As the campaign for the 2023 general elections gathers momentum, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has urged politicians and major political parties to shun ethnic and religious tantrums capable of deepening existing cleavages among the citizens.

In a release from his media office in Abuja, yesterday, Olawepo-Hashim maintained that campaign outfits and party leaders were complicating Nigeria’s ethnic and religious relations in their bid to win votes next year, instead of focusing on issues that could boost social and political development, national security and unity.

He added that most of the campaigners are churning out messages with ethnic and religious nuances, noting that “our polity has never descended this low since our independence as a nation and our return to democratic rule in 1999.”

Olawepo-Hashim recalled that in the First and Second Republics, the political parties were identified and known by their plans, programmes and principles, unlike the current situation where contestants “are busy talking about tribe, creed and crowd they can parade on the streets.”

According to him, “it is time for leaders of the various political parties to check the activities of their campaigns where their messages seem to undermine our national unity. The Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC), National Orientation Agency (NOA) and other relevant state institutions must step up their game.”

He submitted that what serious-minded Nigerians are interested in is how to get Nigeria back to a major play in the remaining short time of fossil fuel as a dominant energy source and how to immediately resolve the debt to revenue crisis.

Olawepo-Hashim equally called on politicians to focus on “the fiscal plan to tame inflation; high unemployment rate; insecurity and burgeoning poverty pandemic.”

He added: “The 2023 general elections are very crucial for our country, as Nigeria is today confronted by a myriad of problems: serious crisis in the social sector like education and health. Despite repeated promises by succeeding governments, corruption is still pervasive and the majority of our young people are jobless and losing hope.”

He equally noted that graft, for instance, has become one of the major reasons for the slow progress and the underbelly of some of the security problems such as banditry and kidnappings.

The APC chieftain observed that “Nigeria deserves a future that is not defined by a fiendish manipulation of her notable fault lines but by developmental ideas character, record and patriotic principles.”