by Isi Esene

The presidency has insisted that the newly registered All Progressives Congress (APC) will not stand the test of time. It says 70 per cent of the members are all those rejected by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

While speaking yesterday on Liberty FM, Kaduna radio interview programme, Doyin Okupe, the senior special assistant to the president on public affairs, said the APC has nothing new to offer adding that Bola Tinubu, an APC party leader, is just seeking an opportunity to extend his business and political empire beyond the south-west of the country.

He said, “They just go around gallivanting and parading themselves. Who are they? Seventy per cent of their members are former PDP people. So, what new thing are they coming up with?

While commenting on the crisis rocking the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Okupe described Rivers governor, Rotimi Amaechi as a willing tool in the hands of the opposition. He is a “willing tool, very rich, wealthy, so he is very useful to the opposition,” he stated.

He implied that the inability of Amaechi to control the state Commissioner of Police, Joseph Mbu caused a rift between both individuals.

“Because Mbu has refused to be a tool in the hands of Amaechi and has refused to bend to the unjustified high handedness of Amaechi, now because he is supported by the opposition, he now presents Mbu as a villain. It is not true. Mbu is a professional man, he is a man of dignity who has remained steadfast,” Okupe said.

He insisted that the APC would collapse because it was built on a faulty foundation which could never stand the test of time.

Okupe said, “They are people that PDP had thrown away. When I said in the newspapers that APC is full of expired politicians, I didn’t mean they are old, no. You can be a young man and be expired.

“They are people whose ideas are no longer relevant to where Nigeria intends to go in the nearest future. They are people who cannot contribute or redirect the ship of state; people who have no fundamentals within them; people who have no ideology except hatred or ethnic chauvinism or personal aggrandisement.

“This is not the change Nigeria wants, these people can definitely not be called messiahs. This is mega nonsense, period.”

Okupe said former FCT minister, Nasir el-Rufai is under excruciating pain for not being in government. He insisted that by virtue of his age, knowledge, and experience he has the right to inform el-Rufai that “must check his ways.”

“He is under excruciating pain that he is not in government. If I castigate him, I am doubly qualified to do so. I am his brother and we have very strong family ties that dates back over 21 years. When we were in Lagos, if we were eating inside with his senior brother Bashir, el-Rufai will sit outside.

“So I am not his friend, he is my younger brother and I am in a position, going by the African way, I have the moral right, I have the age, I have the knowledge, I have the experience, I have the position to tell el-Rufai that he is wrong and I am saying it on this medium that el-Rufai must check his ways,” he added.