Oyo state governor, Seyi Makinde on Tuesday said the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) could have won the 2023 presidential election if it had fielded former Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike as Vice- Presidential candidate to the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Atiku won the presidential primary by 371 votes to defeat Wike , who polled 237 votes, while a former President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, scored 70 votes.
Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State got 38 votes; Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, scored 20 votes; a former Senate President, Pius Anyim, got 14 votes, while a former President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Sam Ohuabunwa, polled only one vote.
Speaking on Channels Television, Makinde said shortly after the primary, he approached Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa state and proposed that the party should field Wike as running mate to Atiku.
He said Atiku rejected all the proposals made by the G-5 and chose Ifeanyi Okowa, immediate past Delta State governor as his running mate.
Makinde said the party must not repeat that mistake in the 2027 general elections.
“The day after the convention, I went to my good friend, Governor Fintiri and I said look, make this a unity ticket. Let us appeal to Governor Wike to be on the ticket. It would have been a stronger ticket to face the PDP. But all the people around our candidate (Atiku) rejected it”.
“We met with him in London, all the things we discussed there, he rejected it and he came back and said ‘we have moved on. All these children, where were they when we were forming PDP? And we have seen the result now and we don’t want to walk that path again”.
