Pro-Wike PDP bigwigs searches the North for Makinde’s running mate.

Pro-Wike PDP bigwigs searches the North for Makinde’s running mate.

22nd October 2024

By

Uzochukwu Uduma.

There are fresh indications that several bigwigs and chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party may have resolved to snub former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and settle for the Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde.

The move comes barely a week after governors elected on the platform of the PDP brokered peace between factions of the party.

Despite the call to maintain the status quo, members of the PDP National Working Committee loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, have begun pushing for the candidacy of Makinde, ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

The logic, according to multiple sources is to truncate the ambition of Atiku and stop the party from conceding the ticket to the former VP, who they lamented has become a ‘serial contestant.’

Some party chieftains who spoke on the ground of anonymity admitted that they were yet to forgive the former PDP presidential candidate for bungling their biggest chance to return to power in 2023, following his refusal to appease the aggrieved five governors demanding the resignation of the immediate-past national chairman of the PDP, Iyorchia Ayu.

Wike and Makinde, alongside Samuel Ortom, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and Okezie Ikpeazu, former governors of Benue, Enugu and Abia states respectively, had worked against Atiku’s election in 2023.

“Every election cycle, you will be given a presidential ticket; you will bungle it. Look at the mess that he caused for us at the 2023 election. What was difficult in going to kneel before the aggrieved five governors (G-5) and winning the election for us?