Nothing’ll stop our march to Aso Rock – Hafsat
BY MAYOWA SAMUEL AND BRIGHT JACOB
History was made at the weekend in Abuja, Nigeria, when Hafsat Olaronke Abiola-Costello, daughter of the late MKO Abiola, was appointed the Director-General of the Yahaya Bello Presidential Campaign Organisation.
That she is the first female Director-General of a presidential campaign organisation in Nigeria is not the only attraction. The combination of the late MKO’s daughter and Senator Jonathan Silas Zwingina, who is the National Coordinator of the Campaign, in the movement, tagged, “Hope 2023”, is one many analysts, opponents alike, have termed a master stroke.
Zwingina was the Director-General of the late MKO’s presidential campaign, tagged “Hope ’93”.
Zwingina was elected Senator for the Adamawa South constituency of Adamawa State, at the start of the Nigerian Fourth Republic, running on the People’s Democratic Party platform.
He took office on 29 May 1999. He was re-elected in April 2003, again on the PDP platform. After taking his seat in the Senate in June 1999, he was appointed to committees on Works & Housing (chairman), Establishment, Internal Affairs, Information, Special Projects, Privatization and Economic Affairs.
Governor Bello, a presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress, formally declared his intention to run for president on Saturday at Eagle Square, Abuja.
A sitting governor of one of the South West states, who spoke in confidence to one of our correspondents, said the choice of Hafsat Abiola as the Director General of the Yahaya Bello Presidential Campaign Organisation would upset a lot of permutations as regards the struggle for the South West to produce the next President.
“The choice is a master stroke. One, it would set our argument back. Here is a leading voice in the MKO Abiola family, sticking her neck out for the candidacy of a North Central Governor, who many believe, has done a lot of work campaigning even before the formal declaration.
“She is also an intelligent lady that will marshal her points well to the advantage of her candidate. It will also solidify the women and youth support base and lock them in the struggle. But this is not, however the only consideration for choosing presidential candidates. Even if there is no zoning, the primary election is not a bread and butter game.”
“The choice is a master stroke. One, it would set our argument back. Here is a leading voice in the MKO Abiola family, sticking her neck out for the candidacy of a North Central Governor, who many believe, has done a lot of work campaigning even before the formal declaration”
Other APC chieftains said the same, noting that the zoning of the presidency might not be that popular after some time.
Addressing the audience at the Saturday declaration, Abiola-Costello said her appointment as the campaign Director General was a historic achievement and a turning point for Nigerian women in politics.
Describing herself as the first female Director General of a presidential campaign organisation, she said women would no longer be cooks and singers during election campaigns.
She said, “Today, we start our march to our destiny. We have been sidelined for decades. Since Nigeria’s independence, we have been struggling to put the Nigerian people at the centre of our government. Nigerians are poor but Nigeria is not poor. Nigeria’s money has been stolen, the people are coming under attack on a daily basis.
“It is with all sense of humility and due sense of history that we say to all Nigerians today that the train to our destiny is about to take off. We are all on the march to Nigeria’s true destiny as the greatest black nation in the world.
“I congratulate all the women here. Nigerian women have been made into cooks and singers. Today, I am the first woman director-general of a presidential campaign organisation. We are not just cooking, we are not just singing. We are going to build this country.
“Today, we signal to all the vested interests in Nigeria that the takeover by Nigerian women, by Nigeria’s young people, has begun. Nothing is going to stop our march to Aso Rock in 2023.”
Abiola said she would lead the campaign across the country to canvas support for the Kogi state governor, adding that Bello was the “leader that is coming”.
WHY I ACCEPTED TO LEAD YAHAYA BELLO’S CAMPAIGN
Hafsat Abiola also told Nigerians on Sunday that she was leading the campaign efforts of Governor Yahaya Bello because she had studied the aspirant and had seen in him the qualities needed to take Nigeria to its right destination.
She said one of the similarities between her late philanthropist father and the Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, was that they both refused to have political godfathers.
This, she said, was responsible for the persecution the Governor had faced by different interests and the controversies around his administration.
The Director General, who spoke on Arise TV’s This Day Live on Sunday, expressed the confidence that Bello would clinch the ticket of the All Progressives Congress irrespective of the zone of the National Chairman.
“Nigerians must be given the free hand to choose their leaders. That is the meaning of democracy. My father did not contest to represent zoning interests. His interest was Nigeria and Nigeria alone,” she said.
She added that another similarity was that the late MKO believed in a United Nigeria, just like Bello, noting that he also treated everyone around him with respect regardless of their social standing.
“These are the same qualities I have seen in Governor Bello. He dared to contest, not minding that he was from a minority tribe in Kogi and won, and he has come out again. My father did the same, when it was believed that a Yoruba man could not be President.
“Yahaya Bello is the best man for the job. And you know me, I’m not driven by pecuniary considerations. I do what I believe in. In the next seven weeks, we will be working hard, and when we emerge, we will deliver the Nigeria of our dreams,” Hafsat Abiola said.
She said her father would have been happy to see that a young, courageous man like the Governor had done everything to bring back his Hope ’93 in Hope ’23, with the same person that did the manifesto on board – Senator Jonathan Zwingina.
Born in Lagos on August 21, 1974, Abiola-Costello is a Nigerian human rights, civil rights and democracy activist, founder of the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND), which seeks to strengthen civil society and promote democracy in Nigeria.
She is the eighth child of the late Chief Moshood Abiola and late Kudirat Abiola.
Her father, Moshood Abiola, was put in prison by the dictator General Sani Abacha for treason after declaring himself president. The elder Abiola later died while in detention in 1998, while her mother was murdered during a demonstration for the release of her husband in 1996.
In June 2018, President Muhammadu Buhari bestowed the title of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic on her late father.
Abiola-Costello then commended the Federal Government for declaring June 12 every year as democracy day, saying the decision had set the country on the path of true democracy.
She pointed out then that the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government had corrected Nigeria’s faulty democratic foundation, which had earlier set May 29 as democracy day for the country.
Daughter of the late business mogul turned politician expressed her joy and gratitude to the president for having the courage to make the declaration, stressing that such a decision has rooted Nigeria in the process that actually produced the present democracy.
