As political permutations ahead of the 2027 general elections heat up, former presidential candidate and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Dr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has thrown his weight behind the speculated return of former President Goodluck Jonathan, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and former Labour Party flagbearer Peter Obi to the PDP fold.
In a bold and statesmanlike statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Ibrahim Hassan Mahmoud, Hashim welcomed the potential contenders, declaring that, “The more, the merrier.”
He 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,” Hashim said.
Reflecting on the party’s formation in 1998, Hashim 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.
“We had giants of Nigeria’s political class under one roof,” he said. “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.”
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 Doushep 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,” he said.
As the race toward 2027 gains momentum, Hashim’s call strikes a chord within and beyond PDP circles, advocating for a return to the party’s founding ideals of openness, tolerance, and democratic excellence.
“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,” he concluded.
Hashim’s intervention not only signals a broadening of the PDP’s internal space but may also set the stage for one of Nigeria’s most consequential presidential primaries in recent memory, a contest of political titans under one big umbrella.
