The Accord Party has opened a phase of nationwide mobilization for its 2027 presidential candidate Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, staging a rally in Kaduna State where party leaders, youth groups, women’s associations, and community figures gathered to publicly declare their support and make the case that his candidacy offered Nigerian voters a substantive and credible alternative to the major parties that had dominated every election since the return of democracy in 1999.
The rally was framed by its organizers as part of a deliberate northern strategy, with Kaduna chosen both for its political significance and as a signal that Olawepo-Hashim’s campaign intended to build genuine support across the geopolitical divide rather than relying on regional consolidation in his base areas. Party leader Sabo Jimeta described the candidate as a figure whose long record of engagement in national affairs, consistent advocacy for democratic values, and detailed thinking about economic reform set him apart from politicians whose primary qualification was proximity to power.
Party officials said the Kaduna event followed the conclusion of affirmation primaries in several states in which Olawepo-Hashim received widespread backing from Accord Party delegates and members, describing the exercise as having validated both the candidate and the party’s strategic direction heading into the 2027 cycle. They said the primaries had produced the kind of internal unity and clarity of purpose that gave the party a credible platform from which to compete.
Supporters who addressed the rally argued that the 2027 election presented an unusual political opening. Voter disillusionment with the established parties was high, economic hardship had sharpened public appetite for substantive policy alternatives, and the fragmentation of the opposition created space for a well-organized third force with a clear message to make an impact that would have been difficult in previous cycles when the major parties commanded more secure loyalties. Olawepo-Hashim’s campaign, they said, was built around exactly the kind of program-centered politics that the moment demanded.
The Kaduna gathering was described by party officials as the first in a series of regional mobilizations events that would extend the campaign’s geographic reach in the coming months as the Accord Party intensified its preparation for what it said would be its most serious and competitive election campaign since the party’s founding.
