Facts have emerged as to why Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, rejected the offer to lead the Peoples Democratic Party’s Presidential Campaign Council as the Director-General.
It was learnt from sources close to the PDP top echelon that the Presidential Candidate Atiku Abubakar offered the DG role to the Oyo State Governor.
Atiku is said to be strategic about a choice of DG from South West because it is the region where the All Progressives Congress Presidential Candidate, his main challenger, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, comes from.
The Atiku camp wants a top politician from the region to lead his campaign to take the battle to the doorstep of Tinubu.
All Progressives Congress picked its Vice Presidential candidate, Senator Kashim Shettima, from North East where Atiku comes from. Shettima is a very popular and charismatic politician and former Governor of Borno State.
“Atiku does not want Tinubu to have a free reign in South West. He wants Governor Makinde to lead his campaign as DG primarily to be a bulwark against Tinubu’s momentum in the reyion,” said a source.
Governor Makinde, according to sources close to him, politely turned down Atiku’s offer on the premise that he has his own re-election battle to contend with and he does not want any distraction given that he has two formidable challengers in the persons of APC candidate, Senator Teslim Folarin, and Accord Party Candidate, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu.
Adelabu was Oyo State APC Governorship candidate in the 2019 election and former Deputy Governor of Central Bank while Folarin was PDP governorship candidate in the state in the 2015 election.
Some party sources also revealed that Makinde might have used his own re-election as a perfect alibi to reject the DG job and that his main reason may be due to his relationship with Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike who is still aggrieved over how Atiku side-stepped him to pick Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as his Vice Presidential candidate.
Wike was hoping to be picked as the VP candidate having been recommended by Governor Samuel Ortom’s Committee of the party.
“Makinde is still very close to Wike and he does not want to offend his friend who is still bitter about what he considered shabby treatment by the PDP standard-bearer.
“Wike believes he is the biggest investor in PDP post 2015 when the party was defeated by the APC. Makinde does not want to hurt Wike,” said another party source.
Another reason why Makinde is said not to be enthusiastic about leading Atiku’s campaign as DG is the PDP’s candidate inconsistency in similar matters.
Makinde is rankled that in the build-up to the 2019 election, Atiku first announced the former Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, as the campaign DG. While Daniel was still settling into the job with the appointment of his former aide, Segun Sowunmi as the campaign Spokesperson, Atiku ditched him and appointed former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to takeover from Daniel as the DG.
Reasons for replacing Daniel with Saraki were never made public till date.