Doyin Okupe swallows earlier antagonism, congratulates Buhari, Tinubu

The Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, has congratulated the President -Elect, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and the national leader of the All Progressives Congress,  Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on the victory of the APC at the March 28 Presidential election.

In a statement in Abuja on Saturday, Okupe also stated that the Presidency under President Goodluck Jonathan fought a great fight. Okupe was among numerous members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, who vowed that Buhari would never win the election. The Presidential aide had added that there clearly was no way the APC would not scatter earlier  to the elections. However in the statement on Saturday, Okupe swallowed all his earlier antagonism against Buhari and his party.

He said,
“Let me congratulate Gen. Mohammed Buhari on his success at the 2015 Presidential Polls. I equally congratulate my friend and brother Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, the APC National Leader, and the leaders and members of the APC for this historic success.”

On the good fight he said the Presidency fought, Okupe said, “On our part, we have ran a good race and fought an intense and unrelenting battle from the beginning to the end. Sometimes in the course of defending our Turf the engagements have been Knuckle- breaking and often outrightly vicious.

“The fight and contest for power from time immemorial has always been fierce and intense, it has never been a sport for the Lilly-livered or the faint hearted.”

He said the Presidency was grateful to God that at the end “an outstanding President was finally recognised and accepted by a large number of Nigerians nationwide.”

He stated that despite that a  “very good, humble and great man of immense capacity has lost this election,” the Presidency “believes that God must have approved it, hence we accept it as gallant men of faith and as patriotic Nigerians and true democrats.”

Okupe added,
“President Goodluck Jonathan has done once again an unprecedented act in Nigeria. As a seating President with immense powers at his disposal, he has respected the voice of the people and willingly and freely surrendered power.

“In a magnanimous manner common only amongst true Democrats, he accepted defeat and congratulated the winner even while the final collations were still on. President Jonathan, by this singular act, stands shoulder taller than most leaders of his generation and even those before his time.”