By Simbo Olorunfemi
From afar, Seyi Makinde strikes you as a gentleman. He comes across as an easygoing man, like someone ti’o lagbaja.
He is one that you will look at and write off the possibility of a career in politics for.
I wouldn’t have imagined him as one cut out for the hurly-burly of Nigerian politics, especially in a state like Oyo that requires a higher measure of street credibility than might be required in other states in the West.
Ija igboro…
Well, that he has made it this far in politics, becoming an elected Governor of Oyo State is quite something.
Well, the simple answer must be that I either don’t quite know the man or there are possibly other things (the X factor) that brushed aside the flagged factors that worked in his favour.
I must confess to the fact that I don’t know the man that well. Of course, as a student of politics, I pay more than a casual interest to political actors and activities.
I have followed his journey from the distance, but never really dug deep to deconstruct him and his politics.
I have heard him speak on a few occasions. I paid close attention to his speech at the commissioning of the Ibadan Bus Terminal and that of President Olusegun Obasanjo on the occasion. I got a few hints about his his mind is working and where he might be headed from his speech and a few things Baba, as usual, said.
Then, a few weeks back in Abuja. Saw him in person for the first time. I paid attention more closely. His presence spoke volumes. A lone player in ‘enemy territory’. Yet owned his space. Man has a way with words too. Appears to be quite street-smart. Reads the room well. Intentional in whatever it is he is doing.
Well, that was how I saw him until what I might now refer to, in Journalistic parlance, as his ill-fated media chat.
The very idea of a national media chat, with media practitioners from major national TV stations, situated in a garden might not have been invented by Minister Nyesom Wike, but it now appears to be one he now has owns the copyright and trademark.
Governor Seyi Makinde in the garden looked off and out of place. He came across as an Actor playing from a script written with someone else mind. He appeared, to me, to not be in his elements.
He came prepared though. I think the main point he was out to prove was that he had a pedigree in business (Oil and Gas contracts) before he ventured into politics. So he came prepared.
He had a copy of his first One million Dollar Contract framed. He could barely wait. A little nudge. As if on cue, he whipped out the framed contract from the ground to display to us all. Caught up in the moment, he didn’t properly explain how he eventually made his first One million dollars, as distinct from the One million dollars contract.
The whole spectacle was every bit but tidy. I didn’t get the point of it. I doubt that the people who truly matter to him didn’t know that he came to politics ‘loaded’.
Even if it took 12 years from his first run for office to the point of his emergence as Governor, going by his assets declaration at the time he took office, he was quite loaded, not minding those who claim people now declare in faith, in anticipation. Nothing suggests that to be the case here.
I just couldn’t get the point of falling into the trap of a d..k measurement with his Brother. I couldn’t even get the point of a public brawl with his friend, trying to flip the script on a man who has mastered the act.
I think it was an unforced error.
I think Seyi Makinde’s main strength has been his reticence. He had a reputation, outside of Oyo of speaking less. I can’t recall him taking the lead in speaking for the G-5 during their days. He was always the quiet one behind Wike and Ortom.
I think that role suited him better. He might have been pushed to act, seeing how he had been cornered on all fronts, especially with the legality of the PDP Convention in Ibadan now resting on k-legs.
But he could still have held back. He could have left us guessing rather than make it clear that the source of his unhappiness was that the President declined his nominee for Minister. Did he need to tell us what he said to the President about the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu?
I can’t see how the media chat served him well. His one million dollar contract gave ammunition to the opposite side. He didn’t offer an irrefutable proof of the allegation he made against Minister Wike. He couldn’t have. That is why he didn’t need to put that out.
That media chat is also what triggered the response from Mr Ayodele Fayose that has now resulted in the N30 Billion exposure.
How does anyone explain the lack of public disclosure in the first place and this ‘wait and see’ explanation from his Professor-Commissioner that N30 Billion has been locked in a non-interest yielding account for over a year, while waiting to see when the balance of N20 Billion will come, so they could then decide what to do with it?
This reads like a series of unforced errors, starting with a needless media chat, that has now resulted in an own goal.
I think that Governor Seyi Makinde was better served by his te-jeje style, which, to me, created an air of mystique around him.
I think he was better served in his shell. That decision to get into the ring with his friend who appears to permanently reside in one, comes across as a tactical error that he might be regretting now.
I doubt that the last few weeks have been the most interesting for him. Well, VAR might yet come to his aid.
Miracles happen.
I hear it’s all because he wants to be President, or run for the office in 2027. Interesting. Miracles happen.
You never know with politics though. Who knows?
It’s all about ‘wait and see’.
