‘No Presidency Was Stolen’– Okupe Defends Tinubu, Calls For Support
Doyin Okupe, a former spokesman for President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday in Lagos made bold of his assertion that the rulling political party, APC did not rig the 2023 election.
According to the former Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign, in the history of Nigerian elections, there is hardly none without rigging except for the one conducted in 1993.
Okupe noted that since Peter Obi won the election in Tinubu’s homebase, and APC also lost in President Buhari’s base, it would suffice that the election was not rigged and Peter Obi didn’t win.
The statement read, “If Peter Obi (2023 LP presidential candidate) or the Labour Party says the APC rigged elections, how come Obi could win in President Bola Tinubu’s home base?
“How come APC lost the election in the home base of the sitting President (Muhammadu Buhari)? How come the APC lost the election in the home base of the secretary to that government?
“So, the accusations about rigging do not hold water; they do not hold water at all.
“Our results may not have been the exact results under the best conditions, but they will have that ratio.
“I was in the Labour Party; we couldn’t have done better than we did. I know that for some reason, but that is a discussion for another day.There’s nothing like that. No presidency was stolen. I am not saying there was no rigging.
“There was no election that we have done in Nigeria since 1960 till date that was not rigged one way or the other. Not one.
“Perhaps an exception was MKO Abiola’s election because of the unique nature of the voting pattern. You know it was Option A4; people were counted. Apart from that, every other election was rigged.”
The former President’s spokesperson expressed that believed in Tinubu’s reforms and policies would begin to yield results in the second year of his administration.
The former LP chieftain said that Tinubu had impressed him as a politician and a technocrat.
He said that Tinubu had development ideologies and policies at his fingertips.
“This thing, you don’t learn it. It’s a gift,” he said.
The 72-year-old politician said that Tinubu was like the late Premier of the defunct Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, with great ideas about public policies.
Describing Tinubu as a reformer, Okupe said it was “total nonsense” to say that the President came to the office without a plan.
“I have worked with two past presidents. I have studied other presidents closely from a very close point of view.
“I do not know any Nigerian president from 1960 to date who has come more armed, better prepared for governance than this gentleman.
“Unfortunately for him, he has come into government at a terrible and awful time,” Okupe said.
Noting that it would be unfair to hold Tinubu accountable for the ills of 40 years, Okupe said that the President needed a minimum of two years for some of his policies to begin to produce results.
He said that just like Singapore and Malaysia transited from third world to first world through determination, Tinubu was determined to move the country to greater heights.
“It will be a couple of years of pain and hardship, but he is doing what other presidents have refused to do for the last 10 or 20 years.
“His choice was to run and come into governance and continue business as usual.
“By the time he came to the government, 98 per cent of our revenue generated was being used to pay debt,” Okupe said.
He called on Nigerians to support the President in fixing the problems that are slowing the country’s progress.
NAN
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