Dr Doyin Okupe, a veteran politician, has been around since the aborted Third Republic when he served as spokesperson for then – National Republican Convention (NRC). Then, in this dispensation, Okupe has been spokesperson for two former presidents during which he took on the critics of his principals in a manner that earned him the name of ‘attack dog’. To him, eliciting criticisms is the price to pay for being principled, just as he believes it is anathema to stay under the radar for fear of being criticised.
In this interview, Okupe takes on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who ran for president on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election and the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, saying they have nothing better to offer Nigeria. He dismises their claim that the 2023 election was rigged. Okupe calls President Bola Tinubu a reformer in Aso Rock, saying his policies would begin to yield results from two years of the administration. Excerpts:
You’ve been in the news lately with critics saying that you’re looking for a job from the Tinubu administration. What’s happening?
I am 72 years old. I have been a spokesman for two former presidents in Nigeria. I’ve been the spokesman for a major political party, NRC (National Republican Convention of the Third Republic). I was also the spokesman for the Liberal Convention. I have had my bit. Those who say I’m looking for a job, if you checked that demographic, they are people in their 20s who do not know us. I have always gone for and spoken strongly about whatever I felt compelled to comment on. That has been my lifestyle. When I supported Obi (Peter), what was I looking for? Obi was not even in the country then. He never lobbied me. He never spoke to me. He never asked for my support. I went to Abeokuta (Ogun State) and I had a press conference, and I said I was stepping down from running for president and that I will be supporting Peter Obi. What was I looking for then? I believed at that time in regional equity and justice for us. Because we believed that the presidency should come to the South. After a northerner had been there for eight years, there is an existing understanding in the polity of this country among the political elites that the presidency would rotate between the North — not only between the zones but between the North and the South. So, if the presidency is coming to the South, there are three zones in the South—South-West, South-South and South-East. It was only the South-East that had not had a shot at it. Nobody lobbied me, no human being on earth came to me, and pleaded for my support.
So how did you find yourself supporting Peter Obi?
I conferred with Chief Ayo Adebanjo who advisedly decided that I should support the South-East. The best candidate at that time from the South-East, in PDP, was Peter Obi. So, that’s why I went to support him. So, what was I looking for? That is my style. That is how I am. When I was in the NRC, I was one of the Campaign Directors for Bashir Tofar. We campaigned vigorously around the country, but we lost the election. The military tried to play a game, tried to recruit us, and they did, they finally recruited us (the NRC) to support the annulment. I resigned my membership of the NRC and joined NADECO (National Democratic Coalition) at a time my colleagues in the NRC — I was in the top bracket of NRC — were being made ministers. Abiola (MKO), then presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who had won the June 12, 1993 election, did not call me, nobody called me, but that was what was just, and that was what was fair. That has always been the underlying theme in my political engagements. When I supported Obasanjo in 1998, Obasanjo didn’t call me. I didn’t know him closely. But I believed that this was a general who had strength and capacity, and he would do well, better than any other candidates, including Chief Olu Falae, who I had been very close to because of NADECO. I held a press conference, and I announced that I was going to support Obasanjo. Obasanjo did not know anything about it, and on the first of December 1998, I drove to Ota Farm to meet Obasanjo and declared support for him. That’s how my journey with him started.
So why are you supporting Tinubu?
Says Atiku,
Obi had nothing to offer
•‘2023 election was not rigged’
I lost my hands, girlfriend, dad’s landed properties survived depression; but I’m alive’0:00 / 1:00
By Olalekan Bilesanmi
Dr Doyin Okupe, a veteran politician, has been around since the aborted Third Republic when he served as spokesperson for then – National Republican Convention (NRC). Then, in this dispensation, Okupe has been spokesperson for two former presidents during which he took on the critics of his principals in a manner that earned him the name of ‘attack dog’. To him, eliciting criticisms is the price to pay for being principled, just as he believes it is anathema to stay under the radar for fear of being criticised.
In this interview, Okupe takes on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who ran for president on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election and the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, saying they have nothing better to offer Nigeria. He dismises their claim that the 2023 election was rigged. Okupe calls President Bola Tinubu a reformer in Aso Rock, saying his policies would begin to yield results from two years of the administration. Excerpts:
You’ve been in the news lately with critics saying that you’re looking for a job from the Tinubu administration. What’s happening?
I am 72 years old. I have been a spokesman for two former presidents in Nigeria. I’ve been the spokesman for a major political party, NRC (National Republican Convention of the Third Republic). I was also the spokesman for the Liberal Convention. I have had my bit. Those who say I’m looking for a job, if you checked that demographic, they are people in their 20s who do not know us. I have always gone for and spoken strongly about whatever I felt compelled to comment on. That has been my lifestyle. When I supported Obi (Peter), what was I looking for? Obi was not even in the country then. He never lobbied me. He never spoke to me. He never asked for my support. I went to Abeokuta (Ogun State) and I had a press conference, and I said I was stepping down from running for president and that I will be supporting Peter Obi. What was I looking for then? I believed at that time in regional equity and justice for us. Because we believed that the presidency should come to the South. After a northerner had been there for eight years, there is an existing understanding in the polity of this country among the political elites that the presidency would rotate between the North — not only between the zones but between the North and the South. So, if the presidency is coming to the South, there are three zones in the South—South-West, South-South and South-East. It was only the South-East that had not had a shot at it. Nobody lobbied me, no human being on earth came to me, and pleaded for my support.
So how did you find yourself supporting Peter Obi?
I conferred with Chief Ayo Adebanjo who advisedly decided that I should support the South-East. The best candidate at that time from the South-East, in PDP, was Peter Obi. So, that’s why I went to support him. So, what was I looking for? That is my style. That is how I am. When I was in the NRC, I was one of the Campaign Directors for Bashir Tofar. We campaigned vigorously around the country, but we lost the election. The military tried to play a game, tried to recruit us, and they did, they finally recruited us (the NRC) to support the annulment. I resigned my membership of the NRC and joined NADECO (National Democratic Coalition) at a time my colleagues in the NRC — I was in the top bracket of NRC — were being made ministers. Abiola (MKO), then presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who had won the June 12, 1993 election, did not call me, nobody called me, but that was what was just, and that was what was fair. That has always been the underlying theme in my political engagements. When I supported Obasanjo in 1998, Obasanjo didn’t call me. I didn’t know him closely. But I believed that this was a general who had strength and capacity, and he would do well, better than any other candidates, including Chief Olu Falae, who I had been very close to because of NADECO. I held a press conference, and I announced that I was going to support Obasanjo. Obasanjo did not know anything about it, and on the first of December 1998, I drove to Ota Farm to meet Obasanjo and declared support for him. That’s how my journey with him started.
So why are you supporting Tinubu?
Related News
Biafra: Simon Ekpa’s sins, Nnamdi Kanu’s response
Corruption, great monster still battling Nigeria — Obasanjo insists
Man, 48, remanded for allegedly impregnating daughter
Those who see what I’m doing with Bola Tinubu today and thinking that it was for personal gain, I told you, they can only be young people who do not know. They don’t know the history; they don’t know what my pedigree is. I am a man that supports what I consider to be fair and just even if it is to my detriment. I met the president, Tinubu, about a week ago. I had not seen him for seven or eight years. I had not spoken to him on the phone. He didn’t talk to me. But he’s somebody I know very well politically. We have never been on the same side before in politics but we’ve always shared a relationship since our NADECO days. From that time, till when he was governor and left as governor, I’ve had opportunities to sit with Bola Tinubu for hours unending. And he has impressed me, not only as a politician, but as a technocrat, a man capable of deep thinking. He has developmental ideologies and policies at his fingertips. This thing, you don’t learn it. It’s a gift. The last time we had anybody close to him was Awolowo (Obafemi). Awolowo was a very serious-minded politician, but who had ideas of public policies that would benefit the masses. That is what Bola Tinubu is today. Bola Tinubu, you know, in the Villa, we have a reformer, a president who is a reformer. I’ve heard some people saying that Bola Tinubu came to the office without a plan, he has no clue, that is balderdash, that is nonsense. I have worked with two past presidents. I have studied other presidents closely from a very close point. I don’t know any Nigerian president from 1960 to date who has come better prepared for governance than this gentleman.
Really? Many people say despite his claim to Emilokan, he is unprepared for office from what we are seeing from the state of the economy which has gone from bad to worse since May 29, 2023.
Unfortunately , he has come into government at a very terrible and awful time. And when I met him, I told him, “Are you out of your mind? How would you want to succeed a Buhari (Muhammadu) administration, eight years of total abandonment, decadence and retrogression?”
He said he was driven by passion to help Nigeria. Having been part and parcel of those who brought Buhari, you can’t blame somebody for bringing a leader. If the leader does not perform, it’s unfortunate. But if you are brave enough to say, yes, you know; whatever the leader has done wrong, “let us put our necks out and correct it”. And this is what this guy is doing. How can you hold President Tinubu accountable for the ills of 30, 40 years? And for the two-terms of national abandonment of the last eight years, it’s unfair, it’s unrealistic. And go and check it, being a reformer, you know, he didn’t ask me to say this, but I’m telling you from commonsense and my understanding of how government works, Bola Tinubu will need a minimum of two years for some of his policies to be properly established and to begin to produce results. I have gone to read history, I read about Lin Kuan Yew. Lin Kuan Yew had, you know, Singapore, and at that point in time, the other country next to it, Malaysia, before they pulled out. He had those 31 years to rule that country, to transform that nation from Third World to First World. He said, “I did certain things that were not okay”.
Says Atiku,
Obi had nothing to offer
•‘2023 election was not rigged’
I lost my hands, girlfriend, dad’s landed properties survived depression; but I’m alive’0:00 / 1:00
By Olalekan Bilesanmi
Dr Doyin Okupe, a veteran politician, has been around since the aborted Third Republic when he served as spokesperson for then – National Republican Convention (NRC). Then, in this dispensation, Okupe has been spokesperson for two former presidents during which he took on the critics of his principals in a manner that earned him the name of ‘attack dog’. To him, eliciting criticisms is the price to pay for being principled, just as he believes it is anathema to stay under the radar for fear of being criticised.
In this interview, Okupe takes on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who ran for president on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election and the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, saying they have nothing better to offer Nigeria. He dismises their claim that the 2023 election was rigged. Okupe calls President Bola Tinubu a reformer in Aso Rock, saying his policies would begin to yield results from two years of the administration. Excerpts:
You’ve been in the news lately with critics saying that you’re looking for a job from the Tinubu administration. What’s happening?
I am 72 years old. I have been a spokesman for two former presidents in Nigeria. I’ve been the spokesman for a major political party, NRC (National Republican Convention of the Third Republic). I was also the spokesman for the Liberal Convention. I have had my bit. Those who say I’m looking for a job, if you checked that demographic, they are people in their 20s who do not know us. I have always gone for and spoken strongly about whatever I felt compelled to comment on. That has been my lifestyle. When I supported Obi (Peter), what was I looking for? Obi was not even in the country then. He never lobbied me. He never spoke to me. He never asked for my support. I went to Abeokuta (Ogun State) and I had a press conference, and I said I was stepping down from running for president and that I will be supporting Peter Obi. What was I looking for then? I believed at that time in regional equity and justice for us. Because we believed that the presidency should come to the South. After a northerner had been there for eight years, there is an existing understanding in the polity of this country among the political elites that the presidency would rotate between the North — not only between the zones but between the North and the South. So, if the presidency is coming to the South, there are three zones in the South—South-West, South-South and South-East. It was only the South-East that had not had a shot at it. Nobody lobbied me, no human being on earth came to me, and pleaded for my support.
So how did you find yourself supporting Peter Obi?
I conferred with Chief Ayo Adebanjo who advisedly decided that I should support the South-East. The best candidate at that time from the South-East, in PDP, was Peter Obi. So, that’s why I went to support him. So, what was I looking for? That is my style. That is how I am. When I was in the NRC, I was one of the Campaign Directors for Bashir Tofar. We campaigned vigorously around the country, but we lost the election. The military tried to play a game, tried to recruit us, and they did, they finally recruited us (the NRC) to support the annulment. I resigned my membership of the NRC and joined NADECO (National Democratic Coalition) at a time my colleagues in the NRC — I was in the top bracket of NRC — were being made ministers. Abiola (MKO), then presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who had won the June 12, 1993 election, did not call me, nobody called me, but that was what was just, and that was what was fair. That has always been the underlying theme in my political engagements. When I supported Obasanjo in 1998, Obasanjo didn’t call me. I didn’t know him closely. But I believed that this was a general who had strength and capacity, and he would do well, better than any other candidates, including Chief Olu Falae, who I had been very close to because of NADECO. I held a press conference, and I announced that I was going to support Obasanjo. Obasanjo did not know anything about it, and on the first of December 1998, I drove to Ota Farm to meet Obasanjo and declared support for him. That’s how my journey with him started.
So why are you supporting Tinubu?
Related News
Biafra: Simon Ekpa’s sins, Nnamdi Kanu’s response
Corruption, great monster still battling Nigeria — Obasanjo insists
Man, 48, remanded for allegedly impregnating daughter
Those who see what I’m doing with Bola Tinubu today and thinking that it was for personal gain, I told you, they can only be young people who do not know. They don’t know the history; they don’t know what my pedigree is. I am a man that supports what I consider to be fair and just even if it is to my detriment. I met the president, Tinubu, about a week ago. I had not seen him for seven or eight years. I had not spoken to him on the phone. He didn’t talk to me. But he’s somebody I know very well politically. We have never been on the same side before in politics but we’ve always shared a relationship since our NADECO days. From that time, till when he was governor and left as governor, I’ve had opportunities to sit with Bola Tinubu for hours unending. And he has impressed me, not only as a politician, but as a technocrat, a man capable of deep thinking. He has developmental ideologies and policies at his fingertips. This thing, you don’t learn it. It’s a gift. The last time we had anybody close to him was Awolowo (Obafemi). Awolowo was a very serious-minded politician, but who had ideas of public policies that would benefit the masses. That is what Bola Tinubu is today. Bola Tinubu, you know, in the Villa, we have a reformer, a president who is a reformer. I’ve heard some people saying that Bola Tinubu came to the office without a plan, he has no clue, that is balderdash, that is nonsense. I have worked with two past presidents. I have studied other presidents closely from a very close point. I don’t know any Nigerian president from 1960 to date who has come better prepared for governance than this gentleman.
Really? Many people say despite his claim to Emilokan, he is unprepared for office from what we are seeing from the state of the economy which has gone from bad to worse since May 29, 2023.
Unfortunately , he has come into government at a very terrible and awful time. And when I met him, I told him, “Are you out of your mind? How would you want to succeed a Buhari (Muhammadu) administration, eight years of total abandonment, decadence and retrogression?”
He said he was driven by passion to help Nigeria. Having been part and parcel of those who brought Buhari, you can’t blame somebody for bringing a leader. If the leader does not perform, it’s unfortunate. But if you are brave enough to say, yes, you know; whatever the leader has done wrong, “let us put our necks out and correct it”. And this is what this guy is doing. How can you hold President Tinubu accountable for the ills of 30, 40 years? And for the two-terms of national abandonment of the last eight years, it’s unfair, it’s unrealistic. And go and check it, being a reformer, you know, he didn’t ask me to say this, but I’m telling you from commonsense and my understanding of how government works, Bola Tinubu will need a minimum of two years for some of his policies to be properly established and to begin to produce results. I have gone to read history, I read about Lin Kuan Yew. Lin Kuan Yew had, you know, Singapore, and at that point in time, the other country next to it, Malaysia, before they pulled out. He had those 31 years to rule that country, to transform that nation from Third World to First World. He said, “I did certain things that were not okay”.
He was even almost draconian at some point, but, you know, he was focused on what he wanted to do, just like Bola Tinubu today appears to be very strong-minded, very focused, and determined to pull this through. It’s going to be a couple of years of pain and hardship, but he’s doing what other presidents for the last 10, 20 years had refused to do. The choice he had was to run, come into governance and continue business as usual. By the time he came to government, 98% of our revenue generated was being used to pay debt. Arbitrage on the foreign exchange was at an alarming rate. We were subsidising power, subsidising virtually everything. We had over-borrowed and we were now going back to the nefarious and condemnable, financially undisciplined act of printing currency. We printed more than N21 trillion. If we had continued like that, we would have become a failed state by now. So, we should commend him, support him, pray for him, cooperate with him, and endure the hardship for this short period and wait for the results.
The opposition said the presidency was stolen, saying after that, the government is just doing things in a trial and error manner and that nothing, including the so-called reform, is working.
The opposition is running helter-skelter, talking about all sorts of things. The real opposition is Abubakar Atiku, and maybe Peter Obi. In the first instance, the opposition appears to be unrealistic, saying the presidency was stolen. There’s nothing like that. No presidency was stolen. I’m not saying there was no rigging. There was no election that we have done in Nigeria since 1960 to date that was not rigged except maybe Abiola’s election because of the unique nature of the voting pattern at that time. You know it was Option A4 that was used for the June 12 election and people were counted; apart from that, every other election was rigged. We were in this country when a sitting president (Umar Yar’Adua) said the process that brought him into power was flawed. That was when he set up the Uwais Committee. I was involved in the process that brought Obasanjo into office. I was involved in the process that brought in GEJ. I knew about the process that brought in Buhari. All without exception were flawed.
Rigging
So, talking about rigging, that’s not the issue. You only rig where you are strong. So, if you look at it properly, when three major candidates emerged for that election, it was obvious that we would have a minority administration. Obi was substantially supported by the South-East. And if the Labour Party or Obi think that people rigged, APC rigged, how did Obi win the stronghold of Bola Tinubu? Why didn’t Bola Tinubu rig Lagos for himself? How come APC lost the election in the home base of a sitting president? How come APC lost the election in the home base of the Secretary to that Government? The accusation about rigging does not hold water. I was in the Labour Party. We couldn’t have done better than we did, but that’s a discussion for another day. And in any case, when you look at it today, critically, Bola Tinubu came into this government with a better policy document than any of these two rivals.
Says Atiku,
Obi had nothing to offer
•‘2023 election was not rigged’
I lost my hands, girlfriend, dad’s landed properties survived depression; but I’m alive’0:00 / 1:00
By Olalekan Bilesanmi
Dr Doyin Okupe, a veteran politician, has been around since the aborted Third Republic when he served as spokesperson for then – National Republican Convention (NRC). Then, in this dispensation, Okupe has been spokesperson for two former presidents during which he took on the critics of his principals in a manner that earned him the name of ‘attack dog’. To him, eliciting criticisms is the price to pay for being principled, just as he believes it is anathema to stay under the radar for fear of being criticised.
In this interview, Okupe takes on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who ran for president on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election and the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi, saying they have nothing better to offer Nigeria. He dismises their claim that the 2023 election was rigged. Okupe calls President Bola Tinubu a reformer in Aso Rock, saying his policies would begin to yield results from two years of the administration. Excerpts:
You’ve been in the news lately with critics saying that you’re looking for a job from the Tinubu administration. What’s happening?
I am 72 years old. I have been a spokesman for two former presidents in Nigeria. I’ve been the spokesman for a major political party, NRC (National Republican Convention of the Third Republic). I was also the spokesman for the Liberal Convention. I have had my bit. Those who say I’m looking for a job, if you checked that demographic, they are people in their 20s who do not know us. I have always gone for and spoken strongly about whatever I felt compelled to comment on. That has been my lifestyle. When I supported Obi (Peter), what was I looking for? Obi was not even in the country then. He never lobbied me. He never spoke to me. He never asked for my support. I went to Abeokuta (Ogun State) and I had a press conference, and I said I was stepping down from running for president and that I will be supporting Peter Obi. What was I looking for then? I believed at that time in regional equity and justice for us. Because we believed that the presidency should come to the South. After a northerner had been there for eight years, there is an existing understanding in the polity of this country among the political elites that the presidency would rotate between the North — not only between the zones but between the North and the South. So, if the presidency is coming to the South, there are three zones in the South—South-West, South-South and South-East. It was only the South-East that had not had a shot at it. Nobody lobbied me, no human being on earth came to me, and pleaded for my support.
So how did you find yourself supporting Peter Obi?
I conferred with Chief Ayo Adebanjo who advisedly decided that I should support the South-East. The best candidate at that time from the South-East, in PDP, was Peter Obi. So, that’s why I went to support him. So, what was I looking for? That is my style. That is how I am. When I was in the NRC, I was one of the Campaign Directors for Bashir Tofar. We campaigned vigorously around the country, but we lost the election. The military tried to play a game, tried to recruit us, and they did, they finally recruited us (the NRC) to support the annulment. I resigned my membership of the NRC and joined NADECO (National Democratic Coalition) at a time my colleagues in the NRC — I was in the top bracket of NRC — were being made ministers. Abiola (MKO), then presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who had won the June 12, 1993 election, did not call me, nobody called me, but that was what was just, and that was what was fair. That has always been the underlying theme in my political engagements. When I supported Obasanjo in 1998, Obasanjo didn’t call me. I didn’t know him closely. But I believed that this was a general who had strength and capacity, and he would do well, better than any other candidates, including Chief Olu Falae, who I had been very close to because of NADECO. I held a press conference, and I announced that I was going to support Obasanjo. Obasanjo did not know anything about it, and on the first of December 1998, I drove to Ota Farm to meet Obasanjo and declared support for him. That’s how my journey with him started.
So why are you supporting Tinubu?
Related News
Biafra: Simon Ekpa’s sins, Nnamdi Kanu’s response
Corruption, great monster still battling Nigeria — Obasanjo insists
Man, 48, remanded for allegedly impregnating daughter
Those who see what I’m doing with Bola Tinubu today and thinking that it was for personal gain, I told you, they can only be young people who do not know. They don’t know the history; they don’t know what my pedigree is. I am a man that supports what I consider to be fair and just even if it is to my detriment. I met the president, Tinubu, about a week ago. I had not seen him for seven or eight years. I had not spoken to him on the phone. He didn’t talk to me. But he’s somebody I know very well politically. We have never been on the same side before in politics but we’ve always shared a relationship since our NADECO days. From that time, till when he was governor and left as governor, I’ve had opportunities to sit with Bola Tinubu for hours unending. And he has impressed me, not only as a politician, but as a technocrat, a man capable of deep thinking. He has developmental ideologies and policies at his fingertips. This thing, you don’t learn it. It’s a gift. The last time we had anybody close to him was Awolowo (Obafemi). Awolowo was a very serious-minded politician, but who had ideas of public policies that would benefit the masses. That is what Bola Tinubu is today. Bola Tinubu, you know, in the Villa, we have a reformer, a president who is a reformer. I’ve heard some people saying that Bola Tinubu came to the office without a plan, he has no clue, that is balderdash, that is nonsense. I have worked with two past presidents. I have studied other presidents closely from a very close point. I don’t know any Nigerian president from 1960 to date who has come better prepared for governance than this gentleman.
Really? Many people say despite his claim to Emilokan, he is unprepared for office from what we are seeing from the state of the economy which has gone from bad to worse since May 29, 2023.
Unfortunately , he has come into government at a very terrible and awful time. And when I met him, I told him, “Are you out of your mind? How would you want to succeed a Buhari (Muhammadu) administration, eight years of total abandonment, decadence and retrogression?”
He said he was driven by passion to help Nigeria. Having been part and parcel of those who brought Buhari, you can’t blame somebody for bringing a leader. If the leader does not perform, it’s unfortunate. But if you are brave enough to say, yes, you know; whatever the leader has done wrong, “let us put our necks out and correct it”. And this is what this guy is doing. How can you hold President Tinubu accountable for the ills of 30, 40 years? And for the two-terms of national abandonment of the last eight years, it’s unfair, it’s unrealistic. And go and check it, being a reformer, you know, he didn’t ask me to say this, but I’m telling you from commonsense and my understanding of how government works, Bola Tinubu will need a minimum of two years for some of his policies to be properly established and to begin to produce results. I have gone to read history, I read about Lin Kuan Yew. Lin Kuan Yew had, you know, Singapore, and at that point in time, the other country next to it, Malaysia, before they pulled out. He had those 31 years to rule that country, to transform that nation from Third World to First World. He said, “I did certain things that were not okay”.
He was even almost draconian at some point, but, you know, he was focused on what he wanted to do, just like Bola Tinubu today appears to be very strong-minded, very focused, and determined to pull this through. It’s going to be a couple of years of pain and hardship, but he’s doing what other presidents for the last 10, 20 years had refused to do. The choice he had was to run, come into governance and continue business as usual. By the time he came to government, 98% of our revenue generated was being used to pay debt. Arbitrage on the foreign exchange was at an alarming rate. We were subsidising power, subsidising virtually everything. We had over-borrowed and we were now going back to the nefarious and condemnable, financially undisciplined act of printing currency. We printed more than N21 trillion. If we had continued like that, we would have become a failed state by now. So, we should commend him, support him, pray for him, cooperate with him, and endure the hardship for this short period and wait for the results.
The opposition said the presidency was stolen, saying after that, the government is just doing things in a trial and error manner and that nothing, including the so-called reform, is working.
The opposition is running helter-skelter, talking about all sorts of things. The real opposition is Abubakar Atiku, and maybe Peter Obi. In the first instance, the opposition appears to be unrealistic, saying the presidency was st0len. There’s nothing like that. No presidency was st0len. I’m not saying there was no rigg!ng. There was no election that we have done in Nigeria since 1960 to date that was not r!gged except maybe Abiola’s election because of the unique nature of the voting pattern at that time. You know it was Option A4 that was used for the June 12 election and people were counted; apart from that, every other election was rigged. We were in this country when a sitting president (Umar Yar’Adua) said the process that brought him into power was flawed. That was when he set up the Uwais Committee. I was involved in the process that brought Obasanjo into office. I was involved in the process that brought in GEJ. I knew about the process that brought in Buhari. All without exception were flawed.
Rigg!ng
So, talking about rigging, that’s not the issue. You only rig where you are strong. So, if you look at it properly, when three major candidates emerged for that election, it was obvious that we would have a minority administration. Obi was substantially supported by the South-East. And if the Labour Party or Obi think that people rigged, APC rigged, how did Obi win the stronghold of Bola Tinubu? Why didn’t Bola Tinubu rig Lagos for himself? How come APC lost the election in the home base of a sitting president? How come APC lost the election in the home base of the Secretary to that Government? The accusation about rigging does not hold water. I was in the Labour Party. We couldn’t have done better than we did, but that’s a discussion for another day. And in any case, when you look at it today, critically, Bola Tinubu came into this government with a better policy document than any of these two rivals.
But many people believe Atiku was better prepared, having been vice president before.
Atiku is a magnificent, experienced, knowledgeable, and thoroughbred politician. I am telling you that I know that for a fact. He also came with a testament. But when we put the testament side by side, which is the correct reality we have on the ground today, it’s not applicable. The testament, the policy document, and his preparation were hinged mainly on obtaining some funds, $10 billion and $15 billion or so loans, which he intended to inject into the economy. But that was theoretical because at the time Buhari was leaving, nobody was going to borrow Nigeria money. And if people were ready to borrow Nigerian money, Buhari would not have had to go and print money. We were no longer credit worthy in the eyes of the majority of the international financial institutions.
The premises and the pillars on which Atiku placed this testament are what you call sinking sand, they can’t work. As for Peter Obi, he has not given any policy document to Nigerians on what he was going to do. I can tell you that for a fact. I’ve admitted Atiku’s own, but in the Labour Party, we did not have a document that we could adopt as our panacea for what was going on. All we were saying was that we wanted to take Nigeria from consumption to production. Good rhetoric but it’s not grounded either in policy development or in principle application. I never supported Bola Tinubu, he’s not my person and we’re not in the same party. But in retrospect now, his reform, I mean, his Renewable Hope Agenda is the most credible document that can address and is addressing the current situation. And as you can see, it is being meticulously applied. First of all, he came and not only removed petrol subsidy, but announced that Buhari had already removed the subsidy. From June 1, 2023, there was no subsidy provision in the Budget.
So, the statement that “subsidy is gone” was just an acceptable confirmation of an event that had happened. This was superfluous, but the subsidy had actually been removed before he came into office. Next, he attacked the arbitrage in the foreign exchange market. And this is what I commend Bola Tinubu and his government for. Unknown to many Nigerians, some people were feeding fat on Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings. There were people who didn’t do any job. They just used contacts in the CBN, and collected millions of dollars every week and got the difference, and made stupendous wealth. All that is gone, this man has stopped it. After that, I mean, see, he has now implemented the student loan program.
Then he implemented this consumer protection thing, providing money for low-income earners and all that, in a systematic manner. The Ways and Means of N21 trillion has also been liquidated. And you say that the man does not have a plan! Now, two months after coming to government, he raised a committee to look into the problems in our tax system through reforms which was in his agenda. So, this man has a systematic, reliable, focused, applicable agenda that can take Nigeria out of the woods.
Peoplesmind
