Oyo State’s Governor Seyi Makinde believes the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) could have won the 2023 presidential election if it had fielded former Rivers State’s Governor Nyesom Wike as Running Mate to its Presidential Candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Speaking on Tuesday on Channels Television, Makinde said the party must not repeat that mistake in the 2027 general elections.
As Makinde narrated, after the primaries, he went Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Atiku’s home Adamawa State to propose Wike as Running Mate to the former Vice President.
Atiku won the presidential primary by 371 votes to defeat Wike, who polled 237 votes, while a former President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, scored 70 votes.
Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State got 38 votes; Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, scored 20 votes; a former Senate President, Pius Anyim, got 14 votes, while a former President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Sam Ohuabunwa, polled only one vote.
Makinde recalled that Atiku rejected all the proposals made by the G-5 group of dissenting governors and instead opted for Delta State’s Governor Ifeanyi Okowa.
He said: “The day after the convention, I went to my good friend, Governor Fintiri and I said look, make this a unity ticket. Let us appeal to Governor Wike to be on the ticket. It would have been a stronger ticket to face the PDP. But all the people around our candidate (Atiku) rejected it”.
“We met with him in London, all the things we discussed there, he rejected it and he came back and said ‘we have moved on. All these children, where were they when we were forming PDP? And we have seen the result now and we don’t want to walk that path again”.
On Nigeria’s current leadership, Makinde said those at the national level must solve the problems of Nigerians across the country and not just make lives better for only a gang in Lagos.
He said, “We have to look at Nigerians. What do Nigerians want? Are they happy. Are we just playing stunt politics or are we just focusing on solving the problems facing Nigerians?
“Have we reduced hunger in the land? Are people hungry? What exactly should we be looking at in the future.
“Those are issues we have to address as leaders. Those are the things you need to look at. Politics, governance and all of these things don’t take care of themselves. Are you able to make the lives of our people better across the country not just for a section of the country; not just for, I am sorry to say, maybe a gang in Lagos.
“We want a situation where everybody in every corner in the country you must look at them once you at the national level.”
Makinde also said that he has the capacity to lead Nigeria.
He said, “I don’t have any doubt that I have the capacity to occupy the highest office in this land and I have what it takes.”
