•OYO Governor, SEYI MAKINDE Opens Up
Engr. Seyi Makinde has laid bare to the insinuation on whether or not, he really worked against the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the last election. Admitting his involvement in PDP failure in the Saturday’s presidential election in the state, Makinde said his decision was hinged on the arrogance tendencies of the National leadership of his party. He made this revelations while featuring on a popular radio program, State Affairs on Splash 105.5, Ibadan two Saturdays back. The program, anchored by the multi talented broadcaster, Edmund Obilo, availed the governor of the opportunity of barring his mind on what really transpired between his group, the G5 governors and the leadership of PDP. When asked who he voted for in the election, largely won by the main opposition party in the state, APC, the governor didn’t mince words in explaining his role.”I supported fairness, justice and equity,” he said. Below is the exclusive details of the interview, as monitored by City People’s Correspondent, DARE ADENIRAN (08057639079).
It was quite a revealing and interesting interview.
Who did you support in the Presidential election on Saturday?
“I supported Fairness, Justice and Equity.
You supported Mr. Bola Tinubu?
I supported a United Nigeria. A Nigeria that gives opportunity to every part of the country.
Is that equal to Tinubu?
Well, if you say so.
No, you said so. You delivered your ward to Tinubu?
He defeated me out there. He defeated you or you delivered the ward to him?
How do you deliver your ward?
You allow people to express themselves. Democracy is about people expressing themselves through the ballot. That is what they decided to do. They decided that look, we want..after eight years of presidency in the North, they want it to come to the South. And this place being South West, one of theirs was a candidate in the election. So they supported one of their own.
They supported one of their own and voted against your men? You didn’t win any senatorial position?
Well, you see when you are going into a contest you have to situate things appropriately. We had a survey before that election, we knew that a lot of our people are agitating for a country where there is fairness, justice and equity. I pointed it out to our party when the party hirachy came here, including the party’s candidate in that election. I didn’t mince words, I didn’t hide to let them know what is going on. I told the candidate as of that particular day, they were even yet to appoint, officially, the D.G of campaign. So, I told the candidate that look, you want to run on being a unifier. You want to unify the country, okay. You must unify your own party first. You need to do things based on what is fair and what is just and what is equitable within the party. And I said you were going to announce, because as at that time we knew they were going to announce Governor Tambuwal as D.G of the campaign. So I said look, this is what you are trying to do. I don’t have anything against Governor Tambuwal, he is competent. He can be the D.G of the campaign. But a situation where the presidential candidate comes from one part of the country, the Chairman of the party from that same part of the country, the D.G of the campaign from that same part of the country. I said I felt that is really sheer arrogance. I mentioned it to him privately that look, we have almost similar situation in Oyo State in 2003. The party in power then, AD, they were quite arrogant. The deputy governor came from Oke-Ogun axis of the state. And from Oyo North Senatorial district, you have 2 major zones in there. You have Oke-Ogun axis and Ogbomoso axis. And they took the senator again from Oke-Ogun axis. Of course they were punished because basically they were insensitive to the plight of Ogbomoso people. If we say let’s align and do certain things together and then everything that we want to do is going towards your side alone, I think that is not fair enough and that is what we fought against and I am glad that am part of a process that redrew the electoral map of Nigeria. Now, that arrogance I believe, with the results of last Saturday’s election, is basically behind us.
How do you mean? You redrew the electoral map?
Well, now we know that people will have to seek for alignment if you want to rule this country. You are not joust going to say because am from a certain part of the country, then that is the only qualification that I require to rule this country. Now you have to build bridges, you have to reach out to others. You don’t assume or just say that certain people just don’t matter.
Three members of the G5 have paid the prize of your face off with the party. By failing in their political aspirations, will Seyi Makinde also pay the prize?
Well, that is left to the people of Oyo State. But let me say this, and I have said it at certain fora before. If I have to choose between my political survival and doing what is right and what is just and what is equitable with the political space in Nigeria. I will choose to forgo my political career.
As they say, he that comes to Equity must come with clean hands. Are your hands clean?
Bring whatever issues you think I have done that doesn’t show fairness or equity. When we came in to government, we tried to take along with us every part of this state. And the first decision I took was to make sure that the cabinet cuts across. We have 14 federal constituencies in Oyo State, and the commissionership slots we have are about 17. I said fourteen out of that seventeen must be representatives of the federal constituencies in Oyo State. So we chose one Commissioner from each of these federal constituencies, and the other 3 we brought in, sometimes, non politicians to man certain technical areas. But we didn’t stop at that, we also looked at the religious balance. We ensure that the composition of that cabinet is not skewed towards one religion.
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