… Warns Towards One-Celebration Agenda
Former presidential candidate, Dr. Gbenga Hashim, has stated he isn’t intimidated by authorized or political strikes he believes are geared toward weakening the Peoples Democratic Celebration (PDP), insisting that Nigeria’s multiparty democracy is firmly rooted and can’t be dismantled.
In a strongly worded assertion, Hashim stated he wouldn’t be deterred by what he described as authorized and political manoeuvres allegedly sponsored by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), stressing that no particular person or political social gathering can monopolise energy in Nigeria.
In line with him, Nigeria has traditionally embraced pluralism as a method of managing its range, noting that the nation’s founding fathers intentionally adopted a multiparty system at independence.
“Nigeria has at all times been dedicated to multiparty democracy,” Hashim stated. “Even within the First Republic, political energy was by no means concentrated within the palms of 1 man or one social gathering.”
He recalled that regardless of the affect of Sir Ahmadu Bello as chief of the Northern Folks’s Congress, different political actions similar to Aminu Kano’s Northern Components Progressive Union (NEPU), J.S. Tarka’s Center Belt Congress, and Sir Kashim Ibrahim’s Borno Folks’s Union additionally wielded important affect.
Hashim added that related political range existed within the South West, the place the Motion Group competed alongside the NCNC and different regional events, together with the Ibadan Folks’s Celebration.
“Our democracy has by no means been a democracy of 1 star flying in its firmament,” he stated. “In our sky are 1000’s of stars.”
Drawing classes from historical past, Hashim in contrast the present political surroundings to the failed self-succession agenda of the late army ruler, Common Sani Abacha, who sought to emerge as the only presidential candidate of all registered political events on the time.
“We live witnesses to the failure of that plot,” he stated, warning that whereas the current state of affairs could seem totally different, its final result could be related.
“Whereas Abacha sought to make himself the only candidate of all events, the present agenda seems geared toward guaranteeing that no main social gathering is powerful sufficient to area a reputable candidate,” Hashim said.
Expressing confidence that such efforts wouldn’t succeed, he added that historical past would as soon as once more show such schemes unworkable.
Hashim additionally recalled his involvement within the battle in opposition to army rule, noting that the resistance was led from inside Nigeria.
“We opposed the self-succession plot right here at residence,” he stated, recalling his participation within the inside resistance delegation at Fort IBB on June 8, 1998, throughout a tense interval within the nation’s historical past.
He concluded by expressing optimism that Nigeria’s democratic traditions would prevail.
“The identical God who granted us the grace to witness the collapse of the Abacha plot may even assist us see the top of any try to undermine our multiparty democracy,” Hashim stated.
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