APC, PDP will be defeated in 2019 polls - Olawepo-Hashim

APC, PDP will be defeated in 2019 polls - Olawepo-Hashim

- Nigeria's two major political parties have been dismissed in the forthcoming general elections in 2019

- Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, a frontline politician and businessman, says both parties will lose the 2019 presidential election

- Olawepo-Hashim, a presidential hopeful recently declared his interest in the race

Frontline politician and businessman, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has predicted that both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will lose the presidential seat at the forthcoming 2019 election.

Olawepo-Hashim, 53, made the comment while addressing select journalists in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Friday, June 8.

According to him, Nigerians are tired of the leading political parties in the country and are yearning for a change of the country's political status quo.

Olawepo-Hashim, a founding member and former deputy publicity secretary of the PDP, blamed the country’s economic challenges on the “mismanagement and poor of leadership quality” of “those sneaked into power.

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He said Nigeria under President Muhammadu Buhari is “almost in a disaster” due to the actions inactions of the government.

His words: “Both political parties (APC and PDP) are in disarray. Quote me anywhere, both parties will be defeated in 2019. It must not just be ‘Buhari Must Go’ because anybody can as well be worse than Buhari.

“In 2015, there was no election. We had a referendum against Jonathan where people said any idiot was better than Jonathan. There was this general feeling in 2015 that Jonathan must go. There was this feeling that just anybody but Jonathan was good for the nation. That notion must change.

“Just like what we are facing at the moment, just anybody can be worse than Jonathan. According to the data from the Federal Bureau of Statistics, when Jonathan was leaving, unemployment rate was 6.4 percent, but now there is 600 percent increase in unemployment rate. We are almost in a disaster on the economy. This time around, it cannot just be anybody. We must interrogate to be sure who we want as the president.’’

Olawepo-Hashim expressed displeasure at the politics of division employed by most Nigerian leaders adding that most Nigerians are not corrupt.

He said: “There are values that must guide our leaders. Our people are people of integrity. Mindless looting is not who we are. We are a decent people. Our leaders should be able to champion our positive values.

“There are leaders who talk down on the country, that Nigeria is corrupt, and they think they can increase their political value by debasing and demeaning the country and talking down on their people. That’s not the business of leadership.

“The business of leadership is to inspire change with the greatest value and the history of the people and propel them on the path of national reconstruction. Our people are people of values and that is the country that I grew up to know.”

He also disclosed plans to officially declare his intention to contest for position of Nigeria’s president in the coming days.

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Meanwhile, the APC has responded to recent claims by the PDP accusing the ruling party of among others corruption, sectionalism and opposition clampdown, in the lead up to the 2019 elections.

The APC in a statement sent to Legit.ng by its national publicity secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, denied the allegations saying suppressing the opposition was the stock in trade of the PDP during its 16-year rule.

2019: Ahmed Buhari tells Nigerians he is the best option for president on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng

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