Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has defended his decision to contest the 2027 presidential election, saying the South-West can present two candidates despite President Bola Tinubu seeking re-election under the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Makinde, the presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), spoke on Thursday in Akure, Ondo State, during the APM Makinde/Daura Campaign Organisation’s South-West town hall meeting.
He pointed to the 1999 presidential election, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the late Olu Falae, both from the South-West, contested against each other.
“The southwest zone of Nigeria has always been in the forefront of a better country for us. I’ve listened to people; they said to us, ‘Seyi Makinde, why are you contesting in this election when the southwest already has somebody seated on that seat?’”
Makinde argued that the region had successfully presented two candidates before, adding that voters should be allowed to choose the best.
He also urged the South-West to reject the “politics of deceit”, pointing to his administration’s record in Oyo State as proof of what he could achieve.
The governor also criticised Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Jimoh Ibrahim, for travelling from New York to Abuja to present the UN budget to Tinubu, questioning the use of taxpayers’ money when uncertainty remained over which national budget was being implemented.
Makinde said budget performance in Oyo State had risen from 28 to 30 per cent when he took office to more than 70 per cent over the past seven years.
