Tinubu best among all presidential candidates in 2023 – Okupe

A former presidential aide, Doyin Okupe, has hailed President Bola Tinubu as the best among all the candidates who contested the 2023 presidential election.

Tinubu emerged winner of that election, with Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party coming second and third respectively.

Okupe, who was Peter Obi’s campaign director in the early stages of the campaigns, said hindsight has provided him the opportunity to realise that Tinubu is the best for the job.

“Let me tell you, of all the people that actually ran for President in 2023, by the benefit of hindsight, Bola Tinubu is the best,” Okupe said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday.

“I have seen Peter Obi, I have been with Atiku Abubakar, I also knew Bola Tinubu many years ago. I have not seen him in the last 7 to 8 years, that is not the point but he is the best in terms of capability, commitment and knowledge.”

Okupe said Nigerians cannot judge the Tinubu administration like they judged other administrations because he came in after it seemed like governance was abandoned for 8 years.

Insisting that one year is too short to judge the current administration, Okupe said that if Nigerians will give Tinubu some time, he will do well.

Asked if it is not a betrayal to Obi whom he campaigned for saying that Tinubu is the best candidate in 2023, Okupe disagreed.

According to him, his support for Obi was borne out of the mutual belief they both had that a Southerner should be the president which led to their exit from the PDP.

Okupe toured around the country with Obi soliciting votes ahead of the PDP primary. However, when it didn’t work out in the PDP, both men left for the Labour Party where Okupe became the director-general for Obi’s campaign.

Okupe would later resign from his position following a judgement by the Federal High Court in Abuja which found him guilty of receiving over N200 million cash from former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki.

He had in his resignation letter at the time, said it is better not to allow his personal interest to distract the campaign of Obi and that of the party, hence his decision to step aside.

In January, he also resigned from the Labour Party citing ideological differences.