A former spokesman for two former Presidents (Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan), Dr. Doyin Okupe, has revealed what will happen in the forthcoming presidential election.
In a post via his Facebook page on Friday, Okupe asserted that the 2023 presidential election will tough compared to other past elections.
Okupe said any candidate desirous of becoming president in 2023 would have to convince the people and work very hard to earn every vote.
He noted that the era of primordial considerations such as ethnicity and religion has long gone, asking presidential hopefuls to start working now.
Okupe added that party considerations would also be secondary, with the primary focus being on the candidate’s personal merit.
He wrote: “The next Nigerian president will have to earn his ticket and his votes. The era of take money, or I am a northerner or I am Christian or Muslim or APC or PDP, just vote for me is gone forever. Roll up your sleeves presidential hopefuls!”
Recall that Okupe had declared his intention to run for President in 2023. In a piece released last Sunday, Okupe said he will run if insecurity facing the country does end by then.
Read the full statement below:
I will run for President in 2023 if banditry, kidnapping, criminal herdsmen ravaging the Southwest and Boko Haram continue unabated.
I will also submit a post-dated letter of resignation from office by myself and the vice president to the NASS. It will be dated 30th September 2025. It shall be activated by a vote of a two-thirds majority of the joint sitting of the National Assembly, who would have satisfied themselves with the fact that my administration has not done enough or anything substantial in the war against the above listed four scourges that have plagued this nation.
I say all this with a great and profound sense of responsibility considering the gloom and perplexity that these menaces have brought on our nation while we all appear helpless and hopeless and we have a raging internal war, pervading dear of insecurity and lack of safety, severe inter-ethnic hatred and strife tending to tear the nation apart.
I sincerely believe that things do not need to be the way they are. I have been a very close aide of two great Presidents and have been close enough to power to know what can be done under these perplexing circumstances.
This write up is not about immodesty. I am convinced within myself that I have the knowledge, intellect, exposure and experience that will be required to lead this nation out of its present predicament if no other serious-minded person is willing to offer themselves. As a teaser, I will elaborate briefly but not in too many details on what the government can do to curtail this rampaging menace. As President, I will declare a state of emergency in the affected states.
I know politicians will not like this. But without security, the nation and its politics will neither survive nor exist. Governors will not leave their political offices but their duties and functions shall be strictly limited to administrative matters while the state of emergency is in place. The state assemblies will be on temporary holiday till things return to normalcy.
I will appoint senior military personnel to be the State Security administrator not lower than a Brigade General. He will be fully in charge and be responsible for the safety and security of citizens of the state. The National Security Adviser in consultation with the service chiefs will coordinate these states commanding officers Nationally.
National Security Council meetings will be thrice weekly excluding emergency meetings. A daily report of security of all affected states shall be on my desk at 8.00 am daily. I will deploy 200 military troops and 3, 000 special police force to each of the affected states. ( this may be subject to what is readily available) Each state will have 2 transport helicopters, 1 surveillance helicopter with night vision capability and a surveillance helicopter.
I will arrange with international private and commercial satellite companies to cover the affected areas 24/7. This service came into use sometimes ago during the BAGA inferno attack by Boko Haram. We were able to see a whole town in real-time with each housing units clearly demarcated.
Today bandits can be located and movements monitored through infrared Ray’s or thermal radiation from satellite focused on the area in question. Every school and hamlets and villages will have multiple part-time trained civil security agents with electronic panic buttons gadgets which will upon activation notify and alert nearest security posts and cells. It will display the location of the distress caller without him saying a word.
This will be available with teachers pupils, village heads, chiefs, priests, special okada riders and transporters and market heads all over the state. BANDITS will be stopped dead in their tracks. The situation where bandits operate unchallenged for 3 to 4 hrs will no longer be possible. Any major mass movement in the forests will be detected by satellite and ground forces will be mobilised instant.
This will cost money. I have done some rough estimated. 1 billion USD will get this project underway and our citizens and children can all sleep with their two eyes closed. I have written this not to seek any attention or create arguments. People do not have to agree with what I have proposed.
If I am the Nigerian President this will be my brief to my security council. They will give their input and we will swing to action
