A careful analysis of the activities of the events preceding the 2023 general election and its aftermath would convince a critical conclusion that Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State is one of the biggest beneficiary but yet one of the biggest losers.
Politics is such a funny Game. It is a Game where you might have to regret some steps taken towards achieving victory for the rest of your life.
It is not news that Governor Makinde was one of the five Governors who expressed open displeasure towards the Candidate of their Party the PDP.
I carefully but deliberately avoided the words ” worked against” because I say it with all emphasis, Seyi Makinde did not work for the APC Presidential Candidate and eventual winner of the election, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Of the five PDP Governors who pulled away from campaigning for Atiku Abubakar, only two, Wike and Ortom were equivocal in their choice of Presidential Candidates. While Wike was always vocal in his support for Asiwaju, Ortom opted for Peter Obi of Labour Party. Such could not be said of Makinde, Ugwuanyi and Ikpeazu. This three played the Ostrich.
During the Presidential camping of the PDP in Ibadan, the PDP and Its candidate, Atiku Abubakar “appreciated Makinde for his support”!
In my years of experience in politics, I don’t know how you support someone in silence as Makinde claimed to have done with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Yes, Governor Makinde benefited from a porous political atmosphere and got a second term. That was his victory for now.
His attendant failures, unavoidably so is the consequences following his misadventures before and during the election.
The nemesis of his voyages of desperation have presented him with tough choices.
Unlike his ilks who were all outgoing Governors and now former Governors who may have lesser responsibilities to followers and a problem of choice in allegiance, Makinde lacks such choices and freedom.
His Ostrich style during the Presidential election presented him with two opposing circumstances. While he might cleverly jump on the train of Wike to claim he worked for the President, how will he take care of his followers who contested different offices like Senate and House of Reps and who would definitely also be claiming that they lost as a result of Makinde’s anti-party activities?
Similarly, now that electioneering is over, the question of allegiance can not be differed.
Makinde have in my opinion become the proverbial puppy, who, in Its attempt to answer two masters ended up breaking its jaws.
Or, how would one described his actions this last week. Governor Makinde was in Bauchi to attend a stakeholders meeting of the PDP to preach for ” the commencement of a healing process” in less than twenty four hours after himself, former Governors Ibori of Delta state and Wike of Rivers just had a ” closed door” meeting with the President!
Surely, Makinde have tough choices to make.
SOLA ABEGUNDE.
