…Urge ex-president against being used as ‘spoiler’
The North West arm of the Gbenga Hashim Vanguard (GHV) has cautioned against what it described as a plot to use former President Goodluck Jonathan as a “spoiler” ahead of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primary for the 2027 election.
Reacting to reports credited to Senator Abba Moro that the PDP had allegedly shortlisted three Southern aspirants, including Jonathan, as possible flagbearers, the group described the claim as “provincial and dangerous for party unity.”
Speaking in Kano, the group’s North West Coordinator, Aminu Bala Wudilawa, insisted that only duly elected delegates, in line with the Electoral Act, have the mandate to determine the party’s presidential candidate.
“The PDP cannot afford to repeat the mistake of 2015, when President Jonathan was misled into a provincialist approach that weakened the party and cost us power,” Wudilawa stated.
“The party is not sectional; it belongs to all Nigerians, North and South. Any attempt to reduce the process to ethnic politics will be resisted,” he added.
Wudilawa stressed that while Jonathan had every constitutional right to contest, restricting the ticket to the South was a deliberate ploy to edge out competent Northern aspirants such as Gbenga Hashim, a founding member of the PDP and its first Deputy National Publicity Secretary.
He described Hashim as a democrat who sacrificed for the return of democracy, a successful entrepreneur, and “one of the cleanest hands in Nigerian politics.”
According to the coordinator of the group, “Dr. Hashim represents the forward-looking leadership Nigerians desire, not a return to corruption, ineptitude, and provincialism.”
The group reaffirmed its support for Hashim’s presidential ambition, insisting that Nigerians were yearning for a leader with a firm grasp of economics and national security.
