corner are always ready to vote for a good president when they see one,” arguing that without zoning in 1993, the late Chief Moshood Abiola got votes from Kano against Alhaji Bashir Tofa, his main opponent, who hails from Kano.

He said, that in 1999, “despite the fact that President Olusegun Obasanjo’s home base, the South-West, did not vote for him, he still became president based on votes from the other five zones”.

His words: “The talk of zoning of the Presidency is, therefore, a false narrative, divisive and inimical to national development. It is our turn president makes leaders escape accountability because when he is questioned, the so-called ethnic-based supporters and constituents would gather to say ‘you cannot touch our man because it is our turn.’

“This phenomenon is dangerous for national unity, cohesion, and national development. More importantly, rotating the president is a pedestrian diversion from the current subject of devolution and decentralization of power from the over centralized centre to the federating states in Nigeria.

“Nigeria would not just become a just and equitable federation, simply because a southerner is exercising the over blotted power at the centre.

“It will be more equitable and efficient when the powers are devolved more to the states, regardless of who occupies the office of the President.

“Most of the people talking of how Obasanjo, a southerner became president in 1999, were not in the PDP. They are oversimplifying issues. I was one of the conveners of the PDP in 1998. I know the proper context for what was done. It was not as if other people from other zones did not contest against Obasanjo. Alhaji Abubakar Rimi from Kano and Dr. Alex Ekwueme from Anambra contested against Obasanjo in 1999.

“In 2003, Chief Barnabas Gemade from the North contested against President Obasanjo. Ditto for Buhari in 2015. Chief Rochas Okorocha from the South-East contested against him.

“The emergence of any particular leader or presidential candidate at any time is usually a product of intense horse-trading, negotiations, and bargaining, not outright zoning to any particular region.”