Jonathan’s administration managed Nigerian’s economy creditably – Doyin Okupe

Ahead of Saturday’s Presidential election, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe yesterday gave an insight into why the people of the South West would vote overwhelmingly for President Goodluck Jonathan.


According to Okupe, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, President Jonathan will get the votes of the Yorubas because of antecedent of the people as defenders of truth, equity and justice in Nigeria.

The Presidential aide said that having benefitted from a national concession which enabled the South West enjoy two terms in office as President during Chief Olusegun Obasanjos administration, the Yoruba people need to rise in defence of the minority Ijaw Nation as represented by President Goodluck Jonathan whom he said has justified the first mandate given him by being fair to all parts of Nigeria in his programmes and policies.

In a lecture titled THE YORUBAS : OUR POLITICS YESTERDAY AND TODAY delivered at the Lagos Country club, Ikeja yesterday, Okupe recalled that historically, the Yorubas have acted as conscience of the Nigerian Nation who ensured that no ethnic group is subjugated or marginalised in the political process.

While eulogising the political leadership of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the old Western Region, Okupe said the late sage and the entire Yoruba political class held dearly to the principles of a restructured federation, fiscal autonomy, regionalism and balanced economic development which the National conference adopted and which President Jonathan is committed to implementing in his second term in office.

He said, “It is an irony that the platform for seeking these reforms which the Yorubas had agitated for in decades was only recently provided by a man from the minority ethnic group who emerged Nigerian President by providence in 2011.

That platform is the National Conference which among others has come up with far-reaching recommendations which if and when implemented will solve quite a number of our social, political and economic distortions and restore Nigeria to the path of sustainable growth and stability. These resolutions will have salutary effect on all ethnic groups in Nigeria who will have the opportunity of self- determination and development of their natural endowments”

According to him, the best way to sustain the legacies of the founding fathers of the Nigerian Nation was to ensure that political players of Yoruba extraction shun politics of wealth acquisition and desperation for power to the detriment of the general good which he said had become the hallmark of certain politicians in this dispensation.

He described the alliance that led to the formation of the All Progressive Congress as “a personal agenda of a few clothed in a pseudo-nationalist attire to attain power by all means including falsehood, forgery, deception driven by wealth acquired through unprecedented greed, avarice and grand larceny.”

Okupe said all Nigerians of good conscience need to rise up and demand that politics be played as a means to a noble end and that no section of the country must be foist with a second class mentality.

While answering questions on the achievements of the President in office, the SSA Public Affairs said the revamping of Nigeria’s moribund transportation system in road, rail and air, the construction of new power plants and completion of 13 major dams across the country as well as the revolution in the agricultural sector are unprecedented in the Nations history.

He added that President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration managed the Nigerian economy creditably and that was why most of the manufacturing businesses in the Automotive, agro-allied, cement and other sectors which were on a low ebb before 2011 have all increased production by between 18 and 50% in the last four years.

Okupe promised that the President was committed to working harder on consolidating on his first term in office through massive job creation to ensure that the full benefits of the Transformation Agenda result in creating a new, stronger and prosperous Nigeria .