By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain in Oyo State, Engineer Femi Babalola on Wednesday, said that Governor Seyi Makinde is also guilty of what he is accusing the party national leadership of doing on sharing of elective posts.
Engr Babalola stated this in Ibadan while speaking with journalists at the PDP leaders meeting held at the residence of a former Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Elder Wole Oyelese.
The PDP leader pointed out that it is unfortunate that Governor Makinde, an Ibadan man who succeeded another Ibadan man who was a governor for eight years in Oyo State, could now be kicking against PDP having another Northerner as the President of Nigeria.
“He that comes to equity must come with clean hands. As an Engineer, I analyse issues. The first question I asked myself was is it good for a northerner to take over from a northerner? And another question is that is it good for an Ibadan man to take over from Ibadan man that spent eight years?”, he said.
Engr Babalola added, ” So, for Makinde that benefited from such, why is he now antagonising another person? He didn’t see anything that is wrong in that but when it is Atiku, it is wrong.”
New Nigerian recalled that Governor Seyi Makinde while featuring on a live radio programme in Ibadan last Saturday said he may not support the party’s Presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar unless the party do the needful .
According to Gov Makinde, as far as he is concerned, PDP must demonstrate that it can ensure fairness and justice within its system before seeking to implement same on the nation.
” Well, first let us start from the genesis of this, we the governors of Southern states across party lines met and we said for peace, progress, fairness, equity , for justice, we asked that after 8years of Presidency in the North, let it come to the South. I was part of that agreement. But, we got to our own Presidential convention, my party chose a Northerner as its candidate”, he said.
The governor added, ” I said okay, fair enough, what do we do about inclusivity, about unifying this country and when the 17 of us Southern Governors sat to take that decision, do we just take the decision because we it is fanciful to have Southern Governors Forum. “
” We took that decision taking into cognisance the unity of this country for people to feel the inclusiveness and we said, look, this is not about Seyi Makinde, it is not about Wike. It is about where do we go as a country if certain part of the country and feeling somehow . And if as a party, we want to govern Nigeria and say we can unify this country, we can do this for you. Let us demonstrate that within our party, we said commit to few things. “
