2027: Zoning Presidential Ticket To South ‘Big Error’ – Olawepo-Hashim Tells PDP

Former presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has described the party’s decision to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South as “a big error”, warning that the move threatens both party unity and Nigeria’s fragile political balance.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday evening, Olawepo-Hashim argued that while the PDP’s National Executive Committee (NEC) acted democratically, the zoning resolution contradicts the Nigerian Constitution and undermines the party’s founding tradition of inclusiveness.

“The constitution of Nigeria does not allow you to discriminate against a party member when it comes to elective positions on account of where he comes from,” he said.

“Any party member who feels shut out can go to court, and the candidate produced by such a process may be struck down.”

He recalled that the PDP had never formally zoned its presidential ticket in the past, pointing to 1999 when former President Olusegun Obasanjo contested alongside northern aspirants like Alhaji Abubakar Rimi and Dr Alex Ekwueme.

“The party never closed the door against any region. Leaders could influence delegates, but there was always space for every part of the country,” he added.

Olawepo-Hashim cautioned that the new policy risks alienating a section of the country.

“If you are a northerner, what it means is that you should find another party to vote for,” he warned, stressing that such exclusion could “put a riot in polity.”

He maintained that NEC decisions are not infallible and could be corrected by future NEC sessions, citing past instances where controversial resolutions were overturned at the party’s national convention.

According to him, in 1999, while serving as Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, the NEC attempted to extend the tenure of party executives from two years to four years retroactively.

He and some colleagues had opposed the move, insisting it was unconstitutional without a fresh mandate. They were suspended by the NEC, but at the National Convention, the decision was overturned, and the retroactive extension was cancelled.

Beyond the zoning controversy, he also used the interview to highlight Nigeria’s wasted economic potential, particularly in the outsourcing and digital economy.

According to him, the country’s English-speaking advantage and existing telecom infrastructure could have been harnessed to create millions of jobs if the government had invested more in cybersecurity and policy reforms.

“Nigeria has always been a great country. In 1966, our GDP was bigger than Malaysia’s and comparable to Indonesia’s and Thailand’s. We were exporting vaccines to West Africa and attracting teachers and doctors from abroad. What you find now is disaster, but it is not who we are,” he said.

Olawepo-Hashim urged the PDP to revisit its zoning stance and focus on strengthening internal democracy while offering Nigerians a credible, unifying alternative ahead of 2027.

2027: Zoning Presidential Ticket To South ‘Big Error’ – Olawepo-Hashim Tells PDP is first published on The Whistler Newspaper