Dr.Doyin Okupe, ex-presidential aide of former President Goodluck Jonathan, has sensational claimed that National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is now voiceless in the party, having been “reduced more or less to a South-west leader” of the party.
He said Tinubu, even though a staunch Muslim, has been reduced to nothing in the APC because of “ethnicity” which he (Okupe) identified as the greatest challenge facing Nigeria.
Okupe said this in a post he shared on Facebook, maintaining that there is no opposition party in the country because of ethnicity, adding that religion, though also a big issue, is not as bad as ethnicity.
He said: “I have read many articles and posts including that of my brother Segun Adeniyi, wondering out of frustration whether any opposition party exists in Nigeria today.
“As a matter of fact, I can say it openly and without any equivocation whatsoever or fear of reasonable contradiction that there is no opposition party in the country.
“The reason is very obvious and it is the very foundation of our national malaise.
“It’s simply ETHNICITY. This monster has done more harm to Nigeria as a nation more than anything else. Sometimes we confuse it with Religion. This is a sad fallacy. Ethnicity supersedes religion in terms of the evils holding the nation down.
“MKO Abiola was a Muslim but when the chips were down, ethnicity shot him down both as a party man in NPN and as a President-elect in the SDP.
“Even more recently, Asiwaju Tinubu, National Leader of the APC though a staunch Muslim, is more or less reduced to a South-west leader of APC. He will disagree with me for obvious reasons, but I know what I am saying is the truth.
“I recently read a piece ascribed to CAN where the latter was quoted as having said “Baru a northern Muslim insults his boss Kachikwu, a southern Christian. This is pure ignorance. I may not know exactly what is going on in NNPC, but certainly it has nothing to do with religion.”
“Not only the leadership or the elite in Nigeria are deceiving themselves and the populace, the followers or ordinary citizens are equally engulfed in grand self deception and delusion. The media is worse, and that is quite a national disaster.
“But I make bold to say this: For as long as absence of TRUTH and INJUSTICE are the pillars on which this country rests, true progress and prosperity will be an illusion.
“The word of God said in Psalm 97 verse 2 that the Almighty God’s Throne rests on the two pillars of Righteousness and Justice therefore any other throne that rests on Deception and injustice will not stand no matter how pious, hardworking or puritan its leadership or its people profess.”