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Dr. Doyin Okupe, the former Director-General of the Labour Party’s presidential campaign, revealed on Sunday that Mr. Peter Obi, the LP’s candidate in the 2023 elections, did not possess any official policy document to substantiate his widely promoted consumption-to-production agenda during the campaign.
Dr. Doyin Okupe, in his assessment of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, argued that the policy document backing Tinubu’s government surpasses those of his contenders in the 2023 elections in both substance and clarity. He emphasized that Tinubu’s policies are more robust and well thought out compared to the alternatives presented during the election campaign.
Dr. Okupe further pointed out that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), structured his campaign proposals around abstract and speculative loan agreements, rather than pragmatic, implementable plans.
He said: “Tinubu has a better policy document than any of his two rivals during the 2023 presidential election. Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is an experienced, knowledgeable, and thoroughbred politician.
“I know for a fact that he also came with a testament that would have been binding on him and Nigerians.
“But when you put the testament side-by-side the current reality on the ground, it is not applicable.”
Dr. Okupe asserted that former President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure was marked by significant financial challenges, with international banks and financial bodies declining to offer loans to Nigeria due to its economic difficulties.
He said: “So, the premise Atiku placed his testament on was sinking, and it can’t work.
“As for Peter Obi of the Labour Party, he did not give any document to Nigerians that he was going to work on.
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“In the Labour Party, we didn’t have a document that we could adopt as a policy document for what was going on.”
“All we were saying was that we wanted to take Nigeria from consumption to production; good rhetoric, but it was not grounded either in policy development or principle application.”
Okupe explained that President Tinubu had taken a firm stance against the foreign exchange challenges, curtailing the ability of individuals to misuse their connections within the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to profit.
He said: “Two months after getting into government, he put up a committee to look into tax reform, which was in his agenda.
“This man (Tinubu) has a systematic, reliable, focused, and applicable agenda that can take Nigeria to enviable heights.
“Though I never supported Tinubu ahead of the election; he is not my friend, and we were not in the same party, in retrospect, however, his reform agenda is the most credible.
“The renewed hope agenda he (Tinubu) brought is one that can address, and is addressing, the country’s current challenges.”
