Oyo State Gov. Seyi Makinde has publicly confronted his former political ally, Nyesom Wike, accusing the Federal Capital Territory minister of volunteering to undermine the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on behalf of President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 general election.
Makinde’s remarks, made during an interview with journalists on Tuesday, offer the latest evidence of how a once-powerful alliance forged before the 2023 elections has unravelled, reshaping political alignments as early manoeuvring for 2027 intensifies.
According to Makinde, he was present at a private meeting involving President Tinubu, Wike, the president’s chief of staff and other officials, where Wike openly pledged to “hold PDP” for Tinubu in 2027.
“I was in a meeting with the president and Wike… and I’m saying this in an open chat,” Makinde said. “Wike said to the president that, ‘well, sir, I will hold PDP for you, you know, in 2027.’”
The declaration, Makinde said, left him stunned.
“I was in shock,” he added. “So we got up, we got to the verandah and I said, ‘Wike, did we agree to this?’”
The disclosure marks an escalation in tensions between the two men, who were key members of the so-called G5 group of PDP governors that backed Wike after he lost the party’s presidential primary in 2022. That bloc resisted supporting the PDP’s eventual candidate, Atiku Abubakar, and became a defining feature of the party’s internal crisis going into the 2023 polls.
The alliance began to fracture after the election, particularly after Wike accepted appointment as minister in Tinubu’s APC-led government while retaining strong influence within the PDP. That dual role has since fuelled accusations that he is working to weaken the opposition from within.
Makinde said Wike’s position crossed a red line.
“The real issue is that Wike would like to support the president for 2027. That’s fine. It is within his right,” the governor said. “But some of us want to ensure that democracy survives in Nigeria, that we don’t drift into a one-party state, and that PDP survives. It should also allow us to do our own thing.”
Makinde said he initially sought a quiet resolution, raising the issue with a mutual friend in the hope that Wike would reconsider.
“I said maybe he was talking about an errand that the president never sent him,” Makinde said. “So let’s engage him. Let’s see if he will back off. But he never did.”
That refusal, he said, forced a direct confrontation.
“So after he didn’t back off, I said, well, now it’s time to confront him. Because I told him from that day that I would never be a part of this,” he said.
Deepening Crisis
The fallout comes against the backdrop of a recent power struggle within the PDP. The party formally expelled Wike last month, a move he countered by mobilising his faction to announce the expulsion of Makinde and other party leaders, deepening the crisis and raising questions about the PDP’s coherence heading into the next election cycle.
Makinde also revealed that he rebuffed overtures from President Tinubu aimed at drawing him closer to the ruling party.
“He said, ‘it’s you that I want to help me organise APC in Oyo State,’” Makinde recalled. “I said, ‘No, sir, I can never help you organise APC in Oyo State because I am of the PDP.’”
Wike has not responded publicly to Makinde’s claims and could not be reached for comment.
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