Presidential Ccandidate of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has described the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, as a throwback to Nigeria’s past.
In an interview with journalists in Lagos, Olawepo said Atiku would take Nigeria backwards if elected.
He said, “By all standards the Waziri of Adamawa is qualified to be the President of Nigeria, having been Vice President before. But, the 2019 election is a different election. I think Vice President Atiku missed his chance of being president in 2007 and talking about in 2019 is like talking about the future of Nigeria and at the same time racing and reasoning backwards.
“I think the choice before Nigerians is between Nigeria and the whole Nigerians. A better Nigeria and the Nigeria that people like Atiku created before and most electorates from the polling that we have seen already are not talking about the maps that are been called up by some newspapers. I mean the pollings by those who have PVCs and want to vote.
“Eighty percent of Nigerians want to see a new direction. They don’t want to go backward and Vice President Atiku Abukakar is a man of yesterday.”
Asked about the edge he has on others at the election, he said, “Number one, I will be able to unite the country. I will be able to build a strong economy, given my experience and I’m that candidate that majority of voters, particularly first time voters and who are very significant, almost about 15 million of them who are not supporters of APC or PDP and then my friends in PDP and APC, who have made up their mind that when it comes to presidential election we will vote Gbenga. That’s an edge I have going for me I believe, no other candidate in this election has that.
“I think the ANN as a party is not all that my political structure is all about. The Olawepo-Hashim Organisation, which is our political platform is presently in 36 states of the federation is bigger than the ANN. ANN comprises of the fathers of ANN and some of my supporters who agreed to migrate to that party, but the GHO is made up of my supporters and friends who are in APC, PDP, SDP, PT and ANN and it all these forces that we are going to be galvanizing for the next election and we have always known that we will come to this point when we started this campaign, 2019 elections is going to be a different election, you will find some states when it comes to presidency they will vote candidate A and party A, when it comes to governorship they will vote for party B so the results of the presidential election is not going to be measured by the strengths of the parties as they are established right now and because it’s not automatic that because someone’s in APC he will vote Buhari.
“We did an opinion polls 6 months ago, a survey of people who actually have PVCs. In Lagos for instance, Buhari scored 5 per cent, Atiku scored 3 per cent. majority of the people who are both APC and PDP said they are waiting for a new candidate. The 2019 elections is a unique election, it’s not going to be that simple and this is not just a Nigerian trend, it’s a worldwide trend. In the last elections in the United States we saw that a lot of democratic supporters, the men for instance migrated and voted for trump even though they were in a Democratic Party and that’s the trend.”
