Doyin Okupe, former Director-General of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Campaign, has dismissed the widespread claim that the 2023 presidential election was rigged in favor of Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Okupe’s comments come after months of accusations from supporters of Peter Obi, the LP candidate, who continue to insist that the election was stolen. According to Obi and his supporters, they won the election despite the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“The presidency was not stolen,” Okupe declared firmly in a statement issued on Thursday in Lagos. He further explained that the claims of election rigging do not hold up when examined closely.
“If Peter Obi or the Labour Party says APC rigged elections, how come Obi was able to win in the home base of President Bola Tinubu?” Okupe asked. He pointed out that APC had lost in Tinubu’s strongholds, including in the home base of former President Muhammadu Buhari and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. According to him, such results make it clear that the accusations of rigging are baseless.
Okupe’s statement came as a response to the continued claims of election malpractice, especially from Obi’s supporters who have not accepted the official results. Tinubu’s victory was upheld by the Supreme Court after several legal challenges were brought forward by Obi and Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
However, despite the court’s ruling, Obi and his supporters have kept alive the narrative that they were the rightful winners of the election. Okupe believes such claims are not only false but unrealistic.
“There’s nothing like that. No presidency was stolen,” Okupe continued. “I’m not saying there was no rigging. But there has never been an election in Nigeria, from 1960 till today, that wasn’t rigged in one way or the other.”
He further emphasized that rigging was a common feature in every election since Nigeria’s independence, except for the 1993 election won by MKO Abiola, which was unique due to the voting pattern.
Okupe, who has held significant political roles in Nigeria, also defended President Bola Tinubu’s leadership. He expressed confidence in Tinubu’s ability to bring about necessary reforms despite the challenging economic situation Nigeria faces.
“The truth is, under the best of conditions, the results we got may not have been the exact results, but they will have that ratio,” Okupe said, discussing the election. “I was in the Labour Party; we couldn’t have done better than we did.”
He also expressed his admiration for Tinubu, describing him as not only a politician but also a technocrat with deep thinking and practical ideas. “Tinubu is like the late Obafemi Awolowo,” Okupe said, drawing comparisons between the two politicians known for their transformative ideas.
According to Okupe, Tinubu’s policies would begin to show results within two years. He acknowledged that the country is currently in a difficult position but believes that the president has laid down the groundwork for positive change.
“Unfortunately for him, he has come into government at a very terrible and awful time,” Okupe said, highlighting the economic challenges the president is facing. He stressed that it was unrealistic to expect immediate results from Tinubu’s policies, especially considering the poor state of the economy when he took office.
Okupe called on Nigerians to give Tinubu time to implement his reforms. “It’s going to be a couple of years of pain and hardship, but he is doing what other presidents for the last 10 or 20 years have refused to do,” he said. He pointed out that many of the country’s issues have been ignored for decades, with 98% of Nigeria’s revenue being used to service debt before Tinubu took office.
“By the time he came to the government, 98 per cent of our revenue generated was being used to pay debt,” Okupe noted, emphasizing the gravity of the situation.
The former presidential spokesperson also appealed to Nigerians to support the president as he works to tackle the country’s long-standing problems. According to him, the country’s growth and progress require collective efforts, especially in these difficult times.
“The choice he had was to run and come into governance and just continue business as usual,” Okupe explained. “But Tinubu chose to take on the hard work of real reform.”
