AbdulRasheed Adebisi has said that Seyi Makinde, governor of Oyo State, can win a second term but with some conditions.
Olopoeyan, as the influential Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chieftain is known, said the governor needs to quickly organize a meeting that will bring all aggrieved members of the party together and various issues addressed.
Olopoeyan said who are endorsing the governor for a second term not sincere with the governor, stressing that they are neither politicians nor the masses.
He said, “Only the party members and the masses can guarantee Governor Makinde a second term in office. Those saying four plus four now are the people in his cabinet and they are not politicians and not sincere with him because of what they are eating. What is their contribution to the emergence of this administration?
This newspaper understands that Makinde and Olopoeyan fell out shortly after the governor’s inauguration. Olopoeyan and others have alleged the governor of negligence in the running of government and party.
Speaking on a newly commissioned radio station, Agidigbo 88.7 FM, in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, he said that “the only available option for his second term in office is to as a matter of urgency organise a meeting that will bring on board all the aggrieved members and address their various issues, the present situation has gotten worsen to the extent that the state party chairman, Alhaji Kunmi Mustapha, said he wants the entire executive cabinet of the party at the state be dissolved. He said it in our presence at a meeting that he is frustrated, that the entire EXCO should be dissolved, saying is no longer interested in the position again. He said he is tired and fed up with the whole situationof things.
“Some are saying I am fighting Makinde because I want to be dictating to him. How is that possible? No one can dictate to a sitting governor. One can only advise. I can’t be dictating to the governor. Our governor doesn’t even listen to people. He does what he feels is right, whereas some issues need to be well deliberated upon. If any governor says he is fighting someone based on the fact that such a person wants to be dictating to him, such governor is a liar and even wicked.”
“While asked to give a scorecard on the Makinde administration, Olopoeyan said “It is only the masses who can rate the government. If I rate him, people will say it’s because I’m a PDP member, and if I don’t rate him well enough some will say it is because I’m not on the same page with him. So the people across the state should be able to rate the government whether he is doing it right or not.”
Olopoeyan also explained why he stopped paying visits to Makinde.
He stressed that he has no problem with the governor but the way things are going on in the party could cause a problem at the state level ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Asked why he’s always at loggerheads with Makinde, Olopoeyan said, I’m not at loggerheads with him. In fact, I don’t have a problem with him as a person, I don’t even have a problem in seeing him anytime I wish, but I stopped going to him when I felt that the way things are going at the party is not okay with some of our members who are the people we teamed up and struggled together to make sure that we have this present government in the state.
“As a party man, I always believed that things should be done accordingly, party members should be carried along in the scheme of things. Whenever there is an issue we should come to a roundtable and settle it, for instance, those that were not given the opportunity to contest after being made to pay for their forms, should be addressed.
“Governor Makinde should have met with those aspirants earlier before the primaries, and brief them on how things we go, so those people wouldn’t have paid for forms.
“So I decided not to go to him again when some people are carrying insinuations that I used to visit him because of money. Yes, I don’t deny it. When I used to visit him, he gives me money but I’m not a beggar either, as you know me well that I’m well to do. And moreso, what is the essence of going to him when some of our party members are not happy with the situation of things?
“I will rather prefer that those issues be resolved and let everyone be on the same page, keep the party stakeholders intact ahead of the coming general election.”
Source: OyoInsight.com
