Tribute to Doyin Okupe

Isaac Balami

Hmmm! Urmm, I don’t know where to actually start from, but I will start from somewhere. Baba Doyin Okupe was a father to all. And like I always gist with our friends, Mazi, Nina, Princess, and everybody, and we always talk, we said, his family don’t even know that he has so many children, aside them.

I’ve been privileged to be in politics as a very, very young boy, as a youth leader, youth mobilizer, but until I met with Dr. Doyin Okupe. The day I met with him, this is somebody from Ogun State, I’m from Maiduguri, Borno State, but he took me as a son, he mentored, he guided me. My joy is that he was privileged to have an opportunity to actually reconcile with his creator. Not everybody on earth will have that kind of opportunity.

Yes, it was painful, but everybody here who knows Dr. Doyin Okupe knows that he’s a very, very upright person. And I’m so happy today hearing from his children, his brothers and his sisters, his family members. Everything you people have said is the truth.

As a matter of fact, when the son was speaking, everything he said was correct, except one thing that he did not say very well. And he said, when you offend Dr. Doyin Okupe and you genuinely ask for forgiveness, he will forgive you. My brother, Dr. Doyin Okupe was in pains. People that he gave his all for deserted him, betrayed him, lied on him, yet he forgave them. And when the third hymn was being sung, the last four lines says, Oh,what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we did not carry everything to God in prayer. That is for us. Baba Doyin Okupe took everything to God.

And I’m happy that aside the love his family showed him, the last political party he went back to. Because you can’t talk about Dr. Doyin Okupe without talking about his political journey. He was a veteran in politics.

And the Chief of Staff to the President, Chief Gbajabiamila thank you very much. I was there. I saw the love, the support. Seyi Tinubu, everybody supported Dr. Doyin Okupe aside his family. And I’m very, very happy. Now, one thing that pained me the most is that today when you Google his name, you see some few people say all sorts of rubbish, I’m sorry, Pastor, about him.

This man was selfless. The only campaign I’ve ever been to, I was the Campaign Manager 1 nationwide. He was the DG of a campaign I was part of, that to go to every state for campaign, and we have 100 million Naira available for that day, Doyin Okupe will put all the money on the table, and all the directors will sit, we would distribute the money, and every deficit of 3, 4, 5, 10 million Naira, he will produce from his account, or he will raise it from elsewhere.

After the campaign, he was left in debt. He never went anywhere, even though the campaign had billions. He paid for them himself.

And today I watch in the media people say rubbish about such a man. I have never in my life, in my political journey, even though I’m pretty young, but I started quite early in life, I’ve never seen any politician that I’ve worked with that was that honest and transparent. Yet, 18 months after the campaign, he was still with the party he was working with.

He was in pains, like you all heard. He was deserted by the people he worked with. At some point, I reached out on his behalf.

They never called him or said, how are you feeling? They didn’t pick his call. And people sit down and say, he left them because of money. That man was honourable.

He didn’t go back to APC because of money. He told me one day, he said, Balami, I went back because I’ve seen it all. And I went back to reconcile with people that never hurt me. And I want you guys to live in peace with everybody.

One day, after a major surgery in the UK, Dr. Doyin Okupe landed in Abuja with the people he laboured for. They entered their cars, they saw how he crawled to the car after a major surgery. Six hours flight, he couldn’t sleep on board. They were beside him. And they never called him 18 months later.

And the same people can’t even say a word to say he was a good man. He was persecuted because of them. Yet, they did not.

So for me, Dr. Doyin Okupe for me is somebody that I love so much. And I’m happy it is left for us. He has done his own part.

Anything you sow in this life, you will reap. For the few “obidient” insulting this man on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, they are very, very ignorant. But he has already forgiven you, he told me.

And he told everybody. Even the ones that he expected so much from, he forgave them. So let me just stop here so I don’t begin to go too deep.

God bless you all. May God bless Doyin Okupe, wherever he is.

Engr. Balami was Deputy Campaign Manager Obi/ Datti Presidential Campaign Council