Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr.
Doyin Okupe, has declared that should President Goodluck Jonathan
decide to contest the 2015 presidential election, the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP) will have no choice than to give him the ticket.
He also said that the five northern state governors who have been
going around the country ostensibly to stop any attempt by the President
to go for a second term in office have their own agenda but only using
the Rivers State crisis as a smokescreen.
The Presidential aide assured that nobody can beat the President whenever he makes up his mind to join the race.
Okupe,
who made the declaration while fielding questions from newsmen in Abuja
on Thursday, said it would be advantageous to the ruling party to field
the incumbent President who, rather than campaign with what he will do
when elected, will convince the electorate with what he had already
achieved.
He said, “If this party PDP is a very serious party,
which I believe it is, if the President decides to run, why should the
party pick somebody else? The only advantage it will have in contesting
is that it has an incumbent President who will not be telling Nigerians
that ‘vote for me I will do this.’ He will be telling Nigerians ‘vote
for me, I have done this.’
“All those talking about no automatic
ticket, what they are saying is politically unwise and impracticable and
they cannot come to pass.”
The Presidential aide, who emphasised
that Jonathan has not decided to run, was confident that if he so
decides, nobody can beat him.
He added that those who are
boasting that the south will never win the presidency are “day dreaming”
as what they are saying “will never come to pass.”
“President
Jonathan has not decided and has not told anybody. That is the truth. If
he decides to run, nobody can beat him, it’s not possible. The
calculations are in his favour, the odds are in his favour, the national
supports are in his favour, the performance index is in his favour,” he
stated.
Okupe further remarked that the five northern governors
who are presently touring the country, are not telling Nigerians the
truth as they have an agenda other than the Rivers State crisis which
they claim they are holding consultations over.
According
to him, “they have their own agenda. It is not what they are telling
the Nigerian public. They are telling us that the real motivating factor
is this Rivers State and people keep talking about crisis in Rivers
State. How do you define crisis? There is no unrest in Rivers State.
“Nobody
is burning any house in Rivers State. Commuters, traders and business
men are going about their businesses in Rivers State, the governor is
junketing abroad or rather having a good time. All these talk is just in
the imagination of those who want to stoke the fire that does not
exist.
“There is no problem in Rivers State. I have said it and I
am saying it again, (Governor Rotimi) Amaechi has a problem with some
members of House of Assembly. Within the House of Assembly in Rivers
State, there are divisions and it is not strange. It is not unusual.
“Over
18 Speakers have been removed in this our young democracy and nothing
happened. Like I told you, this is 2015 live. Everything you hear about
Rivers State, anything you hear about governors moving all over the
place is nothing to do with Rivers State.
“Rivers State is a
political camouflage. You can quote me. The real thing is intense
politicking by people with very serious interest in the polity or who
have agenda they want to make sure manifest by hook or by crook.
“They
are going all over the country, trying to mobilize support for what
they want to do. Someone said that they try to intimidate the President
not to run because, it is obvious they are insisting that there will be
no open ticket for the President.”
On the registration of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) by the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC), Okupe maintained that it is a testimony to the
openness and transparency of the Jonathan administration.
He
added that the existence of APC as a political party will lessen the
burden of the PDP which will now concentrate its effort in tackling one
party rather than several parties at the same time.
Okupe
remarked, “The registration of APC is perhaps the most powerful, the
most eloquent testimony of the openness, transparency, honesty and
political liberalism of President Goodluck Jonathan.
“This would
not have happened under many African Presidents, especially when it is
obvious to those who care to study the situation properly that there
were obvious hurdles and obstacles to that registration, which could
have been exploited, and could have amplified and could have been used
by people of lesser integrity to frustrate the APC.
“This is a
testament and this is a testimony that contrary to what you said, we
have no fear whatsoever about APC registration. We are not in any way
anxious. These are people that were beaten individually before and
collectively we will defeat them randomly.
“But we are glad that
at least now instead of fighting three or four parties, we can
concentrate on one and get it done. I can assure you that there is
nobody in the Villa that is worried. For us it is a good thing, it is a
great development.
“I don’t know whether the opposition is
credible enough. I cannot attest to that, but at least you know, what we
have is that we have political parties that have been inept previously,
that have been extremely weakened and of no serious political
importance.
They have now come together under one umbrella with an attempt to challenge the status quo. We will see how far they can go.”
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