If not for the fact that those in Aso Rock loves to go to bed with their traducers, the attitudes of Governor Seyi Makinde in recent times, should be a source of headache in the seat of power.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on the promptings of his desire to achieve his presidential ambition at all costs and the advice from his kitchen cabinet, invested so much in Seyi Makinde.
It is obvious that the president and his team must have been hoping for a relationship that will transcend whatever arrangements that pushed the president to abandon his party in 2023.
Unfortunately, it does appear like the investments in the Oyo state Governor have become bad market for president Bola Ahmed Tinubu because, more than anyone else, the most vicious critic of the president today is no one else but the Governor of Oyo state.
Unknown perhaps to the president, Governor Makinde is one whose friendship you can not bank on to last for a long time.
While the president and his team were doing everything possible to ensure that Makinde secured a second term in office, the Governor had other ideas which obviously the president never envisaged.
With the way things are going, I as a person will not be surprised if president Tinubu would have Makinde to contend with in 2027.
Talk of alliances and pay back, the Governor of Oyo state, is pure bad market.
I just finished reading the speech delivered by Dr. Adeduntan, one of the APC Governorship Aspirants who left the party to team up with Governor Makinde in the PDP in 2023.
He returned to the APC, today, June 12, 2024 and he didn’t return without some tales to tell.
Let me quote Dr. Adeduntan, he said, “…Makinde is a divider, not a uniter..”.
The tales of woes from Dr. Adeduntan vividly captures a vintage Seyi Makinde when it comes to using and dumping.
Those who do not know the real man behind the gentle looks of the Governor and have not read from Fayose, Alhaja Mulikat Adeola, and others could easily reference Dr. Adeduntan.
His case is fresh. He told of how he was warned from within and outside not to have anything to do with the Governor of Oyo state.
To think that Governor Makinde, who, until recently have turned the Villa to his second home is the same man who is picking holes in every steps of the president, is almost unthinkable, if you have not taken time to study him and his brand of politics.
He has made several scathing remarks about the policies of president Tinubu’s Government at every given opportunity.
The other time in Iseyin, in the presence of the Sultan of Sokoto who had visited Oyo state to Commission a Mosque, Governor Makinde took the Federal Government to the cleaners.
He was the only Governor in Nigeria who joined the Labour when a protest was organized against the Federal Government early this year.
Just yesterday, in the presence of Prof. Jerry Gana, in Ibadan, Governor Makinde fired another missile against the president.
He said there is hunger in the Land stressing that the issues of Local Government Autonomy and return to the old National anthem and other non essential issues shouldn’t be the priority of the country but rather, the focus of Government should be on how to make the country more productive to engender economic development .
When he said that, he was actually talking about the Federal Government of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
It is a clever but a direct assault on the decision of the president to return to the old National anthem and the steps taken by the Federal Government to ensure independence for Local Governments.
His reference to ” non essentials” is a subtle attack on the policies of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Ordinarily, I shouldn’t worry myself too much about how Governor Makinde have decided to treat the president.
” Gambari na Fulani o lejo ninu’.
However, Governor Seyi Makinde must be exposed for who he is.
If he is talking of hunger in the Land, as a Governor, what has he done in his capacity to ensure that the problems of hunger is tackled in Oyo state?
It is a shared responsibility between the Federal and state Governments and Governor Makinde is also a failure in that regard.
The president declared that he has increased the Allocation to states by 2 billion Naira monthly.
He also declared that he released certain quantity of grains to ameliorate the sufferings of the masses?
Governor Makinde needs to account for all these before he begins to play a fast one on everyone by trying to put all the blames on Tinubu.
It is clear that, like Ronaldo, Makinde had sidestepped the president and is scoring goals at will.
It is left for the president to accept the realities that his engagements with Makinde is a bad experiment.
It is not too late for the president to turn to his party and strengthen the structures of the party in the state.
He had no need of Makinde ab initio.
SOLA ABEGUNDE.
