Dr. Doyin Okupe, the former Director-General of the Labour Party presidential campaign, has warned that the party’s 2023 presidential nominee, Peter Obi, lacks a policy document to back up his campaign motto of transforming Nigeria “from consumption to production.”
Okupe made the statements on Tuesday when evaluating the effectiveness of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
He asserted that Tinubu had a better policy framework than his opponents in the 2023 presidential election, including Obi and the People’s Democratic Party’s nominee, Atiku Abubakar.
“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,” Okupe stated.
However, he added, “But when you put the testament side-by-side with the current reality on the ground, it is not applicable.”
Okupe pointed out that former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had left the country in dire financial straits, making Atiku’s proposals impossible.
He explained, “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. 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 applauded Tinubu for implementing reforms and addressing key national issues early in his administration, particularly regarding foreign exchange and tax reform.
“Tinubu tackled foreign exchange issues, stopping individuals from exploiting earnings through the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, connections. Two months after getting into government, he put up a committee to look into tax reform, which was on his agenda,” he said.
He acknowledged Tinubu’s “systematic” approach, stating, “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.”
