Presidency Was Not Stolen. Labour Party Couldn’t Have Done Better Than It Did – Doyin Okupe

Doyin Okupe, a former Director-General of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign, believes that Peter Obi’s victory in Lagos state, President Tinubu’s home base, demonstrates that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) did not rig the 2023 presidential election.

In a statement released on Thursday, November 21, Okupe said: “If Peter Obi (2023 LP presidential candidate) or the Labour Party says APC rigged elections, how come Obi was able to win in the home base of President Bola Tinubu? How come APC lost election in the home base of the sitting President (Muhammadu Buhari)? How come APC lost 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.

“The truth of the matter is that under the best of conditions, the results we got may not have been the exact results, 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 reasons but that is a discussion for another day,” he said.

He denied charges by the PDP and LP that the votes were rigged in favour of the APC.

“There’s nothing like that. No presidency was stolen. I am not saying there was no rigging. There is 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.”

Mr Okupe, who expressed strong support for Mr Tinubu’s changes, predicted that the president’s measures will begin to yield dividends in the second year of his term.

The former LP chieftain stated that Mr Tinubu impressed him not merely as a politician, but also as a technocrat: “a man capable of deep thinking.”

The 72-year-old politician compared President Tinubu to the late Premier of the defunct Western Region, Obafemi Awolowo, who had innovative ideas for public policy. Okupe described Mr Tinubu as a reformer, saying it was “total nonsense” to claim that the president arrived at the position without a strategy.

“I have worked with two past presidents. I have studied other presidents closely from a very close point. 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 very terrible and awful time,” Mr Okupe said.

A Gentle Reminder: Every obstacle is a stepping stone, every morning; a chance to go again, and those little steps take you closer to your dream.

Nnamdi Okoli