The Director General of Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Organization, Doyin Okupe has said that he has met with his peers who are Yoruba people to shun ethnicity in the forthcoming presidential election but they blatantly told him that they will continue to backup Bola Ahmed Tinubu because he is a Yoruba man.
Doyin Okupe made this statement during an interview on Channels Television.
During the interview, he explained that the Labour Party was not fully satisfied with the number of people who graced the party’s presidential campaign that officially flagged off in Nasarawa some days ago.
Doyin Okupe who said that he was moved to run for the presidency following the suffering Nigerians are passing through, but later collapsed his ambition to support Peter Obi because he believes he can do better than him also explained that the ruling All Progressives Congress was the cause of low turn up of people during their campaign in Nasarawa.
In his explanation, he said that even on the eve of the campaign, they were still considering whether or not to cut it off because of high security alert.
Doyin Okupe who rode in a bulletproof car for the first time to the campaign noted that the ruling All Progressives Congress refused to give them final permit for the landing of the presidential candidate and his running mate’s helicopter until in the morning of the campaign day.
He added that but for the intervention of some very high level royal people in Lafia, that camping wouldn’t have held because the government refused to give them permit to use the places they had booked for the campaign.
He also noted that in Nasarawa, for the past seven to eight years, no one has ever heard of environmental sanitation, but on Thursday before the campaign day, the government of the state declared the campaign day sanitation day. He also said that the government also declared curfew a night before the campaign day, saying that there will be no movement until by 10 am on the Saturday; the day for the Labour Party’s campaign flag off in the state.
According to him, it was impossible for people, especially those who may be coming from far away distances to grace the flag off of the party’s presidential campaign following the inconveniences brought about by the governing party. He added that the people who graced the event were people who they and their support groups managed to bring together from Lafia and its environs alone.
Doyin Okupe said that such occurrence can still repeat itself in many other states of the country as there are places where they are not allowed to put their signboards currently.
Speaking further during the interview, Doyin Okupe said that Nigeria has not attained the stage where sentiments and ethnicity can be shunned from interfering with elections. He noted that he has spoken with his peers who he went to school with, who are giants of industries, who are also Yoruba people, but they always tell him that he is the only one who can do what he is doing currently, but as for them, whether or not Bola Ahmed Tinubu is good or bad, they will continue to support him because he is a Yoruba indigene.
He added that their support for Tinubu is not based on competence. He added that they are rational people who are intelligent and successful who cannot even pass through Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s front gate, but they support him because he is their fellow Yoruba indigene.
He added that ethnicity will play a major role in the forthcoming presidential election as this is the first time three major presidential candidates come from the Igbo land, Yoruba land and Northern Fulani respectively.
He also explained that the Labour Party are currently in talks with the SDP, Kwankwaso’s NNPP, PRP and ADC, adding that he believes that before December, they will bring the alliance together.
While speaking on Peter Obi’s manifesto, he said that the manifesto is ready and will be out officially very shortly.
