Pearlè🌹

We Will Not Be Bullied Into Abandoning Seyi Makinde There is something particularly disturbing about the political conversations surrounding Seyi Makinde's presidential ambition, especially among sections of the APC and the Obidient movement on X. On one side, you have Tinubu supporters arguing that Makinde's candidacy is simply an attempt to reduce Tinubu's votes in the Southwest. On the other, you have Obidients arguing that Makinde is merely positioning himself to reduce Peter Obi's votes in the region. And I find both arguments deeply insulting. Why should the political ambition of a Yoruba man who has governed Oyo State for almost eight years and now wants to contest for the presidency be reduced to an attempt to frustrate the political ambitions of two other men? Does Seyi Makinde not have a political identity of his own? Does he not have a record of governance that Nigerians can examine? Does he not have the right to seek the highest political office in the country without first obtaining the approval of supporters of other presidential candidates? Why must every conversation about his ambition revolve around Tinubu or Peter Obi? I consider much of what we are witnessing to be political intimidation, bullying and, in some instances, an extraordinary display of hypocrisy. THE OBIDIENT MOVEMENT AND ITS SELECTIVE UNDERSTANDING OF POLITICAL LOYALTY I supported Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential election. I was not necessarily convinced that he was the greatest candidate Nigeria could produce, but I believed he represented an alternative worth exploring. However, my support for Peter Obi did not mean that I surrendered my political independence to him or the movement that emerged around his candidacy. Remember what happened during the 2023 election when the crisis within the PDP made it increasingly clear that Seyi Makinde and the other G5 governors would not campaign for Atiku Abubakar until the party's internal disagreements were addressed. The disagreement was straightforward. Atiku and the PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, were both northerners. Nyesom Wike and his allies believed the party had disregarded the principle and expectations of zoning by allowing another northern presidential candidate to emerge while retaining a northern national chairman. Makinde was among the five governors who withheld support from Atiku. You would have thought that political disagreements within the PDP were enough to explain what was happening. But some Obidients took it upon themselves to argue that Oyo State people should not vote for Seyi Makinde as governor because he had refused to support Peter Obi for president. Think about that for a moment. A sitting governor, seeking another term, was expected to subordinate his political interests and those of his state to the presidential ambition of Peter Obi. As though Seyi Makinde were somehow inferior to Peter Obi. As though the political future of Oyo State should depend on whether its governor had submitted himself to the political preferences of another man's supporters. That was an insult to the people of Oyo State. A political movement cannot demand that everyone who refuses to support its preferred candidate should be punished politically. And this is precisely why I find the present attempt to intimidate Makinde's supporters so distasteful. You cannot insist that Nigerians must be free to make independent political choices and then attack them for making choices that do not favour your preferred candidate. My disappointment with sections of the Obidient movement did not end with the 2023 election. We witnessed hostility directed at different groups of Nigerians. Atikulates were bullied. APC supporters were bullied. Yorubas were subjected to accusations and hostility over Tinubu's emergence.