Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, yesterday frontally confronted some
of the president's worst critics as he upbraided the Vice Presidential
candidate of the Congress for Progress Change (CPC), in the 2011
elections, Pastor Tunde Bakare to stop converting his pulpit to
political podium in order to deceive unsuspecting Nigerians.
In his second interactive meeting with state House correspondents, Dr
Okupe similarly accused the former Minister of the Federal Capital
Territory, (FCT), Mallam Nasir el-Rufai of losing his cool over
politics.
According to Dr Okupe the manipulation of the present security
situation in the country by politicians for selfish reasons was not in
the best interest of the nation or its citizens.
The Senior Special Assistant to the president said insurgency as a
phenomenon was difficult to resolve in places where it occurred around
the world like Iraq, Iran even the United States of America but noted
that there were no calls on the leaders of those countries to resign
on account of the terrorist activities.
He said , "el-Rufai is my younger brother. I have so much respect for
him but politics is more or less derailing or deranging him.
"Everybody knows that insurgency is a very difficult national problem.
It is not anything peculiar to Nigeria. No responsible citizen of any
of those countries affected by insurgency before call on their
Presidents to resign."
"when he (el-Rufai) talks about intelligence, there is no better
security in any country than by the people of the country. It is
communal security that will help government and security agencies to
root out insurgence.
"If people shielded insurgents, they make the works of security
agencies more difficult. Can President Goodluck Jonathan be in Borno
and everywhere at the same time?"
"I believe that people just want to play politics. All what you are
hearing is just the manipulation of the present situation to suit
their political purposes.
"I am sure that my brother, El-Rufai is hopeful to be a presidential
candidate of one of the parties very soon. What I will expect him to
do with the level of intellect, intelligence and the resource that has
been given, his own personal education is to come out with some
reasonable plans, some suggestions, not just criticising government
for criticising sake.
"If El-Rufai was President of Nigeria, what will he do? Why don't he
say that? Or is he keeping that until when he becomes the President by
which time the whole country is wiped off?
"When tragedy befalls a country, responsible men and women of that
country forget partisanship and rally round their nation and they try
their best to help existing government to tackle that. Once that is
over, they go back to politics. This is not time for politics.
"Every man or woman who politicises this issue of Boko Haram, people
should disregard and discard whatever information they hear from them.
They are not serious-minded people.
"Pastor Bakare also falls into that category. It is shameful. You
cannot convert the pulpit to a podium. If you want to be a politician,
please come out.
"I have personally followed his career si ce he ventures into politics
and have found it extremely difficult to clearly decipher who he
really is – is he a reverend gentleman, a politician, or a civil
rights activist. Often times he manifest all the above traits but
virtually in all cases there is a major tinge of extremism that tends
to cast serious doubts on his personality be it as a man of God, a
politician or even a Civil Rifgts Activists.
"It is however most pathetic that since the Buhari/Bakare ticket
failed as expected, the pastor's obsession or hate-backed capacity tp
disparage and insult President Goodluck Jonathan is limitless and
boundless. Pastor Bakare must now accept that the elections are over
and the nation has moved on.
"Pastor Bakare came into politics a few years ago and he became a vice
presidential candidate of a major political party. Some of us have
been in politics for 30 years and we did not even become a governor
and we did not say the country must come down, that is unfair. It is
unacceptable," he declared.
Okupe recalled pastor Bakare's prediction that former president,
Olusegun Obasanjo will not be elected in 1999, a prediction that he
said fell flat but not done went ahead to say Obasanjo will be
beheaded like an old testament king. "But the glory of God, whose
mercies endureth forever, Obasanjo completed hus term and is still
heal and healthy to this day".
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