If APC Survives One Year, Don’t Call Me Okupe, Presidential Aide Boasts

The Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, on Tuesday described the merger of opposition political parties on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as a weak association that would crumble and disappear by 2014, one year before the next general election.

So confident is he of this that during a courtesy visit to THISDAY corporate offices in Lagos yesterday, he put his father's name on the line.
"If they don't crumble and disappear by 2014, don't call me Okupe," he bragged.       
Okupe's visit to THISDAY seemed to have been a public relations stunt that was carefully arranged either when the journalists went to lunch, or after Okupe had gagged them, because no professional asked him any questions following what seemed like a one-sided lecture.

The self-described "attack lion" of President Goodluck Jonathan dismissed the view that the merger would rout the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the next election, calling the forces behind it unserious people that are incapable of causing a major upset in national politics.
"Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Maj-Gen. Mohammadu Buhari are not serious-minded people; they are going round like people dancing in a market place," he said, defiantly.  "I expect that when you post an aggregate of people of that calibre who want to run government, by now they must have a policy statement on power, agriculture and employment and not just talking about PDP leaving.

"Is it by mouth that they will run the nation? These are not serious-minded people. Can someone get your vote by using word of mouth that PDP should leave without a policy?"
Okupe was hinging his political prediction on the projection that the president's joker, which is stable electricity, is attained by 2014, the opposition would be punctured and rendered ineffective.
Specifically dismissing Tinubu, he held that the ACN chieftain has ridden roughshod over the South-west, but that Nigeria is bigger than that.
"This is their first time out in national politics; alright, and let me give you some bad news: the relevance that ACN has in Nigerian politics is that they are a Yoruba party. That is what makes them relevant in politics and by dropping that toga, the party is dead.

"They have just formed an abyss; a formless abyss that the Yoruba cannot key into. The Yoruba have always been members of a regional organisation – Action Group (AG), Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), etc. And in any case, what are the electoral credentials of ACN? How many states have they won that they are boasting?"
 
In a frontal assault that suggested that the PDP is wary of the possibilities open to the opposition, Okupe described the APC as a party that is consistently unable to produce a presidential candidate from within its rank and file, saying that for the 2015 election, they are planning to recruit the Speaer of the House, Tambuwal.

"What kind of political party is that and you are taking them seriously. It is a politically defective and weak organisation, and by coming to the national stage, the wind is going to blow them open. If they don't crumble and disappear by 2014, don't call me Okupe," he said. And  
With reference to the power reform

programme, he said that the problem with the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs) was the amount of money that was designated for it, stating that the money was not the type entrepreneurs in the country could aggregate.
"When Jonathan came, five major problems bedevilled the power sector," he said.  "One, there was low generation capacity. Two, was that the NIPPs, which required so much money, were abandoned. Three, even if they were working, they were located in places that were impossible for gas availability. Four, there was very poor transmission capacity and five, the indecisiveness involved in the privatisation exercise.

He said that within two years, the Jonathan administration solved four of those five problems.  "The NIPPs – all of them are about 95 per cent complete and there is enough monitoring to ensure that this is done."
He pointed out the outstanding challenge was transmission capacity which is currently being addressed by the federal government. 

Okupe, who also sought partnership with the media, admitted that the Jonathan administration needed help to survive.
"That is the truth. I am not hiding it. There is no government that has been more assaulted in this country. I have come to see if we can build a platform to help the country and this government.  I am not saying that you should compromise your positions; I am just saying that you should give us the chance to clarify anything that you need to clarify."

Okupe did not say anything about the corruption by which the PDP has grounded the country, and of which most of the key officials of both the government and the party are known to be guilty, or how they intend to persuade Nigerians in 2015 to allow them to continue.

(SaharaReporters)