DAY OBASANJO THREW SLIPPERS AT ME —Okupe
Written by Saturday, 27 April 2013 00:00
Lagos Bureau Chief, LANRE ADEWOLE and reporter,
MODINAT ADENEKAN, engaged President Goodluck
Jonathan’s publicist, Dr. Doyin Okupe, in a no-
holds-barred interview. Excerpts:
Why is it that when you talk, it is Jonathan’s ‘attack
dog’ at work?
It’s an act of mischief from the opposition end.
Before we came on board over three years ago, the
opposition had a field day, especially Lai
Mohammed, who bestrode the country in some form
of majesty, and they developed this attitude of
exchangeability. They feel they are not responsible
for whatever they say. They know what I can do;
that is why they put a label of ‘attack dog’ on me,
to which I would say that if am going to be an
‘attack-anything’, by my age and status, I should
have moved to an ‘attack lion’. It doesn’t bother
me, because I don’t attack people. I pick up issues
and try to dig out facts.
People feel you are uncharitable to (Major-General
Muhammadu) Buhari and (Senator Bola) Tinubu by
calling them ‘political liabilities’ – being a former
head of state and a two-time governor of Lagos
State.
You can be a former head of state or a three-time
governor of anywhere, if circumstances or situations
make you to be a burden bearer, there is nothing
you can do about it. What I meant was that they
carry a burden of a new political party they are not
supposed to carry.
By liabilities, were you insinuating that they had
some ‘baggage’ to explain?
Baggage is baggage, whether it’s corruption or
religious bigotry. There is nothing with having your
baggage and carrying your baggage. People who
are already heavily burdened with political baggage
will not do well for the alliance. It is quite clear that
the alliance itself is not going to lead to anywhere.
Buhari is perceived to be very clean and nobody
has been able to hang anything on Tinubu, despite
the fact that the Federal Government can prosecute.
When talking about election, it has nothing to do
with legality; it has to do with morality. There are
three courts of justice that they can face: the court
of justice which is the court in the country, the court
of justice which is the court of the people, and the
final court which is the court of God. But the
relevant one here is the court of the people. If you
are guilty in the people’s court, then you face it.
The way you are defending Jonathan’s records
suggests that it’s all about his re-election campaign
in 2015 and not for posterity.
Whether Jonathan is going to contest or not, it is
important that we put down overbearing and
disinformation from the opposition. Even if Jonathan
will do one term, the record must be put straight.
All this incompetence that is talked about is
absolute nonsense. I’m telling you that there is
nobody in the opposition party that has proved that
he is better than Jonathan. And if anybody has, let
them tell me.
ACN is in control of six states. In which of those six
states have you seen any outstanding performance,
apart from Lagos? If I were to score them, I would
score even Lagos average. There are places in
Lagos from 1999 till date that you can’t see any
sign of government. I don’t think it’s right that with
the amount of money Lagos has, such places have
not improved from Tinubu’s term till now. An
example of such places is Shomolu. You cannot see
any sign of government there for 12 years. Fashola
is the star governor, but he is just one adoration.
Who else do they have to show? Forget about the
media hype and image, ACN has nothing to show,
apart from Fashola. Go to Osun and Ekiti states; the
people there are cursing the government. ACN has
very limited success in Yoruba land, apart from
Lagos. Where have they won at an open election?
They lost in Imo and Ondo; and in Ekiti, Osun and
Edo states, their so-called victories were from court
judgments. ACN does not have a credible electoral
success anywhere in the South-West, apart from
Lagos. It’s a shame that Oshiomhole cannot
conduct a free and fair election in Edo. Nigerians
must open their eyes like the normal slogan ‘Shine
your eyes’. ACN has only 40 per cent electoral
advantage. The party has died by their convention
which I call ‘political suicide’. It also has no
national relevance whatsoever. The only relevance
they have is as a Yoruba party, and they have
abandoned that. What do those who see ACN as an
average Yoruba party stand to gain as their benefits
from the alliance?
If Baba (Abraham) Adesanya were alive, would he
have asked Yoruba to vote for Buhari? ACN is not
an authentic party for the Yoruba people; they only
represent Yoruba’s political interest. ACN is dead. I
have never joined a tribal party in my life; I am not
promoting tribal grouping. The All Progressive
Grand Alliance (APGA) is also an Igbo party.
If ACN has Fashola to showcase, who does PDP
have?
Fashola is a distant number four governor in this
country. Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom is number
one, according to the American report, which
described him as the best governor in Nigeria.
There is also the governor of Rivers State (Rotimi
Amaechi) as the second. Katsina governor is the
third, and then Fashola who is a distant fourth.
What would you say is Jonathan’s legacy?
A legacy is something that you leave when you go;
you cannot talk about legacy when he is still in
office. If you want me to talk about his
achievements in three years, he has achieved the
most significant and evidently positive development
in the power sector. Also in the area of agriculture,
there is no government that has surpassed the
transformation in the agricultural sector. Talk about
local production of rice, cotton plantation, and
leadership role of cassava production. In the area of
transportation, the railway line that had been
abandoned for 20 years have been revitalised, to the
extent that people sit on top of the train. The rail
transportation from Port Harcourt to Maiduguri will
soon be effective. We have about 24 local airports.
The federal and inter-city roads have been repaired.
These are giant strides. We may not be making
noise; we may not have the media to make so
much noise like the opposition that make empty
noise.
You still need to address the issue of legacy;
because our daily acts are history of tomorrow.
I can assure you that President Jonathan’s legacy
will be an indelible one. He will be a president that
provided Nigerians with uninterrupted power supply.
Another is electoral reform, because if you cannot
have credible election, then you cannot have a
credible government. Jonathan has shown his
commitment to electoral reform. He has restrained
federal authorities from interfering in elections.
Recently, the privatisation that was done in the
power sector is about reformation, transparency and
good governance. It’s also one of Jonathan’s
legacies.
We have arranged for gas capturing equipment that
will help people to have adequate gas supply. He
also organised privatisation successfully. We have
about 10 NIPP projects, which by December will all
have been achieved. When we have problems, a
Yoruba adage says Ti ina o ba tan lori eni, eje ko ni
tan ni eekan, meaning ‘if you have not completely
got rid of lice in your head, you will still have blood
stains on your fingertips when you scratch’.
Nigerians have been used to failure in government’s
promises. The media have helped in that aspect by
propagating the voice of the opposition, which is to
cause disillusionment. Whatever alliance that is
formed will be disbanded in 2014 by the
overwhelming success of PDP. The opposition will
be shamed come 2014. Desperately, 2014 is a year
of harvest of all the handwork of President
Jonathan’s administration. Nigerians will beg
Jonathan to run for the election. 2014 is the year of
good tidings.
What was the attack on friends of Nigerian, like
United States, all about?
I didn’t attack the United States. I am an educated
Nigerian citizen and there is no U.S. citizen of my
age that is better than I. I am a proud, well
educated Nigerian. I respect Americans, but I cannot
take whatever they say. I read their report in
Nigerian newspapers about the police pension scam,
petroleum scam, Otedola and Farouk Lawan scam. It
was Nigerians that brought up the issues for them
to talk about. They have talked about the trials of
former governors of Ogun, Nasarawa and Oyo
states; that their cases started in 2011 and by 2012,
they had not been settled. We know that the
judiciary in Nigeria is very slow because of the long
adjournment – which is not the fault of Jonathan’s
administration. What is troubling Nigerians is that
when there is a problem, instead of us facing the
problem, we look for a scapegoat. Let us address
our issues squarely. When talking about corruption,
about a year ago, members of the parliament in
Britain were under probe for mismanaging funds for
their upkeep. Corruption is an English word, and not
a Nigerian word. The president is working on that
aspect; we don’t expect him to take a gun and start
shooting corrupt people; neither can he send them
to jail without trial. We will get the judicial system
working.
This is the first time in 50 years that criminal justice
in Nigeria is being reviewed. It was the president
that endorsed the Freedom of Information Bill. Only
one state in the federation has adopted the bill,
which is Lagos State. Corruption is not a federal
offence; there is corruption in the local and state
levels. Even the Speaker of the Lagos State House of
Assembly is facing corruption charges. Corruption
is not only in the federal system; it is every
Nigerian’s problem, and all of us must face it.
In the report that America gave, they admit that
EFCC is prosecuting over 50 cases of corruption.
We have the slowness of the procedures at the
judiciary level, and we are tackling it. This
government cannot be a scapegoat for malpractices
that have been in the country for over 20 years.
Before joining the government, I was told that the
opposition in Nigeria paid millions of dollars to
lobby in America for them to continue to write
negative reports about Nigeria and its government.
Have you ever seen black Americans abuse their
government? But Nigerians go about in their suit
and briefcases in America denouncing their
government. Americans don’t denounce their own
government; they only criticise it. They don’t abuse
Obama; they only disagree with his submission.
But here in Nigeria, we talk about the president
recklessly without any decorum. Americans
commended their president after the Boston issue,
but here in Nigeria, we never take or see anything
good in what President Jonathan does – which is
unhealthy rivalry.
As a medical doctor, where is this expertise for
media-minding coming from?
I was a distinction student in English and literature
at Igbobi College. I was attracted to the literary art,
but my late sister, Dr. Mrs. Olumide, insisted that I
study medicine. That was how I became a doctor. I
received training from the late Akin Ogumade
Davies. He was the state Publicity Secretary of the
National Party of Nigeria. In those days, he was my
mentor; he taught me how to write press releases. I
was also trained by the former editor of (the
defunct) Concord newspaper, Duro Onabule.
Advocacy is something that I love. Ogunmade saw
the talent in me and he encouraged me. I wrote a lot
of press releases during the time of (Alhaji Lateef)
Jakande to tackle the UPN in Lagos State.
I later became the National and State Publicity
Secretary of the (defunct) National Republican
Convention. I have actually gone through the mills; I
did not jump to become an advocate in one day.
What drew me into medicine was what drew me into
politics. I was driven into medicine because of the
passion to care for the people. When I became a
doctor, I saw the limitations in my ability to care for
people. I saw that the number of people that I could
care for was limited to my consulting room. So, I
saw the larger stage where I could actually affect the
minds of many more people, and that only stage
was politics. I dreamt of becoming one of the
leaders of the country, and I have achieved that
dream. My mission is to cater for the overall
majority.
Are you still eyeing Oke-Mosan (Ogun State
Government House) despite the 2007 failure?
No, I am beyond that now. I am now at the national
level.
Are you still a practising medical doctor?
Not again; I only practise locally. I serve my
children and anybody in my family, but I will not
recommend drugs to you (general laughter).
You can be called ‘Bolanle’ (the proverbial child
born with a silver spoon in his mouth) because your
dad was a wealthy man who founded the
‘Agbonmagbe’ bank, a precursor of Wema Bank.
How much of that business acumen do you
possess?
I have not been a very successful businessman; but
glory be to God, I have managed up to this stage. I
have tried my hands in business, but I have not
recorded the kind of success that my pedigree
would have wished. I did not come from a poor
background; I was born into a comfortable family.
You were known as a man-about-town some years
back. Do you still rock your world despite your tight
schedules?
I am tired of social life. I am not very sociable
anymore. It’s not because of my job; it’s a personal
thing. I thank God I have had a great life. I have
lived and enjoyed myself very well, and I’m satisfied
with the way I’m living now. I attend few family
functions. I have slowed down deliberately. I am
now home-bound.
We have heard stories about how much you rocked
town. Can you let us into how much of town you
rocked?
It is a normal thing, but whatever you have heard
are true (laughs).
You served Obasanjo in this same capacity you are
with Jonathan, and both are now said to be
estranged. How do you manage the two leaders,
even with the suspicion that all is not well between
them?
There is nothing to manage. There is a Yoruba
adage that says Oju kan ni ada n ni, meaning ‘a
cutlass has only one edge’. When I served
Obasanjo, I put my heart in it. Even now, I am still
very close to him; and that does not affect my job
with President Jonathan. For me, it’s all or none. I
commit myself to whatever I do. I am Jonathan’s
man.
There was a report by a certain leader from the
North, alleging that Obasanjo caned you for fraud
and all that?
That’s Junaid Muhammed. I do not think he and I
were in the presence of Obasanjo. Junaid is a very
proud and brilliant Northerner. The problem with
him was that when he came to Channels Television
programme, he came unprepared, and he met with
me and did not find it funny. He was terribly
destabilised. That was just a blatant lie; President
Obasanjo never slapped anybody when I was there.
The worst thing he did was when he threw his
slippers at me one day when we had an argument.
He was talking to me about farming; that he had
just done something good for the farmers and he
was very happy. I asked about those that were not
farmers; and I said that in my family, we didn’t have
a farm, and I had never farmed. So, I told him that
he should not just beat his chest for farmers alone.
He got very angry and said I was one of those that
were spoiling the country, and threw his slippers at
me. That was the closest act of violence he did.
How would you describe your operations so far?
We are going to have seminars, training workshop
in partnership with MDAs, that will energise the total
machinery of government. The All Progressives
Congress people do not know what we have in
store. They will see people on the platform and will
be shocked. We will overwhelm them. We will run
them out of town. That was why I laughed when
they said PDP should go, talking with their mouth
like a masquerade dancing in the market square.
They are mediocre. We have what it takes but we
have not used them, and we will start using them.
We are going to start communicating effectively.
You have a government that is working, yet people
are abusing it. President Jonathan has sleepless
nights and people still say he’s not working.
Can you let us into your love life?
There is nothing about my love life. I was married at
the age of 24. I have nine children from three wives.

All hail GEJ!!! GEJ till 2019!!!

I nva knew okupe is a polygamist
9 children ,3 wives
Yet he stil has d tym to bark for gej
Incredible.

So Obasanjo really flogged this old man like a kid. Anyways, na as goat take stand for market na ehm dem dey price am.

Okupe doesn't even deserve Obj's slippers, he deserves to be thrown a sledge hammer at, or at worst, an old shoe, just like that journalist in Iraq threw at Bush.

trash always sound like kids

I love Baba Iyabo, for the man don't take shit from a lowly person like bastaard Okupe.

temitemi1:
All hail GEJ!!! GEJ till 2019!!!

This same Okupe called him a clueless man and you're still supporting him #chai

Jh

Long bullshít!

SAF vs Becks part 2. Hehe