Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has aimed a dig at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar by referring to the immediate past Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, as the true unifier.
Makinde said this during his address at the Family Thanksgiving Service in honour of the former Rivers governor held at the St. Peter’s Anglican Church Rumuepirikom Deanery, Port Harcourt, on Sunday, June 18, 2023.
“We have a Senate President that is of APC. We have senators both APC and PDP. Someone calls himself Mr. unifier, but from what I see here in this room, the true unifier is Governor Nyesom Wike. Because everybody from North and South is in this place. Now he’s been called so many names,” Makinde noted.
Atiku is famous for being referred to as a unifier, a sobriquet he earned during the 2019 election when he contested against the then President, Muhammadu Buhari who was accused of pursuing sectional interests.
However, the former Vice President struggled to live up to the name after emerging as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential flag-bearer in the 2023 general elections, where he sought to replace a fellow northerner in Aso Rock.
His emergence led to a crisis within the PDP as Makinde, Wike, and three other aggrieved governors (now former) of the party insisted that the then National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu from Benue State, must resign for the sake of equity, justice, and fairness.
As the battle dragged on, Atiku stuck with Ayu leading to the governors, popularly known as G5, withdrawing their support from his presidential bid and surreptitiously working for his main opponents.
The former Vice President eventually lost the election to President Bola Tinubu and Wike and Makinde were believed to have played a key role in delivering their states for the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate.
Since Tinubu’s victory, the former Rivers governor has been more open with his political romance with the ruling party.
Wike has visited the Villa twice in less than three weeks of Tinubu’s presidency and he also played an important role in the emergence of Godswill Akpabio and Tajudeen Abbas as Senate President and Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively.
