Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde declared on Friday, 13 November 2026, that rumours of his presidential ambition likely soured his once-close alliance with President Bola Tinubu. Speaking during a television interview on Arise News, the Allied Peoples Movement presidential flagbearer claimed political whisperers poisoned the well by telling the president he planned to run against him. Makinde insisted that their political divorce stems from broken 2023 coalition promises and failed economic leadership rather than blind personal ambition.
Alliances in Nigerian politics rarely survive the shift from campaign trail to state house. Makinde reminded viewers how he knelt beside Tinubu in front of Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike during the 2023 cycle, pledging to hold the opposition structure in check for the incoming president. He also alleged that Tinubu failed to honour a signed 2023 political agreement meant to birth a genuine government of national unity.
To prove he harboured no long-standing obsession with Aso Rock, the governor revealed he turned down lucrative offers during the last election cycle. Associates of former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar approached him to join the 2023 presidential ticket, yet Makinde refused because he felt three years in public office left him unready. Instead, he backed Wike during the primary race, proving his current candidacy grew out of frustration with federal policy rather than pre-planned treachery.
Challenging an incumbent president from the same geopolitical zone breaks an unspoken rule of southern Nigerian politics. Makinde flatly rejected calls for automatic Yoruba consensus behind Tinubu ahead of the 16 January 2027 poll, arguing that shared ethnicity cannot feed hungry households. Voters deserve a credible regional alternative capable of fixing broken national institutions and reversing deepening economic hardship.
Economic policy sits at the sharp centre of Makinde’s critique of his former ally. While acknowledging minor improvements in broad financial indicators, the governor argued that sudden fuel subsidy removals without social safety nets crushed ordinary families and small businesses. He pledged to serve only a single four-year term under his Reset Nigeria Agenda to stabilise public institutions before handing over power.
Whether voters buy this sudden conversion from loyal kingmaker to stern reformer will decide the South-West battleground in January. Makinde splits the regional vote at a perilous moment for the ruling establishment, turning former allies into bitter rivals across Yorubaland. Political agreements written on paper rarely hold when one partner feels cheated out of the spoils of victory.