How Real is Makinde’s 2027 Presidential Ambition?

Kemi Olaitan in this piece wonders how far Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State can go with his purported 2027 presidential ambition.

Despite the fact that the 2027 general election is over two years away it is a fact that the political atmosphere in the country has continued to be alive with politicians across party lines engaging in politicking towards positioning themselves to get the ticket of their respective parties.

However one prominent politician whose name has been in the news lately is Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo state over his rumoured presidential ambition come 2027 with some of his supporters in the pace setter state who want the second term governor to move up the political ladder vocal in dragging him into the contest. 

One of the various groups urging Makinde to throw his hat into the presidential ring, Progressive Youths for Makinde’s Presidency 2027, in a statement by its National Convener, Alex Odianarewo, maintained that his achievements in various sectors including internally generated revenue, economy, and human capacity make him an ideal candidate for the presidency in 2027, adding that he has the capacity to rescue the country from bad leadership and take it to the promised land.

The Special Adviser on Strategy and Political Matters to Governor Makinde in his first term of office, Hon. Babatunde Oduyoye, speaking on the development, said the businessman turned politician is a strategic planner who would put some things in place before taking such an important decision, noting that he would not join the contest through the back door.

The former member of the House of Representatives, said, “I know Governor Makinde and I know what he will do if he is interested in running for president. As of now, the governor has not done those things, so I am sure that this ambition is coming from his well wishers. Governor Makinde has never been one to shy away from challenges, and he is certainly not going to join the presidential race through the back door; he is not cowardly. I know him; I know what he will do if and when that time comes.”

The political game was however to continue last Saturday when Makinde a leading member of the Integrity Group in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the last election and led by former governor of Rivers State and now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, declared that his next political agenda would be determined solely by himself.

Speaking during the inauguration of the South-West PDP Zonal Office, which he personally built in honour of the late former PDP National Vice Chairman (South-West), Hon. Olasoji Adagunodo-Oluwatukesi, and donated to the party, Makinde said

despite the clamour for him to join the race, he had not assigned anyone to campaign for him.

His words, “People have been campaigning and doing a lot of permutations; but let me say this again: If I want to contest for any position, I will say it myself. Nobody would set an agenda for me apart from myself.”

Makinde also used the opportunity to take a flak on the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), stating that the 2027 general elections will be between the party and the Nigerian people as they (Nigerians) would be the ones to determine the next leadership of the country while calling for unity among members of the PDP.

He said, “They have also been talking that the ruling party, APC, is scheming and infiltrating all the parties to make sure there is division and crisis in those parties. If you are accusing the ruling party of not allowing other parties to get their acts together so that there won’t be opposition in 2027, my position is that there are certain things you have under your control. If Governor Adeleke and I would cooperate for the growth and benefit of our party in the South-West, it is beyond the ruling party to destabilize our party.

“Please, let us all work together and unite our bases. That is all we need. The next general election would be APC versus Nigerians, not even APC versus PDP. But, let us just do our own bit to unite our party and bases and then allow the people of Nigeria to speak when the time comes.

“The people spoke in Oyo and Osun states. They will do it in Nigeria. So, don’t fret. Don’t think external people have control over what will happen in our party. Yes, they may try; they can only succeed when we allow it. I want to admonish PDP members all over the country, let us unite and the way to demonstrate it is if you know one or two people in Ondo State, call them and tell them that the PDP is united. Tell them that the Ondo election coming up in November would be an indication of where Nigeria would be in 2027.”

The rumoured presidential ambition of the Vice Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) has come under barrages of criticism with the APC and its members leading the train. The  APC speaking on what it described as alleged presidential bid of Makinde in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, urged him to focus on governance as his fixation on a 2027 presidential ambition would not benefit his people, cautioning him that his continued criticism of the APC could be counterproductive for him and his supporters.

He said, “While our democracy affords Makinde the liberty to pursue his political aspirations, engaging in reckless executive flippancy at the expense of the role he was elected to fulfil as Governor is a disservice to the good people of Oyo State.

“If Makinde knew how to keep APC’s influence at bay, then why has he not employed that strategy to ‘protect’ his party nationally? Like the proverbial bad workman who blames his tools, Makinde and his co-confused PDP leaders should quit pointing fingers at the APC and take full responsibility for their disgraceful failure to manage the party’s implosion and decay.

“Makinde’s unhinged 2027 ambition cannot be founded upon his unguarded and unjustified attacks against our great party or the administration of President Bola Tinubu that has launched the boldest and most ambitious reform effort in history to transform our country’s economy and build a solid foundation for progress.”

Similarly, a former gubernatorial aspirant on the platform of APC, Engineer Oyedele Hakeem Alao, described it as “laughable”, berating Makinde for his poor management of the state’s resources which he claimed has placed it on a path of retrogression rather than progression.

Alao in a statement by his Media Office, said,

“It is true that you are constitutionally qualified to contest the presidential election. However, when your performance as the Governor of Oyo State is used as a yardstick for the presidency, you will struggle to secure your party’s ticket, let alone become Nigeria’s president. As a governor in your second term, your superficial and exaggerated achievements resonate only with your supporters who benefit from your administration, not with the suffering masses in the state.

“In key sectors such as education, agriculture, health, security, infrastructure and others, your poor performance is so glaring that it has significantly set the state back.

“We must inform our Governor that while he pursues national aspirations for a future soft landing, the people of Oyo State are currently experiencing retrogression in essential services and governance. His incompetence has set us back as a pacesetter state.”

While 2027 is in the belly of time, political observers are however of the view that the rumoured presidential ambition of Makinde may be nothing but political gimmick. According to them, the governor as a member of the Integrity Group played an ethnic politics in the build up to the 2023 election as the group threw its weight behind President Tinubu as against the candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

The  presidential bid of Makinde a strong ally of Wike who is a major stakeholder in the administration of President Tinubu is thus seen as part of the move to stop Atiku Abubakar come 2027 and the re-emergence of the former governor of Lagos State in 2027.