A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim has declared his irrevocable commitment to repairing the damaged bridges of national unity, which is said were occasioned by the manipulation of Nigeria’s ethnic and religious fault lines by desperate politicians who use divisive strategies.
He said that the failed politicians exploit zoning and other extra constitutional measures to hold the nation’s polity to ransom.
At an interaction with senior media executives in Lagos at the weekend, Olawepo-Hashim said: ‘Despite the fact that Nigeria’s electorate has 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’.
At the end of the National Executive Committee meeting of the PDP in Abuja early this week, the party zoned the 2027 presidential ticket to the southern part of the country. Some stakeholders have, however, called the decision retrogressive and against the Constitution, and capable of pitching the north against the south.
According to the former presidential candidate, ‘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 (National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons) to Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, a Nigerian of Igbo descent. That was why Chief Obafemi Awolowo could rally support for Ernest Ikoli, an Ijaw man, in Lagos during the Western regional election as against the aspiration of a fellow ijebu man, Sam Akinsanya for the presidency of the Nigerian Youth Movement/Lagos Legislative Council’.
He added that ‘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 Northern regional election in first Republic’.
In recent memory, he continued, ‘the great people of Kano voted massively for Chief Moshood Abiola against a bonafide and accomplished indigene of Kano, Alhaji Bashir Tofa in the 12 June 1993 presidential elections’.
He also emphasised that ‘we draw our inspiration from the noble spirit of commitment to national unity passed down by our heroes past. We shall not allow the 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’.
Olawepo-Hashim also emphasised that ‘on our own part, we shall endeavour to amplify the best in us not our worst’.
