Nigeria@ 66: Reject 3rd Class Status, Olawepo-Hashim Tells Nigerians

The presidential candidate of the Accord Party, Dr Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has challenged Nigerians to reject the idea that the country must remain a third-class nation, urging citizens to take greater ownership of Nigeria’s future ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

In an Independence Day message released in Abuja on Tuesday, Olawepo-Hashim said Nigeria’s prolonged underdevelopment was not due to lack of resources, but failure to deploy the country’s enormous human, natural and institutional capacity for transformation.

He identified poverty, human trafficking, insecurity, institutional capture, weakening of the civil service and breakdown of security infrastructure as factors holding the country back despite its potential.

The Accord candidate said Nigeria’s young population should be transformed from a development challenge into its greatest economic advantage through skills, education, employment and productive opportunities.

“Nigeria is not a poor country. We have behaved like a poor country because we have consistently underutilised the enormous capacity available to us,” he said.

He argued that consequences of poor governance go beyond economic statistics, affecting the security, dignity and future of ordinary Nigerians.

According to him, human trafficking, unemployment and insecurity thrive where citizens lack economic opportunity and institutions are too weak to protect vulnerable people.

“You cannot permanently defeat trafficking without defeating the conditions that make human beings vulnerable to trafficking,” he said.

Olawepo-Hashim said the 2027 election should provide Nigerians an opportunity to take greater responsibility for determining the country’s direction.

He urged voters to demand clear visions, measurable targets and accountability from candidates rather than allowing elections to be reduced to personalities, ethnicity, religion or slogans.

“Nigeria belongs to Nigerians. We must stop behaving as spectators in the affairs of our own country,” he said.

He argued that an Accord administration would target transforming Nigeria into a $4 trillion economy within eight years, driven by increased production, manufacturing, agriculture, energy, technology and services.

He said Nigeria must move from an economy focused largely on distributing resource revenues to one that creates wealth through production and value addition.

Olawepo-Hashim reiterated his proposal to raise crude production to at least four million barrels per day within 24 months of an Accord administration.

According to him, the target would be pursued through recovery of commercially viable shut-in oil wells, improved security, investment in production infrastructure, better crude evacuation and reforms to petroleum production costs.

He stressed that additional crude production must become a foundation for domestic industrialisation.

“Four million barrels a day cannot simply mean four million barrels exported. Nigerian crude must power Nigerian industry,” he said.

He also reaffirmed his proposal for N605 per litre as the starting sustainable petrol price, with a longer-term objective of reducing it towards N200–N300 per litre.

He said the policy would be based on lowering actual cost of producing and delivering energy rather than returning to an opaque subsidy system.

The Accord candidate maintained that Nigeria must transform its oil and gas resources into the foundation of a globally competitive energy and industrial economy.

He proposed substantial expansion of crude production, refining, petrochemicals, gas processing, electricity generation, pipelines, storage and other energy infrastructure.

“Nigeria must stop exporting the raw material and importing the finished value. We must capture the value chain here,” he said.

He argued that affordable and reliable energy would be central to reviving manufacturing and reducing production costs.

Olawepo-Hashim also proposed making West African integration a central pillar of Nigeria’s foreign policy, arguing that the region represents a major opportunity for Nigerian economic expansion.

He said Nigerian manufacturers, farmers, energy companies, financial institutions and technology businesses should be positioned to serve a much larger integrated West African market.

“Our neighbourhood is not a burden, we are one family. West Africa is Nigeria’s strategic economic space,” he said.

He argued that Nigeria’s rapidly growing young population could become its greatest economic advantage if government invests deliberately in technical education, professional skills and productive employment.

“Our young population should be Nigeria’s greatest economic asset. We must give them the skills and opportunities to turn their energy into wealth,” he said.

He said renewal of the civil service and public institutions would be equally important, arguing that ambitious economic targets cannot be achieved without a competent and accountable state.

“We cannot build a $4 trillion economy with institutions that cannot perform. The Nigerian state itself must be rebuilt,” he said.

Olawepo-Hashim contended that Independence Day should remind Nigerians that political independence must be matched by economic and institutional independence.

“The Nigeria we want cannot be outsourced. It cannot be imported. It must be built by Nigerians,” he said.

According to him, the 2027 election gives Nigerians an opportunity to choose not merely a government but a national direction.

“We are offering the vision. We are offering the leadership. But the ultimate power belongs to Nigerians. Our independence gave us ownership of Nigeria. It is time to exercise that ownership,” he added.