National Chairman of the Peoples Trust (PT), one of the newly registered political parties, Mr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) and compatriot in the activism fraternity, Sylvester Odion-Akhaine, are no strangers to the Nigerian political scene. They were some of the common names on the streets as the activists battled to end military rule of both General Ibrahim Babangida and the late dictator, General Sani Abacha. Alongside the likes of Chief Gani Fawehinmi GCON, Dr Frederick Faseun, Dr Beko Ransom Kuti (all late now) and other pro-democracy campaigners, the activists espoused a Nigeria under full blown democratic rulership, devoid of the jackboot autocracy of those days. They were brutalised, imprisoned and arrested several times. They suffered physical, mental and material oppression but remained steadfast.
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As democracy returned to the country in 1999, the activists, however, took the back stage. They were non-commital as General Abdusalami Abubakar announced the planned return of democracy upon his ascension to office in the wake of the death of Sani Abacha in June 1998. Thus, when democracy returned, elements who had participated in the political activities of Abacha era, famously described by the late Chief Bola Ige as the “five fingers of a leprous hand” took charge. When in 2003, the activists attempted to take the stage with the contest for the highest office in the land by Chief Gani Fawehinmi, little impact was made as the political space had already been filled by the regular politicians. Since then, the activists had bemoaned the lots and fate of the people as things appear to worsen from one administration to the other. But it appears that the activists are not giving up. One election season after the other, they register political structures aimed at taking the centre stage.
On January 12, in Abuja, Olisa Agbakoba apparently let the cat out of the bag as to the blueprint of the activists this time. He told a gathering of PT faithful that the activists of yesteryears had decided to come together once again and fight for the survival of Nigerian democracy the same way they fought the military. He told the gathering that the presidential candidate of the PT and a former Students’ Union leader, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, was a thoroughbred activist, whose leadership of the country would deliver the goods.
Odion-Akhaine also spoke the same way, while presenting a message on behalf of a coalition of civil rights activists at the flag off of the PT presidential campaign in Abuja.
According to Agbakoba, the progressive forces in the country have resolved to deliver the presidential candidate of the party, Olawepo-Hashim, at the February 16, 2019 poll and liberate the country from the antics of the old politicians. According to him, the progressive forces are now united under the umbrella of the PT as the political vehicle and the National Intervention Movement (NIM) as the populists’ campaign platform.
He said: “We took a resolute decision to form this Movement we are seeing today. We have reunited under a broad platform called Third Force and by God’s grace and power, we will win. Let us go together.”
Taking over the microphone from Agbakoba, Odion-Akhaine also told the gathering that he was delivering a message from a coalition of activists who, he said, have resolved to resume the battle to liberate Nigeria under the PT/NIM platform.
No doubt, the declarations by Agbakoba and Odion-Akhaine represent the intentions of the activists and pro-democracy campaigners, most of who participated in the fight to restore democracy to Nigeria in the 1990s. But the task at hand is enormous. Can they upstage the present order and install a PT administration in the next election?
Director General of NIM, Olawale Okuniyi, a senatorial candidate on the PT platform in Ogun State, also lend support to the voices of the activists, as he said NIM was already existing in the 36 states of the country. He said that a broad coalition of some 20 political parties was being formed to project the candidate of the Third Force, Olawepo-Hashim, in the February polls.
Co-Chairman of PT, Dr Jahleel Tafawa-Balewa, a former presidential hopeful and son of Nigeria’s Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa, also shared the optimism of the activists who spoke earlier. He said the party is peopled by leaders who understood the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians, adding that, with PT in the driver’s seat of Nigeria, the issues of development, squalor and deprivation would be put behind.
Presidential candidate of PT, Olawepo-Hashim, who took time out to X-ray the situation of Nigerian politics, said the country right now is groping under severe existential threats. While receiving the presidential campaign flag of the party at the Old Parade Ground, Abuja on January 12, he declared that the country needs immediate recue from lack of direction, acute poverty and stagnating economy. He said, rather than grow the economy, the current administration had further shrank the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from a little over $500 million it inherited in 2015.
According to him, a PT government would grow the GDP to a $4trillion economy and create jobs the youths urgently need. He declared that surveys and statistical analysis of the political situation of the country have shown that about 70 per cent of Nigerian voters have rejected the two dominant political parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), adding that with a majority of first time voters put at more than 10 million, the stage was set for the enthronement of a new order in 2019. According to him, Nigerian voters have seen through APC and PDP as two sides of a coin.
He said: “This is a turning point in the history of Nigeria. We are at a point where we will exchange instability for security. We are at a point where we will dump poverty for prosperity; we are at a point where we will stop the wave of violence and hatred and build a truly united Nigeria; where the live of every Nigerian will count.
“Today, 11 out of 19 states of Northern Nigeria have literarily been overrun by bandits from across the border and violence caused by agents of disunity and destruction. The southern states have literarily been overtaken by kidnappers, robbers and all sorts of violence induced by the present state of the economy of the country.
“At the bottom of these massive upheavals in the land is youth unemployment, which has climbed to about 33 to 36 percent. Now we have more youths that are unemployed than youths that are gainfully employed. The national unemployment average has also climbed to 24 per cent of the population.
“Our resolve is to build a new economy that will guarantee jobs for our teeming youths, empower our women with the capital to take their place in the society and not just in the ‘oza’ room. We are resolved to expand our economy to a $4trn economy within 10 years. We will restructure the way power is organised between the states and the Federal Government by devolving power to the states as presently constituted so that they can mobilise more local resources to address problems.
“We will empower the states to have their own police, side-by-side with the federal police, so that internal security can be enhanced. We will create a national guard as an intermediate force between the Army and the Police so that we can restore internal security rapidly to the country.
“We will build a Nigeria where every Nigerian will be proud of his own passport because of our initiatives on foreign policies. We will create an environment where more youths will have access to education by increasing budgetary allocation to the educational sector. We will make the necessary social investments to take our people rapidly out of poverty.
“We are a party that is determined to build a better Nigeria. We want to put an end to the poverty squalor and underdevelopment that have been the hallmark of the incumbent government. We will fight corruption in a way that it would be done scientifically. It will be multi-various. It is not just going to be a police action.
“You cannot fight corruption when majority of the people are hungry. A people that pay his worker paltry minimum wage below N18, 000 cannot fight corruption efficiently. We will raise the minimum wage to N50, 000 at the first anniversary of our government.
“Nigeria has got the resources, both human and material, to build a prosperous economy. Nigerians have no relationship with poverty with the amount of resources that God has bestowed this country with. Come with us in the Peoples’ Trust. You can trust us because we are people who have fought before for the country,” he said.
Weeks before the flag off of the campaign in Abuja, Olawepo-Hashim and the presidential campaign council visited the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) in Kaduna, where he secured the commitment of the Forum not to shut out any of the contestants from the North. The party is hopeful that the activists and political stakeholders from the North, including former Speaker Ghali Umar Na’Abba and Alhaji Habu Fari among others, would help spread the good news about PT across the northern states.
One big coup PT successfully hatched was the endorsement of the Middle Belt Forum, just ahead of the presidential campaign flag off. The Forum, according to its leader, Air Commodore Dan Suleiman (rtd), had kickstarted a search for a presentable candidate for the 2019 presidency alongside the southern and Niger Delta leaders.
The Forum said it initially shortlisted four presidential hopefuls, including Olawepo-Hashim, Professor Jerry Gana, Dr Obadiah Malafia and Senator Jonah Jang, adding, however, that the search party finally endorsed Olawepo-Hashim early January.
Announcing the choice at a meeting of the Forum in Abuja, Air Commodore Suleiman (rtd), a former military governor of Plateau State and a former chieftain of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), said the choice of Olawepo-Hashim has been ratified by the Forum. Other leaders of the Forum said its members are spread in 12 out of 19 northern states and that the adoption of Olawepo-Hashim could alter the calculations ahead of the coming elections.
According to Suleiman, the journey for the ratification of a common Middle Belt candidate started when the southern leaders asked the Middle Belt to produce a common candidate that would be supported for the presidency by the Southern, Middle Belt Forum.
He said that the Forum identified many aspirants from the Middle Belt and later shortlisted four and pruned them down to three who met with the leaders at the Lagos home of a former governor of Kwara State, Chief Cornelius Adebayo.
He said the Forum had assured the three shortlisted candidates that a final choice would be made and that all of them must be ready to work together. He also stated that the Middle Belt would continue to network with southern leaders on the adoption of the common candidate.
Olawepo-Hashim, who expressed gratitude to the Middle Belt leaders, said he is a candidate with capacity to unite Nigerians, having grew up in the North Central but born to a father from Kebbi State in the North West. He said: “That Nigeria is still standing as one today is due to the sacrifices of all of you. Most of you were not just soldiers in mouth, you also led in the battle field to keep Nigeria one. The forces that fought either as Air Force officers or as combatant soldiers and police officers are all from Middle belt.
“Today, the country is facing an existential threat. 11 out of 19 northern states are today ravaged by cross border banditry and all manners of criminality. The south is threatened by kidnappers, armed robbers. You can hardly travel from Port Harcourt to Lagos on road without major incidents. So the country is facing existential threat.
“And it is not surprising to me that you have done what you are supposed to do as leaders. At this point in time, by agreeing to support somebody who can bring the country together. I am sure you have done this not just because I am a Middle Belter, but because you believe that we are able to get the job done. And this job is to keep Nigeria one, secure the country. Secondly, bring prosperity to the land and, three, guarantee all round socio-development that would bring our people quickly out of poverty. The next election is not just about choosing a president; it is a battle for the soul of Nigeria.”
Leaders of the Forum, who announced they were taking home the PT message of a better Nigeria at the meeting included the president of Middle Belt Forum, Dr Pogu Bitrus, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, former military governor of Rivers State, Major General Zamani Lekwot, former deputy governor of Niger State, Nuhu Zagbayi, retired DIG Porter Dabup and members of the executive committee of the Middle Belt Forum.
Besides the haul of the Middle Belt support, the PT has also continued to harvest support from other parties. Presidential candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) Eniola Ojajuni, in December 2018, dropped out of the presidential contest and aligned with the PT candidate. Ojajuni had declared that he was convinced that Olawepo-Hashim would deliver the goods if elected president.
On the heels of that declaration, some 25 candidates of AD, who are contesting various positions in states of the South West have also announced their support for the PT candidate. A statement on behalf of the AD Coalition Movement and signed by Sunday Agbanimu, indicated that, following the decision of Ojajuni to step down for Olawepo-Hashim, other candidates of the party, including governorship, senatorial, House of Representatives candidates and other, have also adopted Olawepo-Hashim and declared their full backing for his presidential aspiration. The candidates cut across the South-West states, including Lagos, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo, Osun and Ekiti.
In the South-East, Olawepo-Hashim has campaigned in Abakaliki and Afikpo in Ebonyi State as well as in Enugu. He said the PT would rally the support of the old Eastern Mandate Union, whose leadership are backing the PT agenda.
Will the Peoples Trust live up to its name, namely, the Third Force? That is the question on the lips of several people, but its leaders and the presidential candidate are assured that alliances on ground can deliver them the votes.
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