The Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde has promised not to “pollute the PDP well” when it is time for him to vacate office at the end of his second and final term as governor in 2027.
The governor spoke on Thursday in Abuja during the inauguration of the governing board of the Peoples Democratic Institute (PDI), a policy research and resource bureau of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Makinde said, “From 2019, I have been benefitting from PDP. So, I want to say thank you to our great party and all the stakeholders gathered here today for giving me the opportunity, not one, but two mandates back to back under this umbrella.
“The only thing I can promise you is that since I have fetched water from that well, which I have been drinking since 2019, I will not pollute the well when it is time for me to exit that position.”
The governor was first elected in 2019 on the platform of the PDP and won his re-election in 2023 for another four years that will end in 2027.
Makinde, who was the special guest at the occasion, made the perceivably harmless comments apparently to demonstrate his loyalty and commitment to the PDP.
However, some party bigwigs at the event, observed that the governor’s comments could as well be a subtle jab at some PDP chieftains who played destabilising roles against the party at different periods in the past.
Some leading lights of the PDP who built their political careers around the party’s platform, had in 2014, defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) where they worked against the PDP, leading to the party’s loss of the 2015 presidential election.
Prominent among the defectors at the time, were former Vice President Atiku Abubakar; two-term Kwara Governor and former Senate President, Bukoka Saraki; and former Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal.
However, they were all smoked out of the APC by powerful interests in the ruling party who considered them as intruders, forcing them to return to the PDP shortly before the 2019 general election.
Incidentally, Atiku, Saraki and Tambuwal were presidential aspirants of the PDP in the 2023 election. Atiku won the ticket but lost the election to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the APC.
Another party source said Makinde’s comments could also be a jab thrown
at the immediate past governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike.
Wike was the governor of Rivers State for eight years, from 2015 to 2023 but has since pitched his tents with President Tinubu who has rewarded him with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) ministerial portfolio.
Wike has openly thrown his weight behind Tinubu’s yet to be declared 2027 re-election bid and he has constituted himself into a divisive force, destabilising the PDP structure at the national level and in Rivers State.
Many believe that Makinde’s comments may have reinforced speculations of his intention to contest for president in 2027. The governor has not confirmed or denied the growing speculations.
As it were, permutations for the PDP’s 2027 presidential ticket may have begun already, with potential contestants testing the waters at public events with their utterances and body language.
Although Atiku, who will be 81 years old by 2027, has been the most visible of the potential contestants. The name of the incumbent Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammad has also come up in the discourse.
And while Atiku has concentrated his energies only on working towards winning the PDP ticket ahead of 2027, Makinde has been doing his groundwork within the party.
For instance, the Oyo governor has single-handedly revived and rehabilitated the Peoples Democratic Institute by getting it a befitting office in the high brow Asokoro district. He also furnished and equipped the building.
While unveiling the PDI board, Makinde rued PDP’s loss of power at the national level, describing the party’s 16 years in power from 1999 to 2015 as “Nigeria’s golden years.”
Bemoaning the prevailing economic hardship in the country, the governor said Nigerians have learnt their lessons, as he compared PDP’s “years of plenty” with “APC’s lean years.”
According to him, PDP lost in 2015 owing to disagreement among key stakeholders, regretting that the APC has moved the country from “next level of economic instability, to next level of economic trouble.”
“Nigerians are looking up to the PDP to provide ideological direction for the country. They have seen the PDP in government and they have also seen the APC.”
“My people used to say a woman would not know a better husband until she has tried a second husband. Nigerians have tried the PDP, they have also tried the APC. Now they want to return to the husband of their youth.”
A former PDP national chairman, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo and the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) members were at the event.
Saraki, who was also in attendance, announced a N10 million contribution to the PDI.