Ahead of the 2023 presidential election, the Director-General of the Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Organization, Dr. Doyin Okupe, says his team would raise about 30 million voters for the Labour Party, LP, and its candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, to emerge victorious at the polls.
Okupe, who jettisoned his presidential ambition for Obi, spoke against the assertions by some quarters that the former Anambra governor does not have the structure to win a presidential election.
In an interview with Vanguard, the former Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Olusegun Obasanjo expressed optimism that the LP’s candidate would become the next President of Nigeria because he was the best of the very best.
“We have a saleable candidate. We have a candidate that is adjudged to be the best in Nigeria currently. We have a currency that is comparable to none. Peter Obi, in terms of currency, is the sure bet that’s available politically in Nigeria today. It is impossible for any political party to produce any candidate that can match him in terms of performance and integrity. He has over proven that he’s a man that has integrity. In terms of antecedents, what he did in Anambra State is classic and exemplary. In terms of execution, knowledge and exposure especially in the economy, no aspirant or candidate comes close to him”, the DG stated.
According to him, Obi’s presidency would focus on changing the country from consumption to production, reducing poverty, changing the attitude of governance from the elites collecting together to share to encouraging people to create wealth, and leading and managing governance resources responsibly, transparently and honestly.
“Obi is going to be strong on education because that is the basis of growth and progress. He’s going to be very strong in agriculture too. He has gone all over the country talking about agriculture, talking about the potential we have in a country that is over one million square kilometres and yet, we are not exporting as much as countries that are not up to one-third of our size like Vietnam,”he stated.
Okupe, who was also a Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan, described Obi’s defection to the LP from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as an inevitable decision taken to save Nigeria from the hand of corrupt politicians.
He said: “The truth of the matter is that when people talk about political structure, you are actually referring to human beings, and the LP as it is presently constituted has the greatest number of members even more than very well known political parties if combined or put together.
“In Labour Party, you have the NLC, the TUC, the market women, the farmers, the artisans, the students, the professionals and the entire working class, and so on. That’s the ramification, the extent the party drives its strength.
“So what Peter Obi’s presence is doing is to attract the structure and its attraction to the youth is going to reawaken the strength of the LP, reinvigorate it and task its members to come in and take their position in the scheme of things”.
On the Obi’s massive social media following, the DG added: “Yes, he has a massive following on social media but his following and the political revolution that he’s leading presently is far beyond social media. He’s broken the bounds of what the new media is all about. Obi today is the very essence of Nigerian politics. If you go to the market, church, mosque, or enter a taxi or a bus, everybody, farmers, religious leaders, is talking about him.
“The dynamism of the youthful population and their strength and capacity in terms of electoral advantage is going to shock the country. I’m telling you that between now and January next year, the Peter Obi movement will put together between 25 – 30 million people and I don’t see any existing political party that can top that.
“Nigerians both young and old, are tired of our political platforms that have been exchanging powers between the PDP and the APC and you know, the line between the two has actually disappeared. The truth of the matter is that in terms of political relevance, the APC and the PDP have expired. And you know that nature abhors a vacuum, so the third force of young people will now have to take over to rescue the country.”
When asked if Obi would be willing to collapse his structure with other political parties like Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso ‘s New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, Okupe answered: “Merging, cooperation, coalition, all those tendencies are possible but the goal is constant. We want Obi to run the affairs of this country because he’s the best person right now to do it. He’s the one that has enough knowledge and experience and proven ability to physically manage our economy and our finances.
So, we will do anything lawful and legal, we will make concessions to bring in people, we are going to bring the biggest coalition ever before the election, you will see.”
