2023 Presidential Election: “Peter Obi Was Not In A Position To Win” – DG Campaign Office

By Akinwale Kasali

Peter Obi, the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 Presidential Election was not in a position to win the Election. This was disclosed by the first Director-General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign, Dr Doyin Okupe.

Okupe resigned from that position after he was prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and convicted by  a Court for money laundering. He did not serve any time behind bars as he paid a fine which ran into millions of Naira.

Speaking in a video interview which has gone viral on social media, Okupe said that even though the party ran a fantastic campaign it was grossly and inadequately arranged to cover a National election. It had no structure to cover the entire country. It was not there, Okupe said.

In defence of the allegations  against him that he betrayed Obi and suddenly became a President Tinubu cheer leader, Okupe said the same allegation could be made against Obi.

He said Obi betrayed the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, who Okupe said brought Obi into National political limelight. Obi was Atiku’s Presidential running mate in 2019, but ran against him in 2023.

He said he left Obi because he was done with him. He expressed regret that Obi’s Presidential interest forced him to go against Atiku, who brought him into national politics, adding that he regretted to have done that against his mentor.

Okupe, the Medical Doctor-turned Politician explained: “They said I betrayed Obi. No. How can I betray him? I started politics in 1978. Obi was nowhere else. My life and political destiny cannot be tied to Obi’s ambition. I wish Obi well, but I am done with him. We wanted to achieve something, but we couldn’t achieve it.

“Obi was the Vice Presidential Candidate of Atiku Abubakar in 2019. He brought him to the national limelight. Because of his own ambition, which was correct and due, Obi left the party and contested against Atiku. If people said I betrayed Obi, what did Obi do to Atiku? It is not fair.

“It is Obi’s interest in 2023 that made him go on a collision course against his former master. Obi was not my master; I was his supporter. If I supported him up to a point and decided to go back and be myself, how can that be an offence?”

On how he became the DG of the Labour Party’s Presidential Campaign Council, Okupe disclosed that Chief Ayo Adebanjo, a leader of Pan Yoruba Group, Afenifere, persuaded him to support Obi. Adebanjo, Okupe said, objected to the idea of a Northerner succeeding former President Muhammadu Buhari. He supported the move for the South to produce Nigeria’s president in 2023.

He stated that the collective decision to support Obi from the South-East was based on fairness.

“Baba Adebanjo called me and said he heard that I wanted to contest for the Presidential Election, and I said yes. Baba said I was a troublemaker. I told Baba that he didn’t know what was happening in our party.

“PDP wanted a Northerner to replace Buhari; that didn’t make sense to me. It made a mockery of our federalism and unity as a Nation. It undermined my essence as a human being.

“Baba asked which section of the South should be considered if the Presidency was zoned to the region. I told Baba that it was only the South-east that has not produced a President.

“Baba said we should support the South-east for the Presidency and I agreed. We reviewed the Presidential Candidates from that region and we concluded on supporting Obi. That was what happened.

“I went to the Press Centre in Abeokuta to declare that I was withdrawing from the race, and that I would support Peter Obi. By that time, I hadn’t met Obi. I hadn’t discussed or seen him. I only knew he wanted to be President.

“Five days later, Obi called me on the phone and requested to see me. We met and discussed and he made me the Director-General of his campaign. That was how the journey with Obi started. When it was clear to us that we couldn’t get the ticket from PDP, we decided to leave the party.”

Okupe disclosed that the party was grossly and inadequately arranged to cover a national election. “LP didn’t have what it took to win the Presidential poll.”

He said, “We ran a fantastic campaign; we did a lot of mobilisation, but we had our flaws and shortcomings. The party was grossly and inadequately arranged to cover a National election. We didn’t have what it took. The structure that covered the entire country wasn’t there.”

For the records, Obi was a two-term Governor of Anambra State and was well known at the National level before he ran as Atiku’s Presidential running mate in 2019.

Dr Okupe was the Presidential Spokesperson to President Olusegun Obasanjo. He has not won any elective office till date.