Doyin Okupe: Soludo’s analysis on Obi over 2023 polls lacks common sense

Doyin Okupe, director-general of the Peter Obi presidential campaign council, says the analysis of Chukwuma Soludo, former governor of Anambra, on the chances of Obi has nothing to do with “common sense”.

Okupe spoke on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television.

On Monday, Soludo, in an article titled ‘History Beckons and I Will Not Be Silent (Part 1)’, said Obi, presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), cannot win the 2023 election.

Soludo’s comments on the chances of Obi in the 2023 election have elicited reactions on and off social media.

Responding to Soludo’s comments, Okupe said the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) spoke from a position of “political delusion”.

“Ordinarily, I won’t join issue with Soludo, but so that people will not get disinformed by his very unsound judgment of the political status of Labour Party in the Nigerian context, that is the only reason why I will say one or two words,” he said.

“He must be living in another planet. I don’t know what is blinding him for him to say that there are only two people in this race — APC and PDP. Even a blind person and a young child of nine years old know that this is absolute fallacy.

“Professor Soludo must be indulging in self-political delusion. Today, 90 percent of polls done say Peter Obi is well ahead of the other contestants. It is no longer news that it is a three-cornered race.

“Even in the three-cornered race, we are no longer the third force. We have now taken over and bypassed the two establishments and these two are now contesting for second and third positions. Professor Soludo’s pronouncement has nothing to do with reality or common sense.”

Speaking further, Okupe said it is a “ludicrous” for Soludo to say Obi will get 25 percent of the total votes cast in four states of the federation.

The LP campaign director-general expressed confidence that the party will win the presidential election in all the south-east states.

“I’m happy that he conceded that Peter Obi will win Anambra state. That is good news. Where he messed it up completely, and it makes the whole thing looks ludicrous, was when he said Peter Obi will get 25 percent in maybe four states of the federation. That is a joke,” he added.

“Professor Soludo is a professor of economics, not a soothsayer or prophet. Definitely, he is not too grounded politically. The five states in the south-east, come rain and sunshine, nobody will beat Peter Obi.”