A former aide to President Goodluck Jonathan has said he is the only politician from the South-West region that can defeat former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, in the 2023 Presidential race.
There are indications that the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress is eyeing the country’s number one seat but he has not declared interest yet.
Okupe, in a series of tweets on Sunday, said Tinubu remains a formidable opponent but he can send him out of the race.
“I believe I have a slight edge over him in that I understand national and Presidential politics more than him and in terms of intellectual resourcefulness, we are at par; if I am not better.
“On my part, a great advantage is that I am the only Yoruba of note in the presidential race from the PDP,” Okupe said.
Tinubu is presently in Kano where he’s expected to meet with the Northern Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria.
While speaking on what he believes could work against Tinubu in the presidential race, Okupe said the former governor has many antagonists in his party.
“Bola Tinubu is coming in from a wrong party where he has such powerful antagonists with the capacity to stop him. The flagrant excesses of his party to which he never reacted publicly, especially with issues concerning the South-West have made him not to be favored by some of his own people.
The other misfortune is that though Bola Tinubu has spent his life and his huge resources on developing politically powerful lieutenants who now occupy very high and influential offices, now at his own point of need his major challengers are virtually all from his stable.”
