He explained that the current political trajectory of the country is dim and dark, as deep ethnic cleavages and bigotry have dominated the landscape.
A journalist and businessman, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, on Tuesday, declared his interest to contest the 2023 presidency under the platform of the All Progressives Congress, saying “this is not another empty promise of another politician, I’m who I am.”
According to him, despite the fact that the country is presently “gripped in the claws of insecurity, worsening energy crises due to absence of local refining of petroleum products and inadequate electricity generation, transmission and distribution, a new and better Nigeria is still possible.”
Olawepo-Hashim, who was a presidential candidate of the Trust Party in the 2019 elections, and Chief Executive Officer of Global Oil, said he would pick his nomination form on Thursday at the secretariat of the APC in Abuja.
He explained that the “current political trajectory of the country is dim and dark, as deep ethnic cleavages and bigotry have dominated the landscape accentuating the crises, undermining any initiative for a cohesive national redemption.”
The former students’ leader added, “I have stepped out to ignite that fire, in my decision to seek the Presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria during the 2023 elections.
“Mine is not an ambition but a historic burden. It is a burden imposed on me right from my late teens when as an undergraduate youth activist, my generation committed ourselves to the struggle for social and economic development of Nigeria, as well as to the struggle for democratic rule.
“By reason of accident, my father came from Northern Nigeria and my mother from the South. Half of my family are Christians while the other half are Muslims.
“I have lived and schooled in both North and South as well as in Europe and America. I know that all human beings are born equal and deserving of equal rights, opportunities and justice.
“I will do justice to all without discrimination on account of ethnicity, religion and gender. This is not another empty promise of another politician. It is who I am.”
The name Olawepo-Hashim first made the headlines when as an anti-apartheid activist, he and three other students' leaders of the University of Lagos were clamped into the over-crowded Nigeria Police cell in April 1989 after an anti-apartheid protest.
The military regime that was growing increasingly repressive and intolerant of freedom of expression in Nigeria then ordered the detention of the students’ activist.