A People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader has criticized Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde’s reported presidential aspirations for 2027, questioning the strategic wisdom of another Southwest candidate following President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s current administration.
Segun Showunmi, the PDP chieftain, expressed his concerns during a recent interview with Channels Television from 22:47, arguing that regional power rotation should guide the party’s candidate selection process. “The man (President Tinubu) got only 8.6 million votes out of 93 million voters. It’s cheaply surmountable. But you have to know what you are doing, you can’t be deluding yourself,” Showunmi stated, referring to Tinubu’s electoral performance in the 2023 presidential election.
Showunmi questioned the feasibility of Makinde’s presidential bid, emphasizing the importance of geopolitical considerations in Nigerian politics. “How can somebody like Seyi Makinde desire to be the presidential candidate of PDP in 2027? Is it like a kid’s position?” he asked. “Do you think that the way the structure of the Nigerian nation is in one geopolitical zone? The southwest has taken quite a number of bites.”
The PDP leader highlighted competing regional interests, noting that multiple zones have legitimate claims to national leadership. “You have a southwestern man that has gone four years. The north is even asking for power back. We have a Southeast that has never tasted power. There are other zones that are still yearning for power, and you are deceiving yourself that you are going to be able to tell Nigerians that okay, we want to have 12 years in government,” Showunmi explained.
He placed responsibility on party leadership to make strategic decisions about candidate placement, arguing that the PDP should not mirror the All Progressives Congress (APC) approach to zoning. “It is the responsibility of party leadership and party management to know where to place their candidacy,” Showunmi said. “The People’s Democratic Party of Nigeria does not have to zone its positions to where the APC conveniently zones its position. We don’t have the same needs. We don’t have the same playbook. We don’t have the same angle. We don’t have the same place to look for our numbers.”
Showunmi concluded by criticizing what he perceived as inexperienced party management, warning that poor strategic decisions could benefit the ruling party. “When you have children who don’t even understand the business of party management, to make Bola Tinubu and the APC know that they don’t have a secured win in 2027,” he remarked.
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