Folalumi Alaran in Abuja 

As the preparation for the 2027 general election gathers momentum, a former presidential candidate and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Dr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has welcomed the speculated return of former President Goodluck Jonathan, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, and former Labour Party standard-bearer in the 2023 presidential poll, Mr Peter Obi, to the forthcoming PDP presidential primary.

In a statement issued on Thursday by his Chief Press Secretary, Ibrahim Hassan Mahmoud, Olawepo-Hashim welcomed the potential contenders, declaring that: “The more, the merrier.”

According to him, “If Jonathan, Atiku, Obi and others wish to contest, they should be welcomed. Let the best ideas and visions emerge through fair competition. That is how to build a party of the future.”

The presidential aspirant insisted that far from weakening the party, a competitive and transparent presidential primary would reawaken the PDP’s legacy as the true party of democracy in Nigeria.

“The PDP was never meant to be an exclusive club. From day one, it was designed to be a national platform, a big umbrella for all shades of opinion, ideology and aspiration,” Olawepo-Hashim said.

Reflecting on the party’s formation in 1998, he recalled how a journalist in the publicity subcommittee, which he served as secretary under the chairmanship of the late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo proposed the umbrella symbol, now one of Nigeria’s most iconic political emblems.

He stated: “We had giants of Nigeria’s political class under one roof. Dr. Alex Ekwueme, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, Chief Solomon Lar, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, Chief Sunday Awoniyi, Chief Melford Okilo, Prof. Jubril Aminu, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, and many others, all men who could have been good president. Yet, some dropped their initial ambition as things developed, while others went ahead and submitted themselves to a fair contest in Jos in 1999, which Obasanjo eventually won.”

Olawepo-Hashim emphasized that it was free and fair internal democracy that gave PDP its strength in its early years, not backdoor consensus or gatekeeping politics. 

He hailed the inclusive leadership of the party’s interim chairman at the time, Chief Solomon Lar, who kept the doors wide open for all.

“Those who feared competition quietly exited the founding process. But we pressed on, and Nigeria benefitted,” the aspirant said.

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