A former presidential candidate and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Get together (PDP), Dr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has declared help for the doable return of former President Goodluck Jonathan, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and former Labour Get together flag bearer, Peter Obi, to the PDP’s presidential main race.
In an announcement issued on Thursday in Kaduna by way of his media aide, Hassan Mahmoud, Olawepo-Hashim described the potential curiosity of the trio within the PDP’s 2027 ticket as a welcome growth able to reigniting the occasion’s founding beliefs of inclusiveness and democratic competitors.
In response to him, “the extra, the merrier.”
He mentioned a vigorous and fascinating main wouldn’t divide the PDP however as a substitute assist it re-establish itself because the true occasion of democracy in Nigeria.
Olawepo-Hashim recalled the PDP’s founding imaginative and prescient in 1998, noting that it was by no means supposed to be a closed political membership however a nationwide platform constructed to accommodate all types of opinion, ideology, and aspiration.
He recounted how, as secretary of the publicity subcommittee chaired by the late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, a journalist first proposed the umbrella image that later grew to become the occasion’s emblem.
He paid tribute to political leaders who formed the PDP’s early trajectory, together with the late Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Chief Solomon Lar, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, Chief Sunday Awoniyi, Chief Melford Okilo, Professor Jubril Aminu, and Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, amongst others.
“We had giants of Nigerian politics below one roof. Lots of them had what it took to guide Nigeria, but some stepped down and others went by way of a reputable, aggressive course of, such because the Jos conference of 1999 that finally produced Chief Olusegun Obasanjo because the occasion’s candidate,” Hashim recalled.
He argued that the PDP’s early power got here not from backdoor consensus or gatekeeping politics, however from a deep dedication to inner democracy and open competitors. He praised the management of Chief Solomon Daushep Lar, the occasion’s first interim nationwide chairman, for maintaining the PDP’s doorways open to a large spectrum of political actors throughout its early life.
“Those that feared competitors quietly exited the founding course of. However we stayed the course, and Nigeria benefited from it,” he added.
Hashim, an unsuccessful aspirant within the 2019 presidential election, mentioned for the PDP to change into related once more on the nationwide degree, it wanted to return to the precepts of equity, transparency, and unity upon which the occasion was based. He mentioned the aspirational hopes of Jonathan, Atiku, Obi, or some other candidates shouldn’t be considered by way of the lenses of suspicion and distrust however accepted as a wholesome indication of renewed political life.
“If Jonathan, Atiku, Obi, and others want to contest, they need to be welcomed. Let the perfect concepts and visions emerge by way of honest competitors. That’s construct a celebration of the longer term,” he acknowledged.
His statements come at a time when the inner debate throughout the PDP on problems with zoning, succession, and doable partnerships resulting in the 2027 basic elections is intensifying.
Whereas the three figures talked about—Jonathan, Atiku and Obi—haven’t both confirmed any return to the PDP or indicated any formal curiosity within the 2027 elections, hypothesis continues concerning doable political realignments throughout the opposition
