The Governor of Oyo State and presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Seyi Makinde, has defended his decision to contest the 2027 presidential election, arguing that the South-West can produce more than one presidential candidate without undermining the interests of the region.
The Governor spoke on Thursday, October 22, 2026, at the party’s South-West town hall meeting in Akure, the Ondo State capital, where he maintained that the region had previously presented two presidential contenders during the 1999 election without suffering any negative consequences.He
said critics had questioned his decision to join the presidential race on the grounds that the South-West already had a candidate occupying the presidency.
“I’ve listened to people. They said to us, ‘Seyi Makinde, why are you contesting in this election when the South-West already has somebody seated on that seat?’ And I’ve explained to them, we do have an example here in the South-West,” he said.
Makinde recalled that during the 1999 presidential election, the South-West produced former President Olusegun Obasanjo and another presidential candidate, Olu Falae, who both contested for the nation’s highest political office.
“And heaven did not fall. As a matter of fact, what the South-West did was to present two of their finest, two of their best for Nigeria to choose from. Is there anything wrong with that this time around?” he asked.
The governor also urged voters in the South-West to reject what he described as the politics of deceit, stressing that he would rather campaign on the strength of his record in Oyo State than concentrate on criticising his opponents.
Makinde also criticised the Federal Government over the reported presentation of the United Nations budget to the President in Nigeria by the country’s permanent representatives to the UN, questioning the rationale for spending taxpayers’ money on a trip from New York to Abuja for the exercise.
He further questioned the Federal Government’s budget implementation, asking, “Is it 2023, 2024, 2025, or 2026 budgets?”
Speaking further, Makinde said he would focus on energy and physical stamina rather than age as a defining issue in the 2027 presidential campaign.
“While I will not make age an issue of this campaign, I will make energy. Having energy. Being able to stay up late, have the rigours, have the energy to deal with the challenges that we are faced with as a country,” he said.
The Oyo State governor challenged other presidential candidates to demonstrate their physical stamina during the campaign, suggesting that voters should assess their ability to cope with the demands of the contest.
“So please, when they bring their own presidential candidates, let the candidates come here and also jump down. If they can do that, vote for them,” Makinde said.
