Ojy Okpe: What is your relationship with President Tinubu, when last did you speak with him?
Makinde: Well, I tried to see the President when our students -children and teachers were kidnapped because I thought that if any part of Nigeria is going through that kind of challenge, the President of Nigeria should be interested. Actually, I expected the President to call me.
Ojy Okpe: Did he call you?
Makinde: He did not
Ojy Okpe: The President did not call you?
Makinde: Till tomorrow, he did not.
Ojy Okpe: The President has not called you?
Makinde: Till tomorrow. I made an attempt, I called the State Chief of Protocol to the President, he didn’t pick.
Ojy Okpe So, you are telling me: that for 56 days your Oyo citizens were in the forest, you tried to reach the President of Nigeria and he did not answer your call?
Makinde: I am saying it again that till tomorrow, I have not spoken directly with the President on anything. I am just minding my own business, running Oyo state and I am not complaining
Ojy Okpe: This is very strange because this is the same man, you helped win the 2023 Presidential election. This is the same man that got the amount of votes he got in Oyo state, you have not told me where the break happened between you and the President, what exactly happened?
Makinde: Well, I can only hazard a guess. You know people talk a lot, so maybe some people went to him and said Seyi may likely run against you, I don’t know. That may cause bad blood, you may never know.
We (G5) were with the President and the FCT Minister knelt close to the President’s side and said “Mr President, I will hold PDP for you’
Ojy Okpe: Wike had responded to that claim…
Makinde: That he didn’t do it?
Ojy Okpe: That that’s not the reason but that your Presidential ambition plunged the PDP into the crisis that it is in right now.
Makinde: Okay, it was my ambition? but I supported him in 2023 during the PDP Presidential Primary? So, I didn’t have ambition then, I just suddenly developed an ambition? And let me say this, the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar had his people approach me in 2022, to run with him as VP..and I told them look, I am only three years as a Governor. Just 3 years as a public servant so it wasn’t enough to take such a decision, so I declined and told them to look for someone else. If I am being driven by ambition, that is the surest path.
Ojy Okpe: So, who is running Oyo state as you go on your statewide campaigns?
Makinde: My own position is that: If it’s good for the President to be going around the country to campaigns, and even to go for Hajj to pray for Nigeria, yes, I know a lot of our Muslim brothers look forward to doing that, but he has been there several times, so if that is good for him, so how come it’s bad for me to go around so I should stay here and not take my message to the people of Nigeria? I just delivered a state of the State address and also presented the 2027 budget to the house of assembly. Oyo State has a robust economy and I am putting a roadmap which Bimbo Adekanbi will meet on that table.
