TheCable

Doyin Okupe, senior special assistant to the president on public affairs, says the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan to Muhammadu Buhari in the presidential election is nothing to be ashamed of.

Okupe, who initially tipped Jonathan to win the election, said if the projection of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that Nigeria would disintegrate after the poll did not come to pass, then it was natural that his own prediction that the president would carry the day ended up not being so.

“If I make a prediction, it is my right to do so. A prediction is essentially what it is… A forecast or projected statement about the future. It does not have to come to pass,” he wrote on Facebook.

“The Almighty CIA predicted Nigeria will break up after 2015 elections. It took the godliness and intrinsic humaneness of one man to stop that prediction.

“Whatever it is, you guys have won an election that was keenly contested yet you are not satisfied. Twelve million Nigerians voted for Jonathan while 15 million for Buhari, this is nothing to be ashamed of.”

He appealed to members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to put behind the issues that arose before the election, denying that he ever said he should be referred to as a “bastard” if the APC survives.

“I never said if APC survives call me a bastard. What I said was that I would change my name, that is the truth,” he said.

“So the prerogative of changing my name is mine. Bastard is not an alternative. But you can continue to say that if it gives you the kick. I really and truly don’t care.

“We are politicians and in our business we are at liberty to use whatever lawful means we have to try and discourage or put our opponents down. This is why, when the game is over, we down tools and joke with each other again.

“Only inexperienced rascals and ill-bred, effusively emotive or misguided individuals will carry on as if a war has just been won or lost. It was not a war, it was a game. Please cool your temper. Life goes on. We will be back.”