Okupe: Obi’s consumption-to-production mantra not backed by any policy document

Doyin Okupe says Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, does not have any policy document to back his consumption-to-production mantra during the campaign.

Okupe, a former director-general of the LP presidential campaign, spoke on Tuesday while assessing President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

He argued that Tinubu has a superior policy document compared to his challengers in the 2023 elections.

Okupe added that Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), based his plans on theoretical loan arrangements.

He said Tinubu has “meticulously” implemented the ‘renewed hope agenda’, adding that the president has also paid off crippling debts to stabilise the economy.

“Tinubu has a better policy document than any of his two rivals during the 2023 presidential election,” NAN quoted Okupe as saying.

“Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is an experienced, knowledgeable, and thoroughbred politician.

“I know for a fact that he also came with a testament that would have been binding on him and Nigerians.

“But when you put the testament side-by-side the current reality on the ground, it is not applicable.”

Okupe said former President Muhammad Buhari’s administration was in a dire financial state, adding that international institutions refused to lend loans to Nigeria.

“So, the premise Atiku placed his testament on was sinking, and it can’t work,” he said.

“As for Peter Obi of the Labour Party, he did not give any document to Nigerians that he was going to work on.

“In the Labour Party, we didn’t have a document that we could adopt as a policy document for what was going on.

“All we were saying was that we wanted to take Nigeria from consumption to production; good rhetoric, but it was not grounded either in policy development or principle application.”

Okupe added that Tinubu tackled foreign exchange issues, stopping individuals from exploiting earnings through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) connections.

“Two months after getting into government, he put up a committee to look into tax reform, which was in his agenda,” he said.

“This man (Tinubu) has a systematic, reliable, focused, and applicable agenda that can take Nigeria to enviable heights.

“Though I never supported Tinubu ahead of the election; he is not my friend, and we were not in the same party, in retrospect, however, his reform agenda is the most credible.

“The renewed hope agenda he (Tinubu) brought is one that can address, and is addressing, the country’s current challenges.”