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• As Makinde joins presidential race •Alliance mere political imagination, Wike faction kicks
From Fred Itua, Nddubuisi Orji, Abuja and Seye Ojo, Ibadan
In a moment that reverberated far beyond the ancient walls of Mapo Hall Arcade, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State yesterday, formally announced his intention to contest the 2027 presidential election while simultaneously unveiling a sweeping new political coalition between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) under the banner of the Reset Nigeria Movement.
Makinde was flanked by political allies and enthusiastic volunteers as the historic Mapo Hill reverberated with sustained chants of “Makinde for President.”
But in separate reactions, the Abdulraham Mohammed-led National Working Committee (NWC ) of the PDP and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, dismissed the alleged alliance between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
At a press briefing in Abuja, yesterday, the National Publicity Secretary, Jungudo Mohammed, explained that any talk of alliance does not have the backing of the PDP leadership.
In his declaration speech, Governor Makinde said Nigeria was drifting dangerously towards a one-party state, warning that democracy itself was under threat if opposition forces failed to unite against what he described as systematic attempts to weaken alternative political voices.
Makinde said the country has reached a critical political crossroads, insisting that the time had come for Nigerians and opposition parties to work together to rescue democracy and reset the nation.
“We have witnessed the continuous meddling in the affairs of opposition parties in our dear country with the aim of taking Nigeria to a one-party system,” he declared. “Without a multiparty system there is no democracy.” The governor lamented the worsening economic and security situations in the country, saying many Nigerians had been pushed into survival mode while those entrusted with power were allegedly treating public authority as personal property.
According to him, the opposition movement extends beyond political parties to include ordinary Nigerians frustrated by hardship and governance failures.
“They calculated and said the opposition cannot unite. But I am here today to say it is a miscalculation,” Makinde said. “The opposition in Nigeria is not just the political parties. It is the everyday Nigerian for whom the country does not work.”
Calling for mass civic participation, Makinde urged Nigerians to resist political apathy and become actively engaged in shaping the future of the country.
“This is the time for every one of us to shake off the apathy that is gradually taking root and engage with the political process to ensure that Nigeria works for us,” he stated. “It is time to confront our fears. It is time to be engaged citizens and not spectators in our own country.”
The Oyo State governor said the newly-announced PDP/APM alliance represented the beginning of a broader opposition coalition aimed at offering Nigerians an alternative political direction ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Describing Ibadan as “the city of warriors,” Makinde declared that the alliance would field candidates for elective offices from top to bottom across the country.
He then formally announced his presidential ambition before the cheering crowd. “Therefore, today, I Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde, FNSE, announce my candidacy for the position of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the PDP/APM alliance,” he declared.
The rally drew party faithful, youth groups, women associations and coalition supporters from different states of the federation, with many describing the gathering as a major signal of growing opposition realignment ahead of the next election cycle.
The rally served simultaneously as the formal unveiling of the strategic merger between the PDP bloc and the APM, with leaders of both parties announcing a coordinated plan to field candidates across all electoral levels in 2027.
Makinde accused the APC administration of presiding over worsening insecurity and deepening economic hardship, and raised the alarm over what he described as systematic interference in the internal workings of opposition parties, warning that democracy itself was being endangered by the creeping entrenchment of a one-party state.
“We have witnessed meddling in the affairs of opposition political parties. This is to achieve a one-party system. Without a multi-party system, there is no democracy. Where is our multi-party system? Where do we go from here?” he asked, to a thunderous response from the crowd.
Oyo State PDP Chairman, Dayo Ogungbenro, disclosed that the two parties had already executed a Memorandum of Understanding at Adagunodo House, providing institutional bedrock to what might otherwise have appeared a marriage of convenience.
The gathering attracted a formidable assembly of political figures, among them the alliance’s consensus governorship candidate in Oyo State, Abimbola Adekanmbi, and his running mate Muftau Open-Salawu; former Oyo State House of Assembly Speaker and Senator Monsurat Sunmonu and APM National Chairman, Alhaji Yusuf Dantalle, who presented Makinde to the crowd as a performing governor who had earned the right to carry a national mandate.
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“You will not walk this journey alone. We are going to walk it together,” Dantalle told the governor.
Former Osun State governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, also lent his voice to the occasion, reminding the crowd of the specific promises on which the APC had swept to power a decade ago and arguing that on every matrix, whether electricity, fuel supply or economic stability, the country’s condition had deteriorated rather than improved.
“All the misgovernance of APC should become a thing of the past,” he declared.
PDP National Vice Chairman for the South East, Ali Odefa, struck a note of wider pan-regional significance, insisting that Nigeria could not afford the drift towards a single-party political order. “Nigeria has to move forward. We will support this, we will nurture it and we will make it successful,” he said.
•Alliance mere political imagination, Wike faction kicks
At a press briefing in Abuja, yesterday, the National Publicity Secretary of the faction loyal to Wike, Jungudo Mohammed, explained that any talk of alliance does not have backing of the opposition party leadership.
A bloc of the PDP loyal to Governor Makinde and led by former Minister of Special Duties and InterGovernmental Affairs, Tanimu Turaki, had said the opposition party was in alliance with the APM for the 2027 polls.
Governor Mohammed, recently dumped the PDP for the APM, recently sparking speculations that Makinde and his supporters might be headed to the party.
The Turaki-led bloc and the APM held a joint rally in Ibadan on Thursday to as part of the alliance.
However, Mohammed said the event is aimed at misleading members of the public, noting that “a person or group claiming to be acting on behalf of the PDP in connection with this event is doing so without the knowledge, approval, consent, or authority of the party.
“What is being presented to Nigerians as a political alliance is nothing more than another desperate attempt by Governor Seyi Makinde and his associates to mislead the public and manufacture a false impression of political relevance and support.
“Governor Makinde must stop attempting to camouflage his political intentions through false claims of alliances and consultations. It is obvious that ego and pride have made it difficult for him to accept the reality of his growing political isolation and failed calculations.
“Just like Governor Bala Mohammed who earlier moved to the APM, Nigerians can now clearly see that today’s gathering in Ibadan is simply a public celebration of Governor Makinde’s movement to the APM and nothing more.
“If indeed Governor Makinde and his supporters have truly not defected to the APM, then Nigerians deserve to ask this simple question, why did they refuse to remain within the structure they claimed to recognize by purchasing nomination forms from the so-called Kabiru Tanimu led Interim National Working Committee?
“Their actions have clearly exposed the contradictions between their public claims and political reality. They should therefore be allowed to manage the consequences of their political choices without dragging the PDP into their personal political decisions.”
Similarly, Wike, national leader of the PDP, told journalists after inspecting the ongoing 13-kilometre Gomani to Yangoje road project in Kwali Area Council, Abuja, yesterday, that the alliance narrative was merely a political imagination.
He said both the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were not aware of the existence of such an alliance.
“There’s no alliance between PDP and APM or any other political party, as the case may be. INEC also knows that there’s nothing called the PDP-APM alliance.
“The ongoing political activities within the PDP, including the screening of aspirants, clearly showed that the party remained independent and had not entered into any coalition arrangement.
“PDP has presented a presidential candidate. Watch out who will be submitted to INEC and see whether there’s anything called PDP-APM,” he added.
The minister further alleged that the gathering in Ibadan on Thursday was facilitated by Governor Makinde to pursue his personal presidential ambition under the platform of APM.
“What you have is Makinde joining APM to be able to actualise his presidential ambition, which is already dead on arrival,” the minister said.
