A former Presidential candidate in the 2019 General election, Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has called upon all patriotic Nigerians to unite and forestall the raging campaign of calumny by desperate anti-democratic forces to break up Nigeria along ethnic and religious lines for selfish gratification.
Olawepo-Hashim said given the security situation in Nigeria and reality of almost total helplessness , the propaganda from ethnic warlords are gaining increasing attention, many people of various ages are now questioning the sanctity of our union and the concept of indivisibility of the Nigerian state.
Olawepo-Hashim, who spoke in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Tuesday, explained that despite the increasingly frustrating realities in Nigeria, a united Nigeria still remains the best alternative.
According to him, separatist advocacies are always ever seductive during moments of crisis but they never deliver good results afterwards.
The politician said: “Ask the people of Southern Sudan who seceded from Sudan after about 30 years war. They are still embroiled in factional wars between their leaders. Despite their oil wealth, their people are still wallowing in poverty and the GDP of their economy is lower than that of Ogun State.
“Ethnic or regional homogeneity of a state does not necessarily guarantee peace. We have seen a country like Somalia which is dominantly Muslims with one language but embroiled in unending war for over 30 years. Same for Ireland that is just trying to recover from internal division, where a predominantly Christian country has been divided along denominational lines of Catholics and Protestants.
“The founding fathers of our Republic in the Lancaster conference of 1957/58 agreed on a Nigerian state which is indivisible and should exist in perpetuity.
“Any group of persons who claims otherwise must have their positions re-examined because they are at variance with solid historical records.
“I quite agree that there is frustration in the land as a result of the problems which over centralization of powers in the hands of the Federal Government has caused since the unfortunate military coup of 1966.The solution is not the dismemberment of the Republic but the decentralization of power to the component states which must start now.
“Nigeria will do better, and we are in fact better together if we immediately take steps to devolve powers to the states and Local Governments in areas where there is a clear national consensus,” he said.
He said separatism and division do not bring justice, but rather, it is good governance, sound policies and fear of God that ensure justice in the polity.
Olawepo-Hashim maintained that Nigeria remains God’s gift to Africa, to every black man and woman in the Diaspora.
Speaking further, the global energy executive, said now is the time for an Executive-led initiative to immediately amend the exclusive, concurrent and residual legislative lists in the 1999 constitution in order to ensure the decentralization of power for Nigeria to effectively manage its democracy.
Mr.Hashim also urged the Federal Government to increase dialogue with all interest groups and to ensure that the Federal Character Commission deals with any genuine claim of imbalances in the distribution of Federal offices with a view to addressing them.
He listed some of the areas where there exits clear national consensus to include: Creation of state and local government police side by side with the federal police so as to make policing more efficient and to bolster National Security.
Olawepo-Hashim wants the Nigerian constitution to be amended to enable states to have some control over the development of all mineral resources in the inland basins and to make them to have concurrent jurisdiction over electricity generation, transmission and distribution as well as electoral reform clause to include electronic transmission of results from collation centres.
He reiterated that a simple Executive sponsored constitutional amendment bill narrowed to these clearly defined items , might get a resounding support if properly managed with the 36 Governors in Nigeria, as well as Speakers of the State Houses of Assembly.
