August 10, 2012
Doyin Okupe, medical doctor and a son of the late Chief Matthew Adekoya Okupe of the ‘Agbonmagbe’ bank fame, was hired hurriedly by the Jonathan Presidency as a fitting response to the deluge of excoriating flak occasioned by the extra-budgetary expenditure of the Administration in the procurement of 200 luxury cars for the Jamboree for the African first women under the superintending guidance of the Queen mother of the Nigerian Monarchy. Reuben Abati, the Special Adviser to the President on Media had made spirited attempts at employing delicately woven spins and outright mendacity to deflect the anger of a befuddled citizenry; the lords of the villa felt that the efforts lacked the needed bite, hence the need for a personality with ‘rougher’ men.
Doyin Okupe, medical doctor and a son of the late Chief Matthew Adekoya Okupe of the ‘Agbonmagbe’ bank fame, was hired hurriedly by the Jonathan Presidency as a fitting response to the deluge of excoriating flak occasioned by the extra-budgetary expenditure of the Administration in the procurement of 200 luxury cars for the Jamboree for the African first women under the superintending guidance of the Queen mother of the Nigerian Monarchy. Reuben Abati, the Special Adviser to the President on Media had made spirited attempts at employing delicately woven spins and outright mendacity to deflect the anger of a befuddled citizenry; the lords of the villa felt that the efforts lacked the needed bite, hence the need for a personality with ‘rougher’ men. The current Job specification of an administration’s attack dog is familiar terrain for Doyin Okupe. At the very beginning of the Obasanjo’s Presidency on May 29, 1999, Okupe was by his side as the man in charge of hurling insults and or vituperations on the new president’s real or imaginary enemies until ‘iniquity’ was found in him. I remember at one Televised debate with the then President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Okupe was rude and uncivil. It would be recalled that the reason for Okupe’s incivility then was because of the Comrade’s impudence in leading the Nigerian workers on a strike action in a manner capable of disturbing the peaceful mien of his boss. The ignominious exit from the position in the year 2000 eventually brought out his real demeanour as one capable of anything and descending to any denigrating stratum in order to eke out a living. As a victim of obesity, the odious combination of incivility and loquacity complete the vacuousness of his persona. In the last few years, he had been on scrounge for livelihood through obsequious obeisance to one benefactor or the other. For Okupe, any current benefactor is his ‘god’ and bears no scruples in lampooning anyone that had previously paid his wages, just to gratify the subsisting source of his meal ticket. After falling out with his former boss, President Obasanjo, he was ‘rehabilitated’ by his home state governor that was then having a show of political relevance with the then ‘Baba’ in Aso-villa. In a manner reminiscent of a shameless turncoat, Okupe started castigating the former president. In the Punch story of February 7, 2012, he was reported to have said that Obasanjo was incapable of leading PDP to victory in South west. It did not take too long before he fell out with the governor-benefactor and was hired by another master. As the proverbial Leopard not willing to change its spots in a hurry, Okupe showed his intrinsic nature by pouring vitriolic verbal spewing on his immediate former boss to endear himself to the new paymaster. This shall, of course, remain the cycle of life for the new Aso villa human ‘pit-bull’.
Indeed, one should never be surprised at Okupe’s new diatribe against the duo of Pastor Tunde Bakare and Mallam Nasir El- for rufai for their individual effrontery in calling for the resignation of his employer, Dr Goodluck Jonathan as President, on account of his incompetent handling of Nigeria’s security challenges. It is part of Okupe’s inimitable character to employ scurrilous and ad-hominem attacks on the perceived adversaries of his current employers. It does not matter to Okupe if he failed to attend to the cause of the grouse with his employers. The daunting security challenges have made the Nigerian polity a hellish place for the citizenry. An administration that rode to power on the demagogy of ethno-religious sentiments has also added a culture of cronyism and nepotism to its litany of extemporaneous brand of political governance! While the citizens are living in fear in their various abode, the security around the Chief helms man is now beefed up with operatives mainly from his ethnic extraction. Meanwhile, leadership-centered corruptive tendencies remain at all-time high with no desire for a change in attitude. A simple resolution by the Lower legislative chamber for the president to stop his penchant for non-implementation of the budget or risk impeachment has provoked awful reactions from the Regime; drumbeats of treasonable impudence are getting louder from the president’s ethnic enclave! The new human pit bull of the Aso-lord has a love for vanity that is inherently in his gene. The story was told about how his late father was buried in a golden casket amidst grandeur and wads of currency. Later on, thieves invaded the grave and purloined everything except the old man’s bare body. It is highly inconceivable that a man with such vain-glorious propensity can hardly do any self-less service to a Nation. In the inebriated gloating about his 30-year stint in Politics, Dr Okupe failed to tell his achievements in the improvement of the Nigerian state. It was a pity that the same Okupe was nowhere when Pastor Tunde Bakare (whom he has found pleasurable to vilify) expended his financial and emotional resources for the enthronement of his newly-found paymaster at a very uncertain time in the Nation’s history. The antecedents of Doyin Okupe clearly show an amoral personality with no scruples at superimposing his selfish desires over the common good. As the National Publicity Secretary of National Republican Convection (one of the two political parties created by the Babangida administration in its democratization process), he exploited his closeness to the junta to galvanize support for the annulment of the June 12, 1993 elections. There is palpable manifestation of leadership deficit in every facet of the national life: decaying infrastructure, dearth of sporting laurels, educational retrogression, leadership-festered corruption, scary insecurity challenges, ever-burgeoning recurrent expenditure, etc. In this season of anomie, it seems the government has lost focus and is beginning to chase shadows by attempting to muzzle citizens’ aversion to its unmistakable cluelessness and gross incompetence. The question is, why would an administration, beset with such daunting challenges, choose this time to bring in a known scum-bag to launder its image? As the song goes, the answer may just be blowing in the wind! Should we then agree with Professor Niyi Osundare, who declared recently at a Save Nigeria Group (SNG) event: “Watch out, Nigeria: a new Jonathan seems to be emerging. One who confuses cockiness with confidence, tactlessness with toughness, strongman-ship with statesmanship..President Jonathan's combination of naivety and amorality is as profound as it is injurious to the health of this country. Can a corruption-compliant ruler really lead a corruption-free country?” If the postulation of the highly cerebral professor is to be taken as true and prophetic, should the people expect difficult times ahead from a desperate regime? Indeed, only time tell! [email protected]
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