Peter Obi Ticks Another Leadership Box With Okupe’s Exit -By Ikechukwu Amaechi

THIS week has been a dramatic one for both the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi. While the party’s campaign train, which has become the rave of the moment, headed South-South, a zone that promises to be a battleground in the 2023 elections, the very soul of the movement, Dr. Doyin Okupe, Director General of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign Council, was in the court in Abuja defending his integrity.

Okupe’s alleged crime was said to have been committed between 2012 and 2015 when he was Senior Special Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, hauled him before the courts shortly after Jonathan lost power and President Muhammadu Buhari mounted the saddle on May 29, 2015. So, it had nothing to do with Peter Obi. But because he is Obi’s political associate, detractors tried hard to frame it as an Obi debacle. It is not! 

I will come back to that shortly. Suffice it to say that on Monday, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court convicted Dr. Okupe of violating the Money Laundering Act. On Tuesday, Dr. Okupe, though he had indicated his intention to appeal the ruling, nevertheless, took the unprecedented step of quitting as the Director General of the LP Campaign Council. 

In an emotive letter he addressed personally to Obi, Okupe wrote: “Dear Peter, you will recall that I briefed you yesterday about my personal travails in seeking justice and clearing my name using the Nigerian legal system to pursue same. I have invested too much in your campaign to allow my personal travails to become a source of distraction. In the circumstances, I have decided to step aside and plead that you appoint a new campaign DG who can continue the assignment with zero distractions. God bless you and your family.”

Obi received the letter while he was on the hustings in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. It was no doubt a big blow to both the presidential candidate and the political party, but the ever stoic Obi, a rule of law aficionado, took everything in his stride. The contributions of Okupe to the Obi phenomenon, he said on Wednesday, will remain indelible.

“My Dear Elder Brother Doyin,” Obi wrote while accepting his campaign DG’s resignation, “I received your letter offering to step aside in order to avoid any distraction to the good work of trying to forge a new direction for our country, on board of which you have been from inception. It is a decision which I respect. The story of this historic effort, which has galvanised millions of our countrymen, particularly our youths, cannot be complete without mentioning your commitment, dedication, and the boundless energy that you brought to bear. It is my sincere hope that our legal system will afford you an opportunity to eventually clear your name.” 

By taking these steps which are un-Nigerian, both Obi and Okupe, once again, confounded critics who were waiting in the wings to latch on what they expected would be a fundamental political faux pas to ridicule Obi and “prove” that he is not different from others. 

To such people, Okupe’s conviction was seen as a setback for Obi, simply because the main thrust of his campaign has been accountability and a break from the old order. But how can Okupe’s infraction of the law be a proof that Obi lacks the moral high ground to pontificate on probity and accountability? The 70-year-old Okupe, a trained physician, is a veteran politician, who was the spokesperson for the National Republican Convention in the Third Republic. In this dispensation, he was twice a presidential spokesperson, working for Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan. So, he has been around, politically speaking. Assuming, without conceding that he, indeed, committed a crime, what has that got to do with Obi’s credibility?

Some have raised the issue of whether Obi didn’t know about the case and if he knew, why did he go ahead to appoint Okupe as his campaign DG? My counter punch is that even if he knew, which was likely, so what? And that brings us back to Okupe’s conviction. He was not convicted for corruption, not even for money laundering.

Justice Ojukwu said that much in her judgement. As a Senior Special Adviser to Jonathan, money was approved for Okupe to run the office, pay staff and launder the image of the former president and his administration and the then president authorised the funds, which was channeled through the office of the then National Security Adviser, NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki.

Okupe’s crime was that he received over N200 million cash from Dasuki, thereby violating the Money Laundering Act, which provides that no individual or organisation shall receive any sum above N5 million and N10 million respectively without passing through a financial institution. Justice Ojukwu held that “there is no evidence that the money passed through a financial institution”. It is instructive that both President Jonathan who authorised the funds and Dasuki who made the payments are free men while Okupe who received the payments is a convict. 

It is equally instructive that the Judge noted that the prosecution failed to establish the charge of money laundering and criminal breach of trust and corruption against the former NSA and even made excuse for Jonathan when she said that even if the former president was said to have authorised the funds, he did not say that the money must be paid in cash in violation of the Money Laundering Act.

Yet, Okupe was sentenced to two years in prison with an option of N13 million fine. Rather than going to Kuje Correctional Centre, he opted to pay the fine, which of course makes him an ex-convict until the appellate courts say otherwise. Those who saw in Okupe’s travails a Catch-22 for Obi’s run for the presidency have been deflated. They had hoped that Obi will not have the courage to ask the man who had been with him from the first day of this quest to step down. Even if he did, they had also prayed that Okupe will be a bull in a China shop, who would rather see everything destroyed rather than be eased out of his plum position. But they didn’t reckon with Okupe’s perspicacity. 

The medical doctor turned politician correctly interpreted the import of the judgement – a distraction. It was meant to distract Obi. This is not about justice. It is a political buffet served in judicial platter. And having come to that realisation, it was easy for him to take a decision.

The naysayers also didn’t reckon with Obi’s political sagaciousness, personal integrity and sheer determination to help Nigeria turn the page. He saw in Okupe’s ‘personal travails’ banana peels carefully placed on his political path. It was, therefore, easy to sidestep the baited trap. In this race, Obi continues to raise the bar. By allowing Okupe to go, guilty or not, without any pressure, he has proved once more that as president, there will be no sacred cows no matter whose ox is gored. 

What was meant to be a stumbling block has again shone the light on Obi’s single-minded determination to pull Nigeria back from the brink. Everyday, he ticks, in a wholesome and heartwarming manner, all the leadership boxes.