The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, has condemned the activities of opposition leaders in Nigeria describing them as purely undemocratic.
Addressing a press conference in Lagos Sunday, Dr. Okupe accused the politicians of planning to supplant the administration.
Okupe said that opposition party leaders have cultivated the habit of using every platform to denigrate the country and its government. he said, “They confuse innocent members of the public and deceptively present themselves as possessing what it takes to move Nigeria forward,” he said. “It is evident that the proposed merger revolves around two personalities only, Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu and retired General Muhammed Buhari. Unfortunately, both are heavily-burdened political liabilities. We will not dwell much on this for now.”
Querying the political potential and sincerity of purpose of the leaders, Okupe added that the leaders in the past relied on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to field presidential candidates. He said, “In 2003, their choice was Vice President Atiku Abubakar who now knows them better. In 2011, it was a protégé of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, who fitted the slot although he was later betrayed and sacrificed on the altar of self-interest.
“Presently, the debates within the factionalised alliance suggest that they will not mind fielding another PDP stalwart as its presidential flag-bearer. It is clear that a party that has, consistently over a period of 12 years, been unable to find any suitable member from its own rank and file as presidential candidate has clearly exhibited its own structural and ideological weakness and its unsuitability as an organisation capable of providing national leadership and can therefore not run an efficient or competent federal government in a country like Nigeria.”
He added that the merger the politicians are putting together is made up of PDP renegades, moribund and lack-lustre ANPP which, he said, had existed for 13 years without any meaningful impact on the polity.
Said the presidential aide: “The ACN is a one man-owned and -controlled political party with no form of any internal democratic credential whatsoever and totally devoid of any form of modern liberalism. The leader of the opposition, Chief Bola Tinubu, who spoke disparagingly about the federal government on a number of issues bordering on the economy, democratic governance and social security was once a governor of one of Nigeria’s richest states for eight years and we all have a record of what he made of that position.
“The Bola Tinubu who spoke about poor budget implementation at the federal level never attained 60 per cent budget implementation while he presided over the affairs of Lagos between 1999 and 2007.Contrast this with the remarkable budget implementation record of the present administration in the last two years. The records are there for all to see.
“Senator Tinubu who spoke about meagre wages for public servants in Nigeria was known to have ignored the calls of Lagos civil servants for a N7, 500 monthly wage, and, when he eventually buckled to the pressure of labour leaders, he wickedly sacked the major arrowhead of the struggle in person of Comrade Ayodele Akele who was never re-instated.”
Okupe said the present national chairman of the ACN, Chief Bisi Akande, as governor of Osun State denied workers of a N5, 500 minimum wage and eventually laid off over 9,000 workers during his four-year reign.
“Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who was then NLC president and now governor of Edo State, led workers on a protest march in Osun State during the period but Chief Akande remained adamant. Where, then, are the credentials of these people to talk about job creation, promotion of workers’ interest and democratic etiquette?” he asked.
He noted that Ekiti and Osun states which are being governed by the opposition political parties are embroiled in one form of industrial crisis or the other as a result of what he also called insensitive, cruel and anti-workers policies of their present governors.
“Local government workers and teachers went on strike in Ekiti and lost a number of their members to sack and other forms victimisation. In Osun, tertiary institutions are at present under lock and key. School fees have tripled in institutions of higher learning owned by Ekiti, Lagos, Osun and Oyo states,” Okupe continued. “Yet Senator Tinubu spoke of the present government as ‘heartless and mean’ that put the interest of small elite above the interest of the common working man and woman who are the backbone of this nation.
“These sets of politicians who want to desperately supplant the Jonathan administration are promoting an incongruous alliance of political weaklings and dysfunctional Lilliputians out primarily to foster their ego and psyche. They are being repeatedly frustrated political power mongers, forgetting that one million giant ants can never muster the required strength to lift a concrete pole not to talk of a nationally entrenched pillar and structurally established institution like the PDP.”
Okupe, who urged Nigerians to disregard their political sermon, said the citizenry was already reaping the benefits of government’s investment especially on ongoing road rehabilitation projects some of which are on the verge of completion.