Newscenter Media News Dr. Doyin Okupe, a former Director-General of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign, has dismissed claims that the 2023 presidential election was rigged by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking in a statement on Thursday in Lagos, Okupe asserted that allegations of rigging lacked credibility, pointing to electoral outcomes that defied expectations in key strongholds.
He said: “If Peter Obi (the 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 elections in the home base of the sitting President (Muhammadu Buhari)? How come APC lost elections 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.”
Okupe admitted that while the election process might not have been flawless, the results reflected the overall will of the electorate.
“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,” he explained. “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.”
According to Okupe, opposition parties such as the PDP and LP were unrealistic in claiming the presidency was “stolen.”
“There’s nothing like that. No presidency was stolen,” he stated. “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.”
READ ALSO: 2023: Okupe dismisses reports on Obi’s alliance with Atiku
Okupe expressed confidence in President Bola Tinubu’s governance, likening him to Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late Premier of the Western Region, known for his visionary policies.
“Tinubu has impressed me not only as a politician but as a technocrat,” Okupe said. “He has development ideologies and policies at his fingertips. To say that he came into office without a plan is total nonsense.”
Drawing from his experience with previous administrations, Okupe praised Tinubu’s preparation for leadership.
“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.”
Okupe urged Nigerians to give Tinubu time, stating that the current economic hardship is part of necessary reforms to fix systemic issues.
“It would be unfair to hold Tinubu accountable for the ills of 40 years. The President needs a minimum of two years for some of his policies to begin to produce results,” he said. “It is going to be a couple of years of pain and hardship, but he is doing what other presidents for the last 10 years or 20 years have refused to do.”
Citing examples like Singapore and Malaysia, Okupe noted that transformative progress often comes with short-term difficulties.
“The choice he had was to run governance as business as usual or to make bold reforms. By the time he came to government, 98 per cent of our revenue generated was being used to pay debt,” Okupe explained.
He called on Nigerians to rally behind Tinubu to address the nation’s challenges and unlock its potential for growth and development.
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