Commitment to ideology, principle will return sanity to Nigeria’s politics – Olawepo-Hashim

A leader in the ruling party, All Progressive Congress (APC), Mr Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has maintained that the present brand of politics driven by personal ambition and self interests is the reason why politics is currently meaningless in Nigeria.

Olawepo-Hashim explained to the media in Ilorin recently that only commitment to ideology and principle can bring the desired sanity and stability to our political landscape since the same brand of selfish politics has been the reason “why it seems like Nigeria’s past seems more meaningful than its present”.

According to him, “if we want rapid development as we saw in the First Republic when Nigeria was a leading light amongst Third World countries, our leadership recruitment must be based on the ideals that politicians stand for; their personal records, rather than their ‘war chests'”.

The presidential candidate of the now defunct Peoples Trust in the 2019 elections added that “nonsense and meaningless talks such as, ‘it is my turn’, and religious bigotry will only continue to divide the country and plunge the country to violence.

“As it is now, it appears we have already bungled the current process and before the next election cycle; we need to fix the polity”.

The party system where principle and ideology reign, he submitted, must be revived and restored, while party supremacy must return.

“Party organisations and structures must revolve around the people, not around the merchants or an Emperor and little Emperors in different states”, he said.

Also of great importance, according to Olawepo-Hashim, is voters education. He maintained that “the voters must be educated and oriented to see themselves as the ultimate deciders in the electoral process.

“They must be sufficiently enlightened to see themselves as beautiful brides, and not as commodities of trade on the day of election. Like in the First and Second Republics, the voters must be confident enough to reject the deceit of political, ethnic and religious bigots who parade the political landscapes with foul language and filthy lucre”.

Olawepo-Hashim said that “Nigeria is the glory of Africa and the Black race. It must be rescued to play her destined role”!