₦airaland Forum

Xinzu:
This toad called Olawepo or whatever knows he won't win, he's just looking to garner online popularity then sell to the highest bidder at the last minute. Unknown to him, the people he's contesting against can see through him. Dude will not even win his own LGA.

Wake up bro. APC and PDP are dead.

Olawepo Hashim's Peoples Trust is the way in 2019.

There are other candidates that are not the two you mentioned. Olawepo Hashim is the 3rd force candidate

PureMe01:
because it's a case of north vs north for the 2 main contenders unlike their unalloyed support for buhari back in 2015 against Jonathan...we are already splitting them Oya zombies,come & cry & gnash ur teeth.e go do una like Chinese action movie featuring chinese mr Ibu as the main actor

Olawepo Hashim Vows To Reconcile Divided Nigeria, Fix Economy

The presidential candidate of People’s Party (PT), Gbenga Olawepo Hashim, has explained that he joined the 2019 race to fix the ailing economy, divided Nigeria and tackle insecurity.



Speaking during a courtesy call on Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) in Kaduna, Hashim, decried that the country is badly divided and needed a person like him to reconcile the nation and brings it back to where it was.



Hashim said if elected as president next year, he will create 4 trillion naira economy in the next ten years to build a bigger economy to sustain the Nigeria’s increasing population.





The presidential hopeful called on the northern region to sustain the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello’s legacy of no discrimination





Hashim said as an entrepreneur for over twenty seven years he is the only candidate that would create jobs in the 21st century economy.



“I am happy to be here in Kaduna, the headquarters of 19 Northern states. I placed a lot of value on the socio cultural organisations that is why I decided to visit ACF to intimate you of my presidential ambition. If North is united, peaceful, Nigeria will be united and peaceful. There was no discrimination in Northern Nigeria during Sarduana of Sokoto and that is the north we want.”



Hashim added: “There is no unity, peace in Nigeria and is one of the reasons I am contesting to bring the country back. I will reconcile Nigeria and bring the country back. There is too much hunger in the land, I will create a big economy for Nigeria’s population. The new Nigeria we want is a new country free of violence, insecurity with a prosperous economy,” he said.

https://leadership.ng/2018/12/21/hashim-vows-to-reconcile-divided-nigeria-fix-economy/

?

ACF: we don’t have presidential candidate for 2019

PT candidate Olawepo-Hashim vows to build N4tr economy
THE mouthpiece of the North, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has debunked supporting a specific presidential candidate or aligning with any political party.

ACF stated this at its headquarters in Kaduna yesterday, when it played host to the People’s Trust presidential candidate, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, ahead of the 2019 presidential election.

This was as Olawepo-Hashim vowed that with his over 27 years’ experience in business, where he has invested immensely in infrastructure and human capital, he would build a N4 trillion economy for Nigeria in 10 years, to employ 40 million citizens.

Receiving the presidential candidate alongside other chieftains of the forum, Acting ACF Chairman Alhaji Musa Liman Kwande said: “We do not align ourselves to any individual or political party.”

The ACF chair said what the forum wants to see in presidential candidate is a genuine, very positive and pragmatic policies and measures to fight corruption, insecurity, impunity, anarchy and a host of other disingenuous activities which, if not effectively contained, would certainly be the bane of the nation’s progress and growth.

According to Kwande, “ACF, as you are aware, is a non-partisan, non-political, non-religious body devoid of any ethnic or tribal sentiments. Thus, its status as the foremost northern socio-cultural organisation, which tries to promote peace, unity, justice and the rule of law, with the main thrust to promoting and protecting the interest and development of North and its people, within the context of one indivisible nation, is not in question.

“In our non-partisan disposition, we do not align ourselves to any individual or political party. Rather, we strive to weigh the scale on what is good for the North in particular and the overall good of the nation.

“As we hold the belief that every aspirant to the office of the President of our great country should have an articulate and thorough blueprint that will catapult the country to be among the comity of great nations, we expect to see genuinely, the very positive and pragmatic policies and measures put in place to fight against corruption, insecurity, impunity, anarchy and a host of other disingenuous activities which, if not effectively contained, would certainly be the bane of our progress and development as a people and one cohesive nation.

“I understand that you have availed yourself to contest for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2019, under the platform of the People’s Trust (PT). I feel quite enthused to acknowledge the emergence of new breed politicians like your humble self vying for the various elective offices in our nascent democratic dispensation, which, by and large, has the potential to engender healthy political process as we strive to consolidate on the achievements recorded so far.

“It is, therefore, significant under the prevailing situation in our nationhood, to witness-quite-a prolific array of political formations and platforms under which each and every Nigerian can have expression. We therefore welcome your emergence of political parties and your good self as the presidential candidate of one of the new parties, the People’s

Trust (PT).”

The forum appealed to leaders of various political parties to ensure they live by the letters and spirit of the Abuja Peace Accord put up by the National Peace Committee under the former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, which they all signed and pledged to uphold.

The PT presidential candidate, who hails from Kebbi State, North-West Nigeria, harped on the need to unite Nigerians and build a virile economy that can support the nation’s growing population.

According to him, “Nigeria has been badly divided more than ever before. So, our plan is to stop insecurity and return the country to a united nation like it was at independence. Though, North is the largest part of the country, but we must unite with smaller units who feel threatened, and mend the broken bones.”

On the economy, Olawepo-Hashim said there was too much hunger in the land because the nation’s economy was too small to take care of its population.

“With my over 27 years’ experience in business, where I have invested immensely in infrastructure and human capital, I have the experience to build the biggest economy that can take care of our population. I will build a N4 trillion economy for Nigeria in 10 years, which will employ 40 million citizens,” he said.

http://thenationonlineng.net/acf-dont-presidential-candidate-2019/

why?

We’ll Resist Attempts To Turn Nigeria Into Two-Party State, Says Olawepo-Hashim

Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Trust (PT), has said that his party would resist all attempts by some dominant political forces to turn Nigeria into a two-party state.

Olawepo-Hashim in a statement signed by Hassan Ibrahim, his Chief Press Secretary, said that the party was aware of some subterranean moves by certain forces to strangulate the emerging political parties and turn Nigeria into a two-party state.

The candidate of the Third Force Movement said that any attempt to turn the hand Nigeria’s democratic progress backwards and curtail the fundamental rights of the people to associate will be resisted squarely.


He said, “There is no democracy in the world where choices are restricted to one or two parties. Even in the United States of America where you have two dominant parties, there are multiplicities of parties that are allowed to participate in the process.

“The PT is the biggest of all the new political parties according to data from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and we insist on being allowed to blossom and fulfill the yearnings of the Nigerian people who are certainly fed up with the lack of vision, passion and direction for the development of the people.

“Many of the actors in the political scene today who are outside the two dominant parties fought vigorously to ensure respect for fundamental rights of association of Nigerians.”

He further stated that the forces seeking to return Nigerian to a two-party state had perfected their acts through the exclusion of several emerging parties at the just concluded Vice Presidential debates held by the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON).

He further stated, “2019 will not be a choice between corruption and ineptitude. The PT is determined that despite attempts to make it look like that, the 2019 election will not be a choice between the PDP, which has been variously accused of corruption and the APC, which symbolises administrative ineptitude and economic failure.

“The vast majority of Nigerians still continue to search for credible alternatives to the two political parties in spite of limited resources at the disposal of the multiple alternative platforms.

“Through massive media propaganda, a gang of Nigeria’s parasitic elite who have fed fat on the Nigerian state have tried to ensure that the political clime is narrowed to two incompetent behemoths like the APC and PDP.

“The PT is at the vanguard of ensuring that the Nigerian electorate gets credible alternative in 2019 as it has instituted the consolidation of various alternative platforms, even as it is daily receiving support from Presidential candidates, aspirants and parties.


“We know as a matter of fact that the PDP elite and the pseudo democrats of APC are desperate to consign Nigeria into a two-party state. Apart from misusing state funds at their disposal to their advantage, they are arrogantly telling the suffering Nigerian people that they are stuck between the two devils.”

Olawepo-Hashim said that by the report of the Carnegie Institute, they are also using the resources at the disposal of the media platforms such as the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria unjustly to their advantage.

He said his party was already seeing some propaganda items in some newspapers questioning whether we should even have more than these two parties in the country at all and advocating a constitutional amendment to legislate the alternative platforms out of existence.

“We want to remind the authors of such anti-democratic thoughts that the right to a pluralistic democracy was won through hard struggle and cannot be taken away by the wishful thinking of some politicians and their ilk in some corrupt media establishments.

https://www.independent.ng/well-resist-attempts-to-turn-nigeria-into-two-party-state-says-olawepo-hashim/

Shiite Killings: Citizens Against Humanity MrRights
https://mrrightsng..com/2018/12/shiite-killings-citizens-against.html

I have come to the very sad conclusions that, majority of Nigerian citizens are worse than their leaders. Maybe not so worse, but a true reflection of our leaders.

When our leaders do evil, that even satan (the condemned one) often try hard to compete with, we justify the evil and even commend it.

What that means is that, if given the opportunity, majority of us will do the same or worse.

If given the chance, majority of us will create greater poverty in this country than we currently experience as the poverty capital of the world.

If given the opportunity, we would act with greater impunity and tyranny. We will kill as much people as we desire and bring as much hardship on our people.

If in the position of slight advantage, we will oppress the weak, downgrade the poor and deny everyone of what is rightfully theirs.

This is the reality we have been shying away from over the years. We do not want to believe that we are all part of the problem, but indeed, we are a reflection of our problems.

Why are we like this?

So much religion and so much evil
So much prayers and so much hate
So much spirituality and so much inhumanity

This is the story of Nigeria and it is sad.

I saw the video of soldiers, in the Presidential Guard with machine gun, shooting a war machine sporadically like drunken men on a mission to hell fire.

They are not in a war front. They are not confronting a dangerous enemy threatening their own survival.

They are shooting at protesting members of shiite community in Abuja Nigeria.

According to the Newyork Times, it has never been heard or seen anywhere in the world, where such weapons are used against a civilian population or to break a protest.

Nigeria just broke another record.

We are in a country against humanity. We have a government against humanity.

But even we the citizens are not any different, we are a citizen against humanity.

SAD MOOD

https://mrrightsng..com/2018/12/shiite-killings-citizens-against.html

How RuggedMan and 9ice elevated Afrobeat - MrRights
https://mrrightsng..com/2018/12/how-ruggedman-and-9ice-elevated-afrobeat.html

10 years ago, after Tuface Idibia had blessed the world with African Queen, two (2) Nigerian Music legends, Ruggedman and 9ice released a popular joint that would change the history of African music in the world forever.

The smashing hit song, titled ‘’Ruggedy Baba’’ was the turning point for afrobeats music, not only in Nigeria, but in Africa as a whole. As you may known, Nigeria is the heart of Africa and where ever Nigeria goes, the rest of Africa follows.

Ruggedy Baba was a song that espoused, bolstered and propagandized the concept of mother tongue in hip hop music, transposing the myth of rappers who often claimed that only those who rap in English like Americans are truly hip hop heads.

The boastful ‘’Ruggedy Baba’’synthesized hip hop music with traditional tune that was not very popular at the time and produce a masterpiece of Afrobeats music that would go on to inspire confidence in the younger generation of African artists and embolden them to confidently incorporate indigenous language into their music.

‘’Atewo mo bala (I spread my palm and see lines), A o mo eni to ko (I don't know who wrote them), that was the first line being chanted by 9ice in the chorus, before he added another line that said, ‘We spit in pigin awon kan n wuko (we spit in pigin and some are unhappy), you better show where you belong’’.

Beyond the sweet tune and local flavour of the track, the central message is a clear call on the people of Africa to jettison the culture of imitating foreign products, particularly music,‘’ Wetin go make them know where your music come from in the long run Na the fussion of grammar, your slang and your mother tongue’’ rapped ruggedman.

The legendary Ruggedman argued that, for a music to be respected in the long run, it has to be in your mother tongue and coming from an artist considered as one of the best rappers at the time, a lot of younger artists craving for fame and identity were forced to listen and act on his wise counsel. This has actually paid off today.

Apart from artists who switched from hardcore to indigenous rap music like Olamide, the CEO of YBNL records, Ruggedy baba also helped increase the confidence of indigenous artist who were always being looked down upon at the time.

In verse 2 of the track, rugged man rap, ‘’I'm tired of so called hip-hop heads whispering that I am not holding it down’’ ‘’Say I don change from the way I be before’’ ‘’Say now I dey spit for pidjin’’, ‘’Dem prefer me when I been be hard core’’ ‘’ Our elders mock our shit, Cos of our too much metaphorical out of space type shit, When some rap, Dem no know where we dey come from, Back then two rappers on stage was like seven throwing a tantrum, We need to change that and put a face to our music, Let the world know where we come from, Let no one abuse it’’.
Ruggedman was very conscious of his message and the intention was to force a change in our perception and priority. He wanted us to change from wanting to sing and sound like Americans, he also wanted us to embrace our local flavor and put a face to our music for the purpose of having our stamp on it for easy recognition.

Ruggedman hold dear, the importance of origin. He actually proposed that ‘’ We need to change and put a face to our music’’. This is basically what afrobeats is all about. Africa existing in its own music and taking ownership of it with confidence.

Having addressed the subject of grammar in the first 2 verses of the track, ruggedman dived into another subject of ‘keeping it real’.
He raps, ‘’ Look my guy, I no fit shout, I go only ask what's keeping it real?

Explaining the meaning of keeping it real, Ruggedman rapped, Is it singing or rapping like Oyibo or doing what you and your own people can feel?

In his view, singing and rapping like Americans doesn’t mean you are keeping it real, it simply means that you are trying to be someone else. So, he concluded by stating the rules, ‘’spit in whatever language but make sense’’.

This rule, as espoused by Ruggedman is what many afrobeat artist have taken to heart ever since and it has elevated afrobeat, from just being a local music to a global and highly sorted tune.

As ruggedman stated, ‘’ Wetin go make them know where your music come from in the long run Na the fussion of grammar, your slang and your mother tongue’’

https://mrrightsng..com/2018/12/how-ruggedman-and-9ice-elevated-afrobeat.html

hum

DamienW:
Nah, that ain't true

Alliance for New Nigeria has over 160 candidates running across the nation

Not true.

It has just 21 candidates running for President, senate and rep.

The others, such as governor and state house has not been published by INEC

winterfell007:
This is aspirant is just dishing out populist statement that's not impractical. How can you increase minimum wage without a corresponding increase in the nation's productive sector.

Pls let's listen to people like Atiku and Moghalu, who are the only two candidates that appear pragmatic to me.

Obviously you are not following him with open mind. The major agenda of Hashim has he has repeatedly stated his to expand the GDP from it's current $510bilion to $4trillion. Just yesterday, he was on NTA in the morning dishing out his clearly planned strategy. Yesterday evening, he was also on Arise Television giving more insight into how to achieve the $4trillion economy. He repeatedly the same this morning on AIT.

If you follow him properly with open mind, you will see a man who has clearly thought out idea and has the required capacity to achieve even more than he has promised.

Ijaya123:
I was hoping to see the modalities of how he intend to ackieve that.

Watch his interview on Arise TV and NTA yesterday. The plan is well spelt out

Presidential candidate targets $4trn national economic growth

The Presidential Candidate for People’s Trust Party, Mr Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has pledged to grow Nigeria’s economy from $510billion (its highest in 2013) to 4trillion dollars in 10 years, if elected into office.

The Presidential Aspirant disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.

“We want to grow the economy of Nigeria to become $4trillion in 10 years and that will put us at par with Malaysia, Thailand, as middle income economies and these were economies that Nigeria was ahead of in our early independence. “We are not setting standards like we want to become the United States of America; we just want to be where we were in 10 years, where we were in 1960. “A 510billion-dollar GDP as at 2013 when we celebrated being the biggest economy in Africa is of course too small for 200 million people as our projected population is now. “Nigeria needs a 4trillion-dollar economy to become a middle income economy; that’s our target and it’s doable and we have set up a strategy to achieve this,’’ he said. He also proposed to effect a minimum wage of N50,000 for workers, noting that the standard of living for Nigerian workers was quite low. “I am going to have a N50,000 minimum wage and that is lower than the minimum wage that Nigerian workers were awarded in 1983 which was N125; at that time you needed 55 kobo for a dollar.

“So basically, N125 minimum wage was more than N60,000 of today’s Nigeria; so by the grace of God when elected, the minimum wage by the first anniversary of our government will be N50,000 in Nigeria. “That is what I believe is decent for an average worker; you can’t deal with corruption when you underpay people,’’ he said. He said his government would prioritise tourism, restructure the education system and expand income through infrastructure funds, solid minerals, foreign investments, and intellectual capital protection. He promised to promote knowledge-based economy through effective copy right laws to ensure that innovators get due reward for their work and protect Nigeria’s intellectual property.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/12/presidential-candidate-targets-4trn-national-economic-growth/

hum

bender79:
The writer should just tell us he is rooting for Olaweopo Hashim and just shut up. Next?

The facts speak for themselves

?

?

BON's fraudulent Presidential Debate and APC hatchet job - MrRights
https://mrrightsng..com/2018/12/bons-fraudulent-presidential-debate-and.html

The recently released list of political parties to participate in the 2019 Presidential debate by the Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG), Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON) and Channels Television is a far cry from what is expected from a body that is expected to be neutral and independent.

The neutrality of the debate organizers were called to question, after the third force presidential candidate, Mr Olawepo Hashim of the People’s Trust (PT) was surprisingly omitted from the list of participants, in favor of little active Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) and Young Democratic Party (YDP).

The vibrant Peoples Trust (PT) is one of the 28 newly registered political parties and the party is fielding frontline presidential candidate, Mr Olawepo Hashim.

In the recently released list of political parties fielding candidates for the 2019 general elections, the list of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) indicated that People’s Trust (PT) came top among the 28 newly registered parties, nominating almost 200 candidates.
While ANN, ACPN and YDP had a combined 141 candidates running in the 2019 election, People’s Trust (PT) has almost 200, more than combined candidates running on the other 3 parties joined together.

A critical analysis of the five selected political parties, whose candidates are to participate in the 2019 Presidential debate undoubtedly proved that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has every organizations involved in the selection process under control.

From all indication, the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) is using Channels Television and its partners for dirty job. Understanding that the general public would not fall for the possible propaganda of government owned NTA and Bola Tinubu owned TVC, the APC appeared to have engaged the service of Channels TV to hoodwink unsuspecting members of the public. It has become very clear that the APC is desperate to shut the door against serious contenders in the race to 2019 election.

The controversy that played out during the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) primary election between Mr Olawepo Hashim and Fela Durotoye is still very fresh, in which the APC, through office of the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo was alleged to have hijacked ANN through Fela Durotoye, dishing out N1.3Billion to stop the emergence of Mr Olawepo Hashim.

The calculation within APC at the time was that, Fela Durotoye would help them waste the votes of aggrieved young Nigerians who will never vote for President Buhari. In their calculation, the emergence of any capable third force candidate like Olawepo Hashim will pose serious threat to the emergence of President Muhammadu Buhari and they have to do everything possible to stop him.

Mr Hashim, who was very aware of the machination against him tactically maneuvered his way to form alliance with 10 other political parties with his majority faction of the ANN and he was adopted as the Presidential candidate of the alliance under the banner Peoples Trust (PT).

Surprisingly, after failing to stop Mr Hashim’s emergence as a presidential candidate, the ruling party also used the factional ANN chairman, Pastor Dania Emmanuel to deliver a fake prophecy to Oby Ezekwesili, who is obviously unprepared for any serious contest.

The pastor was alleged to have approached Madam Oby with a fake prophecy that she will be the next President. It was alleged also that, after convincing madam Oby that it was a prophecy from God, the pastor washed her feet with water and sprayed anointing oil on her. However, information emerged she was being tricked into the race for a specific purpose.

According to those familiar with the plot, the ruling party is aware that there are considerable women population who are very dissatisfied with the government and would not vote for the major opposition. These categories of people are looking for a credible third force to support, which Mr. Hashim has clearly become the favorite. But instead of allowing those people vote for a serious third force candidate, an unprepared madam Oby was tricked into the race to gain the confidence of dissatisfied women voters and deny a serious third force candidate the chance of winning them over.

The same calculation was advance for Prof Kingsley Moghalu, whose candidature is motivated by the need to have a president from eastern region, a zone the APC finds very difficult to penetrate. These 3 candidates, who are directly or indirectly in the race to serve the interest of APC are the same candidates fraudulently selected to feature in a debate with the two major parties. Those who did this selection did it on purpose. While they released a link for public voting as if the result of such voting counts, it appeared the online voting was only used as a smoke screen. The debate participants have been pre-selected even before the voting. It’s a hatchet job being done for the ruling party and this singular act has put the integrity of the organizers in question.

While responding to the criticism that followed the announcement in a private discussion, the organizers claimed that they carried out a research around the country to arrive at their final selection. When asked about the modality used in the said research, they claimed most of the new parties don’t have structures at the local level. But it was on record that out of all the 28 newly registered political parties in the country, Olawepo Hashim’s People’s Trust PT) has the highest number of nomination based on the release by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The question the organizers are yet to answer is, how can Fela Durotoye’s ANN with 21 nominations, Ezekwesili’s ACPN with 50 nominations and Moghalu’s YDP with 70 nominations be said to be more rooted than Olawepo Hashim’s Peoples Trust with about 200 nominations?

It maybe understandable if Sowore’s AAC with 30 nominations is excluded on that basis, but certainly, Olawepo Hashim’s Peoples Trust can definitely not be excluded on any basis.

More so, the weekly reports on the activities of Presidential candidates on social media was released few days ago and according to the report, Olawepo Hashim is currently leading all presidential candidates including the APC and PDP on Facebook engagements. In this past week, while Hashim has over 28,000 engagement, Atiku Abubakar had 24,000 and President Buhari has about 16,000.

So, considering Hashim’s online strength and his party’s structural spread and superiority at the grassroots, it is impossible for any of the 3 other parties to be ahead of Peoples Trust (PT) by whatever standard used in the selection.

Additionally, BON had claimed that they spent a whopping sum of N22 million on their acclaimed grassroot research, with considerable percentage of the researchers coming from government agencies. The public is yet to know those who sponsored the research and the interest they have.

Based on the above analysis, it could be conclusively said that, this presidential debate is designed to achieve a purpose by the ruling party and it should not be taken seriously by Nigerians, as Nigerian Elections Debate Group (NEDG), Broadcasting Organization of Nigeria (BON) and Channels Television have denied Nigerians an opportunity to a genuine debate.


https://mrrightsng..com/2018/12/bons-fraudulent-presidential-debate-and.html

jomoh:
I understand the exclusion of Sowore cos the dude can be so uncut. Someone that could go to the palace of Oni of Ife to disrespect him(saying he can’t prostrate). The organizers won’t want some weed smoker that can potentially damage the image of their program.

For Hashim to link APC to the exclusion shows he’s also of the same mind set with Sowore. They still believe activism and student unionism is the way to Aso Rock.

This has nothing to do with activism.

Everyone following the event can see clearly that this is an APC machination to avoid serious engagement.

Foodforthought:
He's not going anywhere. I rather vote a northerner than Yoruba...they are a very wicked tribe. They attack another tribe for trying to determine itself, then turn round to promote their own...If pour sand for another man garri no 4get say u self go still soak ur own garri. I am not IBO.
I will vote for Atiku

He his from Kebbi. North

lol

hum

Can he?

Yes, it's APC agenda

Elections Debate Group is APC agenda, Olawepo-Hashim insists

By excluding the presidential candidate of Peoples Trust (PT), Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, from the Presidential Debate by the National Elections Debate Group and Broadcasting Organisatio of Nigeria (BON), the organisers have shown the project as part of the agenda of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to interfere with the 2019 election.

Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim Campaign Organisation (GOHCO), which condemned the exclusion of their principal from the scheduled Presidential Debate, alleged that the method adopted in selecting candidates not only lacked objectivity, but also showed bias and underlined the anti-democratic agenda of APC.

In a statement by Mr. Hassan Ibrahim, spokesperson of the candidate, GOHCO disclosed that PT had long indicated interest to participate in the debate, but regretted the exclusion of its candidate despite the fact that he remains among the top three candidates from all surveys.

GOHCO contended that it is its hope that the debating group is not working in cahoots with the ruling APC to downplay the party’s strides with its spread across the country. It noted that PT and its presidential candidate, Mr. Olawepo-Hashim, recently emerged top among the nearly 28 newly registered political parties fielding candidates for political positions for next year’s presidential elections, with 194 persons running on its platform.

“The PT, which is in alliance with other parties, is promoting the presidential candidacy of Mr. Olawepo-Hashim, has a total of 194 contestants on its platform, including 140 for the House of Representatives, 52 for the Senate and one each for president and vice-president. Following PT closely are the JMPP (182); MPN (176); the ADP (136); ZLP (115) and the ACD with 106,” the statement added.

While recalling how Mr. Olawepo-Hashim made a head start over others in the weekly Facebook rating of presidential candidates in Nigeria on Monday, December 10, 2018 with 28, 000 Facebook engagements, GOHCO declared: “Regrettably, the candidates included in the debate apart from Alhaji Atiku, performed woefully in terms of spread, in comparative terms, in the just concluded nomination exercise.

“While Kingsley Moghalu had 70 nominations, Fela Durotoye had 21, and Oby Ezekwesili had 50. The PT nomination was 194 signifying national spread, acceptability and effectiveness of political structure.

“President Muhammadu Buhari of APC recorded 16,000+ engagements, while Kingsley Moghalu, Fela Durotoye and the other presidential candidates were trailing far behind with single digit ratings. These are incontrovertible data, not the sentiments or wishful thoughts of individuals. They are empirical evidence that can be easily verified.”

The campaign organisation regretted that it is “surprising that despite these records, the party is being excluded from the debate in what looks like a stage-managed process. We urge Nigerians not to be disturbed by this. The PT is working with other political candidates who are interested in having their voice heard towards the 2019 presidential election, and we shall surely triumph in stopping this subterfuge.”

Further, GOHCO stated that the debate organisers short-listed PDP for purpose of legitimacy for the debate, adding that “the inclusion of the weakest candidates on the platform, or the newest parties, exposes their devious intentions.”

PT lamented that Nigeria is internally bleeding because of the ineptitude of APC, saying, “What the country is looking forward to is an honest platform of debate to halt the hemorrhaging, not a forum to whitewash the problem by mostly a collection of pretenders to the presidential contest.”

The party therefore urged its supporters, concerned Nigerians and indeed the electorate to take note of APC’s shenanigan and tits selected allies that they have been encouraging in the polity to suck off votes that otherwise will not come to them.

The statement concluded, “We urge Nigerians not to be disturbed by this development as genuine people’s debate is in the works, where concrete solutions to many problems bedeviling Nigeria would be proffered. Our campaign will be part of this new debate with many patriotic candidates, who truly want to see a better Nigeria in 2019.”

https://guardian.ng/politics/elections-debate-group-is-apc-agenda-olawepo-hashim-insists/

salam1:
worry about the fellas in the east, even if everybody agree to choose Hashim ur luv for PDP will not let u do the right thing

Don't worry. South East people are getting involved already. Hashim will shock many in 2019