Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has revealed how President Bola Tinubu rejected his nominee for a ministerial position allocated to the state and instead appointed Bayo Adelabu, the immediate past Minister of Power.
Mr Makinde said the president had asked him to recommend a development economist for the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning as compensation for his role in the G-5 governors’ opposition to the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, ahead of the 2023 general election.
The governor disclosed this during a media chat with Fresh FM on Sunday, explaining that he nominated Bimbo Adekanmbi, a former Oyo State commissioner for finance under the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi.
Mr Adekanmbi is currently the governorship candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) in Oyo State.
According to Mr Makinde, however, Mr Tinubu eventually opted for Mr Adelabu, whom the Oyo governor defeated in the 2019 governorship election.
He said the president subsequently asked him to publicly claim ownership of the appointment, but he rejected the request, insisting that the decision should be attributed to the president.
“I said, ‘Okay, I know Bayo. I contested against Bayo in 2019. He is a first-class material,’” Mr Makinde recalled.
He said Mr Tinubu later told him: “Well, since I’ve taken this decision to appoint Bayo, you should go and take ownership of him, like go out and say it was your choice.”
The governor said he declined, maintaining that his responsibility was to recommend qualified people who could contribute to the administration, not to take credit for appointments made by the president.
“So I said, ‘No, sir. Bayo is your choice, and let it be known to the people that it is your choice,’” he said.
“I’m supposed to help you by nominating people who can add value to your administration. If you’ve seen somebody who can do that, that’s good,” he added.
Mr Makinde said he later discovered that other governors had also been asked to adopt ministerial nominees selected by Mr Tinubu.
He argued that the arrangement meant some governors were publicly associated with appointments they had not initiated.
“The G-5, minus, of course, Wike, was not given ministerial appointments,” he said, referring to the group of five PDP governors who opposed the party’s leadership before the 2023 elections.
The group comprised Mr Makinde, Nyesom Wike, then Rivers State governor; Samuel Ortom of Benue; Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu; and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia.
Mr Wike, who supported Mr Tinubu during the 2023 presidential election despite belonging to the PDP, was subsequently appointed Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.
Mr Makinde said the experience was not limited to members of the G-5, claiming that several of his colleagues across the country had been asked to associate themselves with nominees chosen by the president.
“The point I’m trying to make is that most of my colleagues, not just those in the G-5, my governor colleagues, right, were given people and asked to adopt those people as theirs,” he said.
The Oyo governor also criticised what he described as a lack of geographical balance in appointments made by the Tinubu administration.
He said although some critics had accused the South-West of dominating the federal government, he believed political affiliation with the president had played a significant role in determining appointments.
“They may be Yoruba people, but the majority of them were appointed on the basis of affiliation with Bourdillon,” Mr Makinde said, referring to the Lagos residence associated with Mr Tinubu and his political network.