By Ehichioya Ezomon
In the Nigerian courts – and in courts in other jurisdictions around the world – litigants are sworn, at all times in the course of proceedings, to “tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” – no matter how inconvenient or self-implicating it may be – so that “God may help them.” But we all know that litigants, mostly through their lawyers, tell as many lies as possible in aid of their evidence.
Telling “the whole truth” at all times is no less expected of those in positions of authority, especially politicians, who should be beacons and paragons of truth, to earn the trust of the people, and legitimacy of the offices they occupy. Still, like litigants, Nigerian politicians tell more untruths, half-truths and outright falsehoods to advance their political ends.
Such isn’t expected from Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde, as he looks lately to wriggle out of the guagmire he and other members helped to instigate, abet and sustain in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that’d touted itself as the largest political party in Africa, and boasted it’d rule for an unbroken 60 plus years.
That power-drunk prediction at its apogee was cut short after 16 years, and today, the PDP’s decimated and reduced from 31 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, to two states, whose governors can’t swear to “tell the whole truth” that they won’t jump ship in the days, weeks and months to and after the national convention and/or party primaries.
On March 22, 2026, Makinde, leader of one of PDP’s factions, at a parley with his sole counterpart and Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed, in the capital city of Bauchi, attempted to rewrite the history of the crisis, blaming its genesis on former Rivers State Governor and Minister of the FCT, Chief Nyesom Wike, who leads the other faction in the driver’s seat.
As genuinely-concerned members seek a middle ground, to enable them meet requirements of the laws ahead of the 2027 General Election, Makinde claims that the PDP crisis stemmed from an alleged plot by Wike to “hold the party” for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027 – a promise Makinde says he witnessed when he and Wike met with the president at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa in Abuja. It wasn’t the first time that Makinde made the claim!
Believing that a reconciliation with the Wike-backed AbdulRaman Muhammad-led National Caretaker Working Committee (NCWC) “is a vote for Tinubu’s continuation in 2027,” Makinde retold his and Wike’s meeting with President Tinubu, as reported by Daily Post Nigeria on March 22, 2026, thus:
“I came once into the public domain to say that I was in a meeting with Wike and Mr President, and he (Wike) promised to hold PDP for Mr President towards 2027. So, anyone dealing with Wike and his group… it means you have also agreed to support President Tinubu for 2027.”
“We are not begrudging them. You can support whoever you want to support, but go to them (join or defect to their party) if you want to support them. They have the government behind them, they have the judiciary and INEC behind them but we have the people behind us.”
That’s Makinde engaging in the rhetoric of “us versus them” or “them versus Nigerians” that the opposition regularly plays up as if aliens from outer space, and not Nigerians living on earth, will vote for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 poll!
Lest we forget, as Makinde wants us to! The PDP crisis began pre-2023 election, when its leadership refused the entreaties of Southern Nigeria’s political figures, including Makinde, to rotate the presidency to the South, as the late President Muhammadu Buhari, representing Northern Nigeria, was rounding off his eight-year tenure (2015-2023).
The PDP leaders’ refusal to concede the presidency to the South contradicts the party’s constitution, which emphasises equitable distribution of elective positions, and mandates that its presidential candidate and the national chairman shall not belong to the same region, North or South, in any election cycle. Then-presidential candidate and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar from Adamawa State in the North-East, and the National Chairman and former Senate President Iyorcha Ayu, from Benue State in North-Central zones of Northern Nigeria breached the PDP constitution by holding on to the top two positions at the same election cycle!
Efforts to reverse the status quo by a group of five PDP governors (“G-5” or “PDP-G5”) – headed by Wike, with Makinde and then-Abia State Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, Benue Governor Samuel Ortom and Enugu Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, as members – failed, as Atiku backed Dr Ayu to retain the chairmanship until after the 2023 poll of February 25 (Presidential and National Assembly) and March 18 (Governorship and State Houses of Assembly).
The G-5 governors then threw their support for the APC and Tinubu, and the PDP and Atiku lost all five states at the presidential poll: the Labour Party (LP) won Abia and Enugu, and the APC claimed Benue, Rivers and Oyo (Makinde’s turf); while at the governorship, the APC won Benue, the PDP retained Enugu, Rivers and Oyo, and the LP secured Abia.
When it’s convenient for him in 2023, Makinde traded the PDP and Atiku’s interest for his political survival that’s guaranteed by the APC and then-candidate Tinubu. But due to his rumoured presidential aspiration in 2027, Makinde now despises Tinubu, along with Wike, a staunch backer for the president’s re-election.
Makinde’s visited former Kano State Governor and 2023 presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, in Kano – in a somewhat “return visit” to Kwankwaso, who visited Makinde at his office in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital city, after Kwankwaso had inaugurated the Ibadan secretariat of the NNPP – fueling a speculated Makinde ambition for President in 2027.
The questions to ask: Why did Makinde bond with Wike and other governors to withdraw his support for the PDP and Atiku, and back the election of the APC and Tinubu in Oyo State? Self-interest, of course! Without such backing, he wouldn’t have had the numbers to secure his re-election.
Will Makinde censure Wike if he isn’t supporting President Tinubu’s 2027 bid? It’s doubtful, even as he appears all out to rubbish Wike, to get at Tinubu, and risk the much-needed reconciliation in the PDP, as if he’s set for another platform, to realise his alleged presidential ambition, or pull the last rug from under the PDP.
Could all this be responsible for Makinde not being on the same page with Mohammed during his visit to Bauchi, as reported by The Nation on March 23? Mohammed, hoping the differences could still be resolved before 2027, noted, “Reconciliation is not something we have called for. It has been midwifed by a competent court of jurisdiction” (Federal High Courts and Appeal Court that voided the Makinde faction’s November 2025 national convention in Ibadan, and also stopped the emergent Tanimu Turaki-led national working committee from parading itself as such).
Still, a defiant Makinde on March 23, at an Oyo PDP stakeholders’ meeting in Ibadan, declared that the courts’ vacated convention “remains the platform” to field PDP’s candidates for the 2027 poll. He spoke with newsmen after the closed-door meeting, as Vanguard reported on March 24:
“It’s just a meeting of our party that brought everybody together, for us to evaluate the political situation in the country and also Oyo State in particular. And also with all the crises within PDP, what do we need to do? How do we proceed? And also the issue of our candidates?
“We believe that there must be unity within the party, and they (members) were advised to go back to their local governments and constituencies. And then we’ll come to the state. If our candidates can emerge by consensus, we’ll be happy.”
Noting that the PDP grapples with “two extremes” of a “war” and a “battle” – with the “war” concerning aspirants seeking elective positions in the 2027 election, while the “battle” centres on guaranteeing that the party and its candidates are duly listed on the ballot, Makinde said, “We have all sorts of issues. You have court cases, and then we have our leaders and elders at the national level also, that are pulling together to see that we find a solution.”
Despite disputes he identifies in the PDP at the national level, Makinde claims the Oyo chapter “remains resolute and focused,” to ensure that the party’s presence on the ballot in 2027 is “sacrosanct,” dismissing rumours of his possible defection to another party, saying, “We’re comfortable in our PDP.”
As a parting shot, Makinde “reposes confidence” in PDP’s ability to resolve its differences and remain competitive, insisting that, “unity and strategic coordination will be key to its success in 2027.”
That success, though, will depend on the outcome of the sputtering reconciliation of the governor’s faction with the Wike camp before the expiration of the window to submit all relevant documents, arising from the primaries, to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for clearance for the 2027 ballot.
Will PDP remain as one, meet the targets (reconcile and submit documents to INEC) and be competitive, notwithstanding its current state of affairs, with the Turaki/Makinde camp headed to the Supreme Court for a final opinion on the debilitating crisis?
That could complicate the task before former Kwara State Governor and ex-Senate President Bukola Saraki, former Kaduna State Governor Ahmed Makarfi and former Minister of Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, who, with other PDP chieftains, have reportedly held extensive meetings and consultations to reconcile the Makinde and Wike groups.
All said, only the “warring and battling” PDP members, who exhibit and “tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” at all times, will determine the revival and survival of the party before, during and after the General Election in 2027. No shortcut to achieving that goal!
• Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria. Can be reached on X, Threads, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp @EhichioyaEzomon. Tel: 08033078357
