₦airaland Forum

A group known as Kwara Must Change has been mounting pressure on the Kwara State government to fix bad roads in kwara before the 2019 election.

This is one of the roads identified by Kwara Must Change.

It wrote:

Dear Kwara State Government

This is a Lanwa Road, leading to Agodi Village at Moro Local Govt Area of Kwara State.

It is a death trap and this is the Kwara you have created.

This death trap needs immediate attention and urgent rehabilitation.

Kwara Must Change demand an immediate rehabilitation of this road before the 2019 election.

Kwara Must Change

A video has emerged of the underground campaign of ANN Presidential Aspirant, Olawepo Hashim who has been silently moving from one local government to tthe other and speakspeaking with Nigerians at the local level on the need to support ANN in the 2019 presidential election.

Watch the video

https://www.facebook.com/gbenga.olawepo.9/videos/1859076777461255/

Edoziesmart:
This hoe that scammed Italian men and rush to ebonyi Nigeria to contest for political post is still active eeh kwa?
But come to think of it. Why did she decamp to an unknown political party for crying out loud.

This party,ANN will form government in 2019 and facilitate the creation of a new and better Nigeria.

Join the ANN

Ebonyi Agog As Ebonyi Minority Leader Dumps PDP For ANN
https://mrrightsng..com/2018/09/ebonyi-agog-as-ebonyi-minority-leader.html?m=1

The political environment and calculations in Ebonyi State took another turn today, Thursday 6th September, 2018 as the Ebonyi State House of Assembly Minority Leader and honourable member representing Afikpo North-East State Constituency, Honourable Maria Ude Nwachi, defected to the Alliance for New Nigeria, ANN, from Peoples Democratic Party, PDP under which she was elected in 2015.

In a statement to the press signed by the National Publicity Secretary of ANN, Akinloye Oyeniyi, the party said it is another epoch in the political history of our dear nation, Nigeria, as the nine months old political party produced its first serving political office holder in the person of Honourable Maria Ude Nwachi, the Member representing Afikpo North-East State Constituency and the Minority Leader in the Ebonyi State House of Assembly.

The statement reads "Today Thursday 6th day of September, 2018 is a significant day in the political history of Nigeria and our dear party, Alliance for New Nigeria, ANN, as the party is welcoming into its fold the honourable member representing Afikpo North-East State Constituency and Minority Leader of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Honourable Maria Ude Uwachi at her ward in Afikpo North Local Government Area of the state, making her the first serving political office holder of our party.

"To many, political parties have merely been vehicles of thuggery and social disturbance, but as Nigerians have seen for themselves, the coming of ANN is not only to want to exercise government power by winning political offices, but to also serve as the true political party for government and political recruitment, interest articulation and aggregation, political communication and education, goal formation, link between governments and the people, political representation of all and sundry and making governments accountable to the people. These and many other qualities are what has been endearing the party of difference to multitude of people across all divides which honourable Nwachi that declared ANN as a better platform with good ideology where her impacts can be felt, is one. We have listened to her people back home, and from their own mouths they have confirmed she is a community development enthusiast and popular grassroot mobiliser loved by her people,; he said.

The defection ceremony which took place at her ward in Afikpo North LGA was witnessed by her teeming supporters, party members and officials led by the state chairman of the party, Mr. Nweli Ifeanyichukwu Hilary, his deputy Mr. Irem Austin Obiahu, the State Secretary, Mr. Orji Ifeanyichukwu Ude, the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Esheya Kelvin, the Organizing Secretary, Mr. Agwu Onyemakaeze, the Afikpo North LGA Vice Chairman, Mr. Maxwell Isu, the Afikpo North LGA Organizing Secretary, Mr. Emmanuel and many other officials who received and welcomed her into the ANN's fold.

Hum

EfonAlaaye2023:
this is going to be our campaign henceforth youths must involved theirselves massively in politics if you want these old politicians to indeed retire from politics


you don't expect them to retire when we are all moving backward and analysing politics on mere keyboard


comes 2023 I shall be representing efon alaaye constituency and I'm optimistic we shall make a different from the constituency to the state level and to the national level.


Nigerian youths get involved in politics. I'll like to see madridguy, hungerbad, sarrki, ngene, mannabbqgrill, beebeeboh, buharitill2023& others get involved in politics. if they can do it, we can do better

This is good.
Join the ANN and your dream will come true

gmercy713:
Bro I just got to know about this party recently.

You picking them as the new third choice will be a slap on APGA,SDP and labour Party just to mention few out of the developing parties.

ANN was registered purposefully to facilitate the birth of a new Nigeria. It is a new party,ready,capable and resourceful enough to deliver come 2019.

The parties you mentioned don't have any ideology or interest in national politics. They are more like the two big parties too.

So, if you want a better country, roll with ANN.

This is different

Crossboy:
It Is High Time Nigerians Look Beyond Pdp And Apc There Are Other Credible Parties And Candidates

You are very correct. We all know APC and pdp has failed. All is left is for us to kill them In our heart and embrace a credible and capable alternative like ANN

Greatzeus:
Imagine a Presidential candidate had one vote in 2015, I mean doesn't he have campaign team, family members, friends etc The truth is they say it as wasting of their vote or time or both. Many following these guys are doing it to earn a living,it's not like they believe in them really.
The Op has been pushing this ANN guy down the throat of Nairaland lately,I doubt he himself will even vote for the Hashim of a guy

Many Nigerians are now forward looking. They understand the need for a competent third alternative and that is what ANN stands for.

Olawepo Hashim is a proud Nigerian who is a global citizen.

Millions of Nigerians are looking forward to vote for him come 2019 including this op.

Believe me, 2019 will shock many. A new Nigeria is cooking. Nigeria GoH better. Do your part.

blackfase:
The part i like best is the "just any idiot" part lol...

Lol

0taPiaPia:
what about pensioners. He didn't include it

Z?

sinisters:
We talk too much in this country

Good points but we heard more than this before the 2015 elections but it was not transmitted to actionable results

This aspirant can not be compared to other people. This is global citizen who has investment all across the world and such a person is guided by results.

Certainly, this can't be like others

asawanathegreat:
Why do people like wasting their time and money, when they know fully well that they are not going anywhere??

What you described as waste of money is actually sacrifice needed to build a great nation.

And who told you they are not going anywhere?

You need to think progressively and join the efforts to build a better nation

asawanathegreat:
Why do people like wasting their time and money, when they know fully well that they are not going anywhere??

What you described as waste of money is actually sacrifice needed to build a great nation.

And who told you they are not going anywhere?

You need to think progressively and join the efforts to build a better nation

megamank:
Those that cannot even win compound elections as caretakers of compound are coming here to disturb us because of money they hope to get from INEC as election support to political parties..

How ignorant can you be? I don't mean to insult you, but your level of ignorance in this Google age is scary.

Even nursery school children knows that inec doesn't pay any party,instead the party pays inec.

For a matured person like you to still hold unto such ignorance with arrogance is really shameful

Habibsocial080:
Wow

It's real wow.

Let's start to embrace new credible alternative

gmercy713:
I love this but we all know that there are only two parties in this country that with the popularity and capacity to produce a presidential candidate for 2019 election and one will emerge as the winner.

IMO I would like to see young people in the House of Representative and National Assembly in 2019 election.

Let's get the power from grassroots.

Peace out.

ANN is the third force and with the support of people like you, plus the capacity of ANN , a better alternative shall emerge in 2019

He will most likely win and facilitate the creation of a new Nigeria

maestroferddi:
I see...

Trump hit you hard and you are trying to find a roundabout way to ventilate your frustration.

Omarosa will only have herself to blame.

Commonsense is not common....

I don get alert ,God win

See

The mutation of Olawepo-Hashim
By Abiodun Adeniyi
https://mrrightsng..com/2018/09/2019-presidency-inspiring-stor

He rode to fame as a student union activist, and veered into advocacy as a graduate. He later resorted to public relations practice, and then detoured into oil. Then Gas, and now Energy. Soon, he got into politics: beginning as a presidential endorser, he moved into party administrator. And then he sought office as governor. A break followed, resulting into the expansion of a business, flourishing across Africa, in Europe and the Americas.

Somewhat like a fairy-tale, sometimes incredible, his concerns have flourished, and the young, ever agitated mind of yesteryears, have become a risen man of today, with promising manners for greater heights.

That’s the story of Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, who lately revealed his paternal identity, through the origin of his father, Hashimi Abdullah’s as being Kebbi State born, and who’s now vying for the nation’s top job, the presidency.

Olawepo-Hashim is not however your conventional businessperson, simply at home with figures and returns, and prospects or potentials. He works through the borderlines, believing in the persons powering the growth and progress of his concerns. He is not also your regular investor angling for new markets, through feasibility evaluations, and then taking the plunge.

He calculates with a calmness worried about firstly growing the one at hand. Then think of his contemplative mien. His introspective disposition. And then his philosophical outlook. What about his worldview that prioritises circumspection? They combine to reveal an intriguing, and yet incredible maturity of a radical philosopher that has equally mastered the art of dealing in figures.

Not a few were shocked a few years ago when a controversy over ownership of oil blocks raged in the Senate. It was important they should be identified. The former student union leader, former civil society activist, and former public relations consultant (a line of business not easily associated with megabucks), Olawepo-Hashim made the list. He was listed as the owner of OPL 241 on the continental shelf.

Is that the same Olawepo? How did he get into that bracket? Isn’t that forte for the royals, the generals, and the retired that, and retired this? More questions were asked. Tongues wagged. Riots ran in inquirers brains. Unbelievable? But it was him – the same Olawepo-Hashim. Not anyone else. Obviously, he had painstakingly grown his business. He had expanded. The transformation probably did not show because the man was still himself: simple, philosophical, affable, and godly.

He was still the polemicist, the thinker, the talker, and still vibrant in interacting. He did not grow into the recluse of the monetary empire builder, ever cynical about the person next door. Olawepo-Hashim did not bear the verbal asceticism of the million, or billion owner. He carried no strange airs. He was still lively, still in relationship with old folks and friends, from the good old days of the struggle.

While the disbelief of the oil block ownership was still lingering, he became known again as an energy investor. Like a joke, he soon began leading circles of power sector investors in Nigeria, and later in the UK. Often accompanied by aides and partners from all races, the age of doubt began to dry out.

The guy is real. His firm, Bresson AS Energy became one of the pioneer licensed Independent Power Producers (IPP) in the country. The firm is engaged in acquiring, developing, owning, and operating independent power generating facilities (IPGF). It is presently building its first power plant located at the Lagos corridor of Ogun State, Nigeria. More than $200million has so far being sunk into the project. And it is ongoing.

Something is ever common to growing or successful entrepreneurs: they hardly have ever worked for anyone else but themselves. Even when they rarely do, they quickly break off, to kick off. Check the story of Aliko Dangote, Mark Zuckerberg, Mike Domek, Joseph Semprevivo, and Babak Farahi. See the origin of Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Carlos Slim and Armacio Ortega, amongst others. With all these ones, it has ever being a crave for business independence, for the performance of experiments with finances, and a knack to take some plunges. In these cases, it has paid off.

For Olawepo-Hashim there is a parallel. He is not known to have being in any paid employment. From his days at Set and Sell Limited, he has been up and about. Between Lagos and Abuja, it was proposal here, proposal there. He kept at it. He diversified. Then kept the focus, and the vision. And then the bigger deals happened. Looks far easier said than done. Many waters would have passed under the bridge. There would have been countless pains, stress, near misses and disappointments. There would always be a story. The important thing is the stage at hand, and the work that still lies ahead, in the reckoning of Olawepo-Hashim.

Growing as one of Africa’s leading energy investors with some forays into East and Southern Africa, Olawepo-Hashim lately stole the show at a symposium organised by Imperial College Nigeria Society. He was also at the University of Ife as public lecturer, with tens of professors in audience.

At Imperial College, his fellow speakers probably lived up to their backgrounds as conservatives, speaking with the solemn elite flavour. Not with Olawepo-Hashim: Even with that flavour as well, he additionally went further. He connected with the mainly student audience. At home with them, he recalled his days of activism, his focus and his rise through the stages of advocacy and finance, before zeroing in on the state of the Nigerian nation. With varying presentation skills, his applause was deafening, temporarily providing a warmth in the whipping winter cold.

“We have gathered here to talk about a great country Nigeria” he began, stressing, “Nigeria is great not just because it is the 7th most populous country on the planet. It is an important Nation not only on account of her oil wealth. Nigeria is significant more because of the energy of her people, whose creativity and resilient spirit of enterprise continues to assure her progress even in the face of seemingly hopeless situations”

His salute of the ordinary Nigerian spirit and hardwork did not end there: “ It is due to the hard-work and industry of the ordinary Nigerians- the nation’s greatest asset, that Nigeria attained a GDP rebased at $510 billion in 2013 exceeding that of South Africa to become the biggest African economy even in the face of her parlous infrastructure.

“The feat is the result of the toiling of small scale entrepreneurs, who continue to create value without adequate electricity, cottage food processors, without affordable financing, farmers without the scantest of state support; artisans, bold and imaginative business men and women, dynamic financial managers, young innovators creative artistes and hardworking professionals”

Then the interactive session came. Ideologies and backgrounds were bound to clash. Olawepo-Hashim and Aig-Imoukhuede got into a short, harmless, but interesting back and forth. While the banker highlighted the many risks associated with investments in Nigeria with some facts and examples, the investor discountenanced them, arguing that Nigeria remains one of the best places to invest in the world. “Look at MTN, what about the Dubai merchants and the joint venture partners? They are all doing well despite the challenges. There is no business without risk, and there is no location without its troubles”, he pontificated to a warm applause.

He moved on to criticise the high interest rate in lending in Nigeria. “We probably need a new set of bankers, if we cannot do something about the rate in Nigeria” Then this: “Given that prevailing interest rate to assess finance in Nigeria is 22% compared to 8.5% in South Africa, 7.8% in Egypt, China 3.4% and in the US 2.33%, the Nigerian manufacturer is already not competitive. The burden of high cost of production could be lighter if electricity supply can be assessed at the grid price on a stable basis and even at a price a little higher than the current grid cost” Applause and applause!

Olawepo-Hashim then went into his forte, noting that the participation of new Independent Power Producers (IPPs) in the sector are specially very crucial because whilst privatization of existing utilities merely transfers ownership to the new operators, it is the new greenfield IPPs that add capacity to the network. Unfortunately, he pursued, in the past five years no new IPP has been commissioned in Nigeria. As a matter of fact last year no single turbine was imported to Nigeria and none has been imported this year, compared to 15 GE turbines that were shipped to Egypt this year alone.

The businessman, who also chairs the Transnational Energy Corporation in the US regretted the difficulties associated with the private sector participation in infrastructure development identified previously. “The difference here is, the sense of urgency that the resolution of these issues in the power sector demands. They are questions to which answers cannot be delayed further; they must be addressed right now! Policy formulators only lament and sing the power inadequacy like a song and failing to take the practical executive actions that do not even require legislation to achieve”

British Tycoon, Richard Branson, it was, who said “A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts” As a communications graduate, Olawepo-Hashim understood the power of creativity earlier on, and he built on it from the beginning, through his crave for differences. And “what lies ahead?” Tom Althouse also adds, “Worrying about it or creating it. Both requires a choice, one opens the door.”

The Bresson AS Energy Chairman has also learnt from these Althouse lines, and with the closet sing-songs of Dr. Funmi Olawepo-Hashim, the gentleman is propelled by another saying from Germany Kent “Once you believe that you can do something, there is not a single person in the universe who can convince you otherwise.” Then it can be said that for Olawepo-Hashim, and with his strong believes, it is morning yet on day of increase.

●Dr. Adeniyi sent this piece from Abuja

maestroferddi:
You are talking absolute baloney!

You went to some cheap hustler blog site to copy and paste the crap you uploaded here to mislead ignorant people.

May I tell you that I can confident call myself an authority on Trump and The Apprentice from where Omarosa and Trump had the first interface sometime before 2005?

I have also done a detailed research on the Omarosa sack saga.

Do some little cross -checking....Dont argue blindly.

Omarosa smarter than Trump?

O don't be ridiculous!

Omarosa is far more smarter than Trump. Actually, she is far more intelligent.

If you have indeed done a research, it appeared what you did is not worth anything. Please, start a new research.

This beautiful, bold and extremely intelligent Omarosa is exceptional.

Don't misrepresent her with research that doesn't hold any water

maestroferddi:
Like seriously?

What Omarosa is attempting to do is sheer blackmail in anybody's book.

What are you talking about?

I thought I had advised you to consult your dictionary for the meaning of blackmail?

It appeared you haven't really done that.

Please do,you will be helping yourself

THISDAYLive
Home Life & Style


Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim: I Was a Lonely Child Who Cheated Death 4 Times While Growing Up
September 1, 2018 8:37 am 45 0

Politician and Chairman of Oilworld Limited, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, is a charming personality. He is not physically, intellectually and spiritually encumbered. Whereas, spiritually, his rodomontade is in his personal relationship with the Almighty God, which bond, according to him, is an essential summation of his high point in life. Sufuyan Ojeifo captures the atmospherics of his modest residence in the serene Life Camp district of Abuja and the nuances of his responses to questions that bordered on his birth, his formative years, and the social-economic conditions that contoured his philosophical voyage through student unionism; politics and business

Judging by the circumstances of his birth and the number of times he cheated death in his childhood, it would not have been too difficult for even the undiscerning mind to foretell that Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim was destined to be great in life. We pumped hands as he welcomed me into his living room and ushered me to a seat. I could see that he was eager to get down to brass tacks. But he would first reinforce the human interest focus of the interview to be sure of the kind of questions to expect. So, it was made clear from the outset that it was not an interview bordering on politics for which he is currently preparing to engage in the 2019 presidential enterprise.

With a somewhat emotion-laden voice, he intoned that were it not for the caring hand of the Almighty of God, he would not be sitting with me for the interaction that was intended to mediate the distance between his past and his present or, in other words, reconnect his present with his past for some historical narrative. At ages four and seven, he had cheated death in some inexplicable circumstances.



According to him, “The caring hand of God has always been there for me. I have had very tough experience like when, as a four-year kid, I was drowning in River Niger. It was only the hand of God that saved me. I could have passed on. After I was rescued, they pressed my stomach and water was coming out from my nose, my mouth, from everywhere.”

Three years after that incident, he was involved in an auto accident and when he was in his final class in the secondary school, his life was again threatened. He said: “I had an accident as a seven-year old kid. I fell off a speeding Volkswagen combi bus and I spent months in the hospital. That was a close shave. In the secondary school, every six weeks, I was on hospital admission. In the secondary school, I wrote my final year WASC examinations on the hospital bed. But when the result came out, I cleared all my papers at first sitting. So, I have had tough moments; I won’t say low points, yes tough moments, but God has always been there for me to provide strength.”

Life as a lonely kid

His formative years were characterised by solitude because he grew up with the family of his stepfather and intimate attention was not given to him: “I was a lonely kid in the sense that sometimes I was in the boarding house and on the visiting day, parents were coming and everybody was being called that she/he had visitors and I was not called, I would start crying.” To aggravate that, his best intentions were sometimes not appreciated and, as he put it: “I found out that those things that I held dearly were even turned against me to define me wrongly. It could be very painful. When you are in such a circumstance, it is only God that can give you the strength to continue. But in all these, the caring hand of God has always been there for me.”

Interestingly, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, who was known and addressed by his associates as Gbenga Olawepo until some few years ago, explained the sudden manifestation of Hashim that is now compounded with Olawepo, perhaps, was to douse whatever satanic suspicions that are possibly being nurtured and harboured by some disingenuous minds.

His account was succinct: “I was born in Yelwa, Yauri in Kebbi State, and precisely in 1969, on June 28 at 6 am on a Saturday, at the Methodist Clinic in Yauri because my mother was then a hospital assistant and my father was a cadet in the police. He just finished his cadet course as a young police officer at the time I was born. My father was Alhaji Hashim Abdullahi who died as police commissioner and commandant of the Police College in Kaduna. But I grew up with the family of my stepfather, Mr. Julius Bamidele Olawepo, who worked as works manager in Kainji Lake Research Centre.” Although there was the problem of distance initially between him and his biological father, that distance was mediated in 1996 long before he passed on in 2006.

Overcoming psychological pressure

Surviving the socio-economic condition of the time and the attendant pressures was critical in the life of the young Olawepo-Hashim despite being raised by a relatively prosperous family. That relative prosperity was toned down by personal issues that essentially piled on him some psychological pressure because, “as a child, I was not raised in the same way my step brothers and sisters were raised. We went to different schools; and as a child that had a way of giving me some kind of psychological pressure.”

But that experience did not turn out negative for him. He quipped: “I would say that it helped me more than it affected me because I grew up not having a sense of entitlement. I was raised to depend a lot on myself. So, in that sense, I did not become a spoilt kid. Whatever God had brought my way, I have had to work for them; and, when I was going to secondary school, for instance, there was nothing that showed that I came from a middle class home. In school, maybe I had a small tin of pronto and garri and you would find the children of drivers coming with cartons of geisha and all that and I just depended on whatever I was given.”

While in school, Olawepo-Hashim was exposed to the good, the bad and the ugly sides of life. One of the ugly sides would later define his essence: “I was interested in the handball team and I was playing number six and because of the quality of my games wears, there was this assistant coach that was very nasty and who was always telling me to file out of the team and leave the court because my games wears were not very nice enough. But the senior coach was more caring and understanding. It did not matter to him the quality of my games wears; but, anytime this very mean assistant coach was at the court, he would just look at me and yell at me to get out of the handball team; and, I would go by the side and cry. But that did not hurt me psychologically.

“What it did for me was that early in life, I taught myself that material things would not define me. So, I was a very good kid in class and some of the positions that I had right from secondary school were basically about my academic performances rather than how I looked or my games wears. When I was appointed prefect and that was after our class four promotion exams, it was based on the best students in arts and sciences. They were made prefect, basically.

“My very good teacher, Tope Aluko, was one of the first people who ever inspired me and really showed me that I am important rather than the treatment that I got on the handball court. Aluko called me one afternoon; and, of course, I had always participated in his class very well; even in the year four exam, I had distinction in Government; and, he said, look, Gbenga, we had a meeting in the staff room today and I nominated you as a prefect and I hope you won’t let me down. I promised that I would not let him down. We used to have fantastic debates in class that time about the nationalist struggle of Zik and all that; and, then the curriculum of that era was very rich. So people like Tope Aluko already imprinted in me the self-confidence to have a self-worth beyond being defined by material things.”

Whatever the magnitude of his intellectual prowess today, Olawepo-Hashim claimed that the foundations were laid at the secondary school and the School of Basic Studies. According to him, “Every other thing, even in the University of Lagos or in my masters’ class was just like icing on the cake. I was just developing or consolidating along the line, but the foundations were laid in the secondary school and the School of Basic Studies. The curriculum in the School of Basic Studies in Ilorin was excellent. I was a responsible student of Duro Onimola who taught us Introduction to Political Science. You could not be an idiot if you were a good student of Duro Onimola and you know the curriculum in the School of Basic Studies was a mixture of GCE A’ Level London and the IJMB by ABU Zaria. So, people like Duro Onimola and co. did a lot to also sharpen me intellectually.”

Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim: I Was a Lonely Child Who Cheated Death 4 Times While Growing Up


THISDAYLive
Home Life & Style


Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim: I Was a Lonely Child Who Cheated Death 4 Times While Growing Up
September 1, 2018 8:37 am 45 0

Politician and Chairman of Oilworld Limited, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, is a charming personality. He is not physically, intellectually and spiritually encumbered. Whereas, spiritually, his rodomontade is in his personal relationship with the Almighty God, which bond, according to him, is an essential summation of his high point in life. Sufuyan Ojeifo captures the atmospherics of his modest residence in the serene Life Camp district of Abuja and the nuances of his responses to questions that bordered on his birth, his formative years, and the social-economic conditions that contoured his philosophical voyage through student unionism; politics and business

Judging by the circumstances of his birth and the number of times he cheated death in his childhood, it would not have been too difficult for even the undiscerning mind to foretell that Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim was destined to be great in life. We pumped hands as he welcomed me into his living room and ushered me to a seat. I could see that he was eager to get down to brass tacks. But he would first reinforce the human interest focus of the interview to be sure of the kind of questions to expect. So, it was made clear from the outset that it was not an interview bordering on politics for which he is currently preparing to engage in the 2019 presidential enterprise.

With a somewhat emotion-laden voice, he intoned that were it not for the caring hand of the Almighty of God, he would not be sitting with me for the interaction that was intended to mediate the distance between his past and his present or, in other words, reconnect his present with his past for some historical narrative. At ages four and seven, he had cheated death in some inexplicable circumstances.


THISDAYLive
Home Life & Style


Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim: I Was a Lonely Child Who Cheated Death 4 Times While Growing Up
September 1, 2018 8:37 am 45 0

Politician and Chairman of Oilworld Limited, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, is a charming personality. He is not physically, intellectually and spiritually encumbered. Whereas, spiritually, his rodomontade is in his personal relationship with the Almighty God, which bond, according to him, is an essential summation of his high point in life. Sufuyan Ojeifo captures the atmospherics of his modest residence in the serene Life Camp district of Abuja and the nuances of his responses to questions that bordered on his birth, his formative years, and the social-economic conditions that contoured his philosophical voyage through student unionism; politics and business

Judging by the circumstances of his birth and the number of times he cheated death in his childhood, it would not have been too difficult for even the undiscerning mind to foretell that Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim was destined to be great in life. We pumped hands as he welcomed me into his living room and ushered me to a seat. I could see that he was eager to get down to brass tacks. But he would first reinforce the human interest focus of the interview to be sure of the kind of questions to expect. So, it was made clear from the outset that it was not an interview bordering on politics for which he is currently preparing to engage in the 2019 presidential enterprise.

With a somewhat emotion-laden voice, he intoned that were it not for the caring hand of the Almighty of God, he would not be sitting with me for the interaction that was intended to mediate the distance between his past and his present or, in other words, reconnect his present with his past for some historical narrative. At ages four and seven, he had cheated death in some inexplicable circumstances.



According to him, “The caring hand of God has always been there for me. I have had very tough experience like when, as a four-year kid, I was drowning in River Niger. It was only the hand of God that saved me. I could have passed on. After I was rescued, they pressed my stomach and water was coming out from my nose, my mouth, from everywhere.”

Three years after that incident, he was involved in an auto accident and when he was in his final class in the secondary school, his life was again threatened. He said: “I had an accident as a seven-year old kid. I fell off a speeding Volkswagen combi bus and I spent months in the hospital. That was a close shave. In the secondary school, every six weeks, I was on hospital admission. In the secondary school, I wrote my final year WASC examinations on the hospital bed. But when the result came out, I cleared all my papers at first sitting. So, I have had tough moments; I won’t say low points, yes tough moments, but God has always been there for me to provide strength.”

Life as a lonely kid

His formative years were characterised by solitude because he grew up with the family of his stepfather and intimate attention was not given to him: “I was a lonely kid in the sense that sometimes I was in the boarding house and on the visiting day, parents were coming and everybody was being called that she/he had visitors and I was not called, I would start crying.” To aggravate that, his best intentions were sometimes not appreciated and, as he put it: “I found out that those things that I held dearly were even turned against me to define me wrongly. It could be very painful. When you are in such a circumstance, it is only God that can give you the strength to continue. But in all these, the caring hand of God has always been there for me.”

Interestingly, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, who was known and addressed by his associates as Gbenga Olawepo until some few years ago, explained the sudden manifestation of Hashim that is now compounded with Olawepo, perhaps, was to douse whatever satanic suspicions that are possibly being nurtured and harboured by some disingenuous minds.

His account was succinct: “I was born in Yelwa, Yauri in Kebbi State, and precisely in 1969, on June 28 at 6 am on a Saturday, at the Methodist Clinic in Yauri because my mother was then a hospital assistant and my father was a cadet in the police. He just finished his cadet course as a young police officer at the time I was born. My father was Alhaji Hashim Abdullahi who died as police commissioner and commandant of the Police College in Kaduna. But I grew up with the family of my stepfather, Mr. Julius Bamidele Olawepo, who worked as works manager in Kainji Lake Research Centre.” Although there was the problem of distance initially between him and his biological father, that distance was mediated in 1996 long before he passed on in 2006.

maestroferddi:
I have brought myself up to speed in the issue.

Omarosa, as Trump put it, is not smart.

It was a case of impossibility of masking character for so long.

This was a lady that was said to be the most senior African American official in the White House.

All she needed to do was behave like a normal human. I guess that was too much to ask.

She is trying to blackmail Trump and her twisted mentality does not tell her the futility of fighting a sitting US president.

They have sued her for violating the Non-Disclosure Agreement she signed before joining the Trump Team.

This is someone I had so much respect for because as, Trump remarked, she was a fighter. She has succeeded in making an ass of herself.

She might be enjoying the media spotlight she is getting now but it is going to be downhill going forward.

It appeared you are reading the back of the news,if not you will be saying this.

Who could be smarter than Omarosa? Definitely not Trump,she outsmarted him and he couldn't help but try to silence her. But according to Omarosa, Trump has got his match and if you see her in fight with a bear,pray for the bear.

You are really funny character. Someone like you can't really understand what it means to have dignity. When you have president Who behaves like an animal, many fools will think those who behaves like real human are acting abnormal.

Meanwhile, please go and learn the meaning of blackmail, don't be ignorant.

Temple1288:
Nobody is going to trust her again. If she could blackmail someone who she's known for more than half of her life, I guess she'd do it to anyone.

I read your comment and can't but shake my head at how gullible some people could be.

Please, go back and learn the meaning of blackmail. At least, you will do yourself a good favour by learning. If you don't know the meaning of blackmail, how can you know the meaning of being patriotic and failing to accept mediocrity?

Hum