According to Dr. Gbenga Hashim, a former presidential candidate, pro-democracy organisations in Nigeria would fight against efforts to create a one-party government.
A statement issued on Wednesday stated that Hashim made the claim following a meeting with Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
In order to maintain Nigeria’s multi-party democratic system, he said, the meeting was a part of continuing engagements with important stakeholders.
Defending Nigeria’s multi-party democracy and standing firm against one-party rule was his avowed goal, he declared.
In his account of Falana, he said that the two have been friends for over 40 years, and that their bond is based on resistance, activity, and a common desire for justice.
Among their shared anti-apartheid efforts, which they led as the Nigeria-ANC Friendship and Cultural Association, Hashim said, was a demonstration on January 7, 1988, in response to the arrival of Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister of Britain.
He claims that he was the leader of a group of students that disobeyed security measures and protested on the airport tarmac, leading to the detention of five activists.
Among those he remembered, he mentioned that Olaitan Oyerinde, Chris Ayaeze, and Rotimi Ewebiyi had all died, leaving only two of them surviving.
Falana acted as Hashim’s pro gratis attorney in a 1988 lawsuit challenging the Structural Adjustment Programme under Ibrahim Babangida’s dictatorship; Hashim also emphasised his history of legal opposition against military control.
In 1989, he was detained while a constitutional complaint against the Attorney General of the Federation was being processed by a legal team headed by Alao Aka-Bashorun. This was further brought up by him.
In his time as National Administrative Secretary of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, the late Beko Ransome-Kuti’s deputy, the former presidential candidate credited Falana with helping him rise to the position.
Hashim reaffirmed their long-standing commitment to protecting civil freedoms, political plurality, and democratic principles in the nation.
He expressed his willingness to collaborate with those who share his views in order to protect Nigeria’s democratic system and claimed that the attitude reflects the increasing worries of pro-democracy activists regarding the country’s political trajectory.