2019 Presidential Ticket: AREWA Youth Groups Shift Ground, Declare Support for Olawepo Hashim
Zainab Tanimu
Kaduna North-West, NIGERIA
Youth groups from across the north have endorsed the Presidential candidate of People’s Trust ( PT),Mr.Gbenga Olawepo Hashim as their choice for the Aso Rock Villa in 2019.
Malam Samaila Garba Garri, National Coordinator of a group, Matasan AREWA na Dimokradiya( All AREWA Young Democrats ), said they were specifically angered by the choice of Presidential candidates of the two major political parties who they alleged had nothing new to offer in Nigeria.
Garba Garri speaking in an interview in Kaduna said, they were thrilled by remarks made by Mr. Gbenga Olawepo Hashim on the plight and future of Nigeria and Nigerians. Insisting that now was the time to rally round Mr.Olawepo Hashim because he has the idea to make Nigeria a much better country.
Samaila Garri who said he was speaking for ten other youth groups in the North explained that they were in Abuja when the Presidential candidate of PT addressed his supporters; adding that they were happy when he promised to pay N50,000 as minimum wage to Nigerian workers.
According to him,” Mr. Olawepo Hashim is a successful business man who has always been with the poor. He has been engaged in philanthropic activities and hardly spends a day without putting smile on faces.”
“From Hashim’s remarks on that occasion we understand he knows so much about the Nigerian economy and how to improve it. He is knowledgeable about the Nigerian people more than the sitting President and PDP’s flag bearer.”
“We also see him as a third force to be reckoned with, a bridge builder since he has biological link with the North.
“We have no reason to forsake him. We have every reason to deny others our vote in 2019 because it would surely be a disappointment at the “next level” and the implementation of a selfish “policy document.
“We throw our weight behind the other major contenders.”
Samaila Garri said Mr. Olawepo Hashim as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will attract foreign investment as he is known globally and reputed as a successful businessman.
“We have planned to organize a youth summit where we shall declare our unalloyed support for Gbenga Olawepo Hashim, welcome 20 other youth groups into our fold and map out strategy of convincing our elders, parents and peers in the Northern region on the need to support Olawepo Hashim and avoid being deceived by leaders of northern extraction who had continued to recycle themselves in power to our detriment ,” he said.
