19th December, 2014
Eromosele Ebhomele
An attempt by Dr. Doyin Okupe, Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs to President Goodluck Jonathan, to vilify Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has been turned against President Goodluck Jonathan, his government and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
On Monday, while answering questions during a visit to the Vanguard Newspaper headquarters in Lagos, Okupe was quoted as saying: “Buhari is trying to make poverty a virtue but poverty is not a virtue. The fact that Buhari has left office for so long and says he is so poor, is nothing to celebrate, it is indeed indolence and shameful. Is that a role model? Is that who you will want your child to be, a poor man?”
In a reply to this statement, the Buhari Campaign Organisation, said Okupe showed that those in the government of President Jonathan are only interested in materialism and the acquisition of wealth and corrupt enrichment of their pockets.
In a statement signed by Dele Alake, the Director of Communications of the organisation, the plan to impugn the person of Buhari has further put a dent to the poor image of the Jonathan government.
Okupe had also last week compared Jonathan with Jesus Christ, a statement that earned wide condemnation from Nigerian Christians.
“We can thus understand why corruption has festered so badly under the Jonathan presidency to the detriment of national development,” the Buhari Campaign Organisation said concerning Okupe’s statement on Buhari being poor.
“This is an indication of the utter consternation and bewilderment of the PDP at the emergence of a politically and morally impregnable candidate like Buhari on a popular national platform like the APC,” the statement said, adding that Buhari had lived within the limits of his legitimate income despite the numerous high and powerful offices he has held in the past.
The organisation said: “this arrogant statement (by Okupe) demonstrates the utter alienation of the Jonathan administration from the existential realities of the vast majority of Nigerians.
“Dr. Okupe is grossly mistaken. He lives in a completely perverse and illusory world. General Buhari is immensely rich in character. He is affluent in integrity. He is prosperous in credibility. He is wealthy in honesty. He is bounteously blessed in self-discipline, self-control and contentment. Those are greater and more valuable assets than all the material acquisition in the world.
“General Buhari is a proud and honourable pensioner after a lifetime of selfless service to his fatherland. He owns a house in Daura his hometown and another in Kaduna. He manages a modest farm. He has enough to meet his needs. He has not exploited and abused the privilege of holding public office to loot the public treasury so as to feed his greed.
“This remarkable and incomparable patriot was a former governor of the then North Central State (Borno, Yobe and Adamawa), General Officer Commanding (GOC) the Third Division of the Nigerian Army, former Petroleum Minister, former Chairman of the Board of NNPC, former Chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) and former Head of State.
“Despite occupying these high profile positions, he owns no property in Lagos, Abuja or outside the country.
“This is a most rare virtue in corruption-ridden contemporary Nigeria. It is why millions of Nigerians passionately admire and adore the austere General.
“It is unfortunate that Okupe does not see the glaring relationship between the fabulous wealth of the minority of Nigerians who have utilised public office to enrich themselves and the plight of millions of our people immersed in poverty in spite of Nigeria’s abundant resource-endowment.”
The organisation which said Buhari remained the type of leader Nigeria needs at this time to sanitise Nigeria morally, tame corruption and help realise the country’s potentials, recalled how the PDP had in 2011 sponsored write-ups claiming Buhari vowed to make Nigeria ungovernable and how Reuben Abati and The Guardian Newspaper later begged for forgiveness after they were slammed with a N1 billion suit for carrying a false story against Buhari.
“General Buhari is a law abiding patriot who has devoted his life to peace, stability, progress, discipline and good governance in Nigeria.
“We can understand the utter confusion and consternation in which the PDP is engulfed.
“The APC and General Buhari today symbolise the hope of the vast majority of our country men and women for liberation from the despondency of the present and the possibility of a glorious future.
“It is too late for the PDP to stop the momentum of change through falsehood and cheap abuse,” the statement added.