Okupe: It’s very clear that APC will not get its act together

Doyin Okupe, former senior special assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on public affairs, has advised the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to brace up because “it’s very clear that APC will not get its act together”.

He described the APC as a “conglomeration of various interests”, which cannot be compared to the PDP which he believes has a solid background.

Okupe was speaking on Monday when he featured as a guest on Channels Television.

“The APC, is not an association as such, it’s a conglomeration of various interests. They still do not have a party,” he said.

“They are not strong on ground, there are many places where they do not exist. PDP is the only party in Nigeria that has a culture, a strong background and a record of performance, yes we have some issues. There are evidence against our people involved in embarrassing forms of corruption, but that’s what happens in any human organisation. Enacting our solid background and having this political apparatus and if enacted will drown the party in government. So we cannot dream of making the party non-existent.

“We love our party… we do not want our party to scatter, even though we lost an election to APC. It is very clear that APC will not get its act together, and if we do not get our acts together, a third force will emerge, and that is the dream of many Nigerians.”

Okupe said the PDP was suffering from mistakes of the past, blaming leaders of the party for not preparing for life after power.

He said politicians make the error of thinking Nigerians do not have a choice but end up realizing their mistake after losing out.

“What you are seeing now are flurry signs and symptoms of failure of leadership. Before we left government or shortly after we left government, people ought to have come together knowing that we were likely going to suffer what is called electoral defeat syndrome, which has become exaggerated in our present circumstances is responsible for this,” he said.

“Failure of the leaders to be cohesive and do the necessary thing to hold the party together is why the center cannot hold and we are paying seriously for that.

“Politicians are making an error. Politicians believe that Nigerians do not have a choice, but that’s not true. They also believe that they have the franchise to power and leadership but that’s also not true.

“We are used to grandstanding but the Nigerian people are watching. Whether you have a certificate or you have the endorsement of INEC, INEC will only count the vote, if the people do not believe in you, you are a nobody. You are nothing.

“The truth of the matter is that we are suffering from the collective actions that we have taken in the past. From our failure to obey our own rules. For entrenching impunity as a standard practice in our party; for allowing people to use money to buy offices, to buy candidacy. These are consequences of those actions.”