By Moses Okorie
Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde has rendered an unreserved apology to Nigerians and to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the roles he played during the 2023 general elections to ensure that President Bola Tinubu was elected, saying he thought he was doing so in the interest of the country, but regretted that Tinubu’s government has fallen short of expectations.
Makinde made the apology in a media chat he had with some selected journalists in Ibadan on Tuesday where he also revealed why he failed apart with his estranged friend, the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.
According to Makinde, he alongside members of his G5 Governors had wished that after former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, power should naturally return to the southern part of Nigeria, and he supported Nyesom Wike, but when Atiku Abubakar, who is also from the northern Nigeria emerged candidate of the PDP, they decided to support a southern candidate in person of President Bola Tinubu.
On his political enmity with the FCT Minister, he said he was in a meeting with President Tinubu alongside Nyesom Wike and the Chief of Staff to the president Femi Gbajabiamila, and Tinubu requested that he (Makinde) should help to organise the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State, but he told him that he cannot do so because he is a member of the PDP.
Makinde said he was surprised when Wike promised to help APC and also hold the PDP to ransom to ensure the party does not have the capacity to pose a threat to the APC come 2027. He said he was shocked to hear Wike taking up such assignment.
“Wike said to the president, I will hold PDP for you against 2027, and I was shock. We got to the veranda, I asked Wike, did we agree on this? The real issue is that Wike will like to support the president in 2027, it is within his right to do that, but for some of us who want to ensure that democracy survives in Nigeria, we don’t drift into a one-party state, I will want to ensure that PDP survives.
“They should allow us to do our thing. That is just the issue between Wike and I. He was the one that volunteered to do that for the president.
“I told him from that day that I will never be a part of this, and that is why I will not be supporting the president for 2027. It is my right to decide whom I will support or what I would do in 2027”, Makinde stated.