Doyin Okupe, who served as the Director-General of the Labour Party presidential campaign during the 2023 election, recently made striking comments about President Bola Tinubu’s administration. In an interview on Channels Television’s ‘Political Paradigm’, Okupe asserted that “no administration in Nigeria has ever beaten the bullets that President Bola Tinubu beat”.
Okupe elaborated on his point by reflecting on the political landscape of Nigeria over the past two decades, describing how “everybody has been dodging the bullet”.
His comments underscore the challenges and controversies that have marked previous administrations in Africa’s most populous country.
Okupe drew a bold analogy between Tinubu, Nigeria’s 16th president, and Jesus Christ of Nazareth, emphasizing the magnitude of Tinubu’s actions. He explained, “If he (Tinubu) did not announce it (the fuel subsidy removal), he would never have been able to do it. And he would have been forced by the media, labour, opposition, students, all sorts of people (not to), with the fear of the hardship and the pain we are going through and all that, he would never have been able to do it.”
Okupe further expanded on this analogy by stating: “In heaven, when God said who is going to go for us? That is somebody has to come and be crucified for the world. And Jesus Christ said ‘send me’. That’s what Bola Tinubu has done. He has sent himself into this doldrum, into this financial and economic disaster that was on ground before he came. He is just trying to find a way out.”