Parties Don’t Have Power to Zone Elective Offices, Says Olawepo-Hassim

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

A chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and presidential hopeful, Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has cautioned against the rising bickering over which region should produce the president in 2023, saying political parties had no power to zone elective offices.

The former presidential candidate explained that the bickering was adding a corrosively divisive ting to an already badly fractured polity, adding that, “While we recognise the freedom of expression of every Nigerian, utmost care is needed now more than ever before not to complicate the delicate situation of the country by pitching (sic) one section of the country against another.”

According to him, it was the constitutional right of every Nigerian, who met the qualification criteria to stand for elective office regardless of their ethnic descent or religious persuasion.

“Any politician that wants to contest to be President from wherever can jolly well jump into the ring. There is no need to continuously blackmail the country by hiding under ethnic nationality groups. While political parties can zone party offices, they have no power to zone elective offices. There is no need to split hot air over this any further,” he said.
He also maintained that whatever hue and cry that were raised in the past about a section of the country being excluded from being President has been settled by our experience since thereturn to democracy in 1999.

He added that “of the 22 years since 1999, the nation has seen 14 years of President from Southern Origin – Obasanjo’s 8 years and Jonathan’s 6 years. When Buhari by the Grace of God ends his tenure in 2023, we would have seen Presidents of Northern origin for 10 years. This should be enough to lay to rest the divisive arguments about power rotation.”

Olawepo-Hashim admonished that, “While we recognise the freedom of expression of every Nigerian, utmost care is needed now more than ever before not to complicate the delicate situation of the country by pitching (sic) one section of the country against another. This will be pouring gasoline into a raging inferno.

“If we allow ethnic nationality groups prompted by different factions of the political elites to continue to drive the debate on our future, we shall soon arrive at 350 confusing pathways as Nigeria is made up of 350 ethnic groups.

“The other day, I saw a video of people speaking that even if the Yorubas are to produce a President, it cannot be from Ogun, Lagos axis again after Awo, Obasanjo, Abiola, Shonekan, Diya, Osinbajo and so on and so forth. This is what you get if you yield the polity to ethno religious tantrums,” he said.

He asserted that power rotation argument is always emotive and it tears nations apart.
“This is exactly what led to genocide in Rwanda causing the killings of 800,000 souls and same thing that ignited the collapse of Yugoslavia to an extent that virtually every county wanted to become a country,” he added.