A presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, on Monday, inaugurated coordinators for his 2023 presidential ambition.

The Coordinators were made up of three persons from each of the 16 local government areas in Kwara State.

Speaking with chairmen of the party across the 16 local government council areas of the state, including party stalwarts in Ilorin, Olawepo-Hashim restated his desire to seek the ticket of his party, and subsequently lead the country back to the path of growth and development in 2023.

While informing the gathering of his intention to formally declare for the race on Tuesday, May 3, 2022, he expressed his commitment to uniting the country which he said was “presently badly divided along ethnic and religious lines.”

He assured the crowd of keeping his promise of running an inclusive government to accommodate various tendencies in order to heal and assuage the pains arising from the various divisions and controversies across the nation.

The presidential aspirant, who said that solutions to national security, the unemployment problem, high cost of petroleum products and basic items required a new and fresh approach to handle, adding that those who had never paid for anything they consumed in the past 23 years could not understand.

He said, “I will secure Nigeria. I will bring prosperity. Nigeria needs to build an economy that will provide a job for young people. As a successful businessman, I will use my experience to better a lot of Nigerians. We will create opportunities for young people and women.”

Olawepo praised the Kwara State governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, for the prevailing peaceful atmosphere in the state and urged the people to support his second-term ambition.

According to him, worthy of commendation is the governor's policy of giving political space to youths and women, while also commending his efforts to restore the dignity of the state in the areas of education, infrastructures, and human capital development.

During his earlier visit to the state late last year, Olawepo-Hashim had maintained that the liberation of Kwara took several decades and inflicted several battle scars on the participants, adding that the state must not be allowed to go back to slavery and socio-political emasculation that had arrested the progress of the state for many years.

“I'm endorsing the second term of Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, we should consolidate the gains of 'O to ge'. We cannot go back to slavery and I'm sure, Kwara cannot go back to slavery”, he said.

The local government chairmen of the APC in the state, many of whom were traditional political associates of the aspirant, pledged their loyalty and support to who they say “he is our own and ally of our governor.”

According to the Chairman, Isin Council, Segun Awogbade, he said “Mr Olawepo-Hashim is a very kind man, I have been his supporter for 25 years,” while Alhaji Shehu Yahaya, Chairman, Asa added that “we fought for the freedom of Kwara together as our leader.”

Olawepo-Hashim had contested the governorship seat of the state on the platform of the defunct Democratic People's Party in 2007.