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.
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