Dr Adetokunbo Pearse, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has categorically stated that Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde will emerge as the party’s flag bearer ahead of the 2027 general elections, news.ng reports.
Dr Pearse stated this during an interview on Arise Television on Saturday morning.
The PDP chieftain, while accusing the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of being responsible for the leadership crisis within the party, said that the APC would become a victim of its own schemes to run the PDP down.
While noting that the PDP is operating a two-legged leadership structure — the Nyesom Wike-led faction and the Kabiru Turaki-led executive — the party chieftain disclosed that Makinde, whose governorship ends next year, will emerge as the party’s consensus candidate. He added that the party will adopt consensus candidates across elective positions.
According to him, this will save time and money for the party, as well as avoid unwarranted legal battles among candidates.
He said, “Anyway, this Makinde is likely to be our consensus candidate. By the way, do you know that sometimes, you know what the Bible says, you get a picture fall in it. The plan that they’ve been planning for PDP to sink into the hole, APC is sinking into it, I guarantee you.
“You know what this has done for us? This shortening of this timetable, this pressure on us not to exist, we have now come together more determined than ever before. We are going to have consensus candidates in every position, everywhere, in every state in Nigeria. Consensus, so we don’t spend the kind of money we normally spend.
“It’s consensus, so that we don’t have the kind of acrimonious primaries, which has always been the bane of PDP. We fight through the primaries, then we go to general, we fall. So now, we are not having that anymore.”
Reacting to the already heated political atmosphere in the country, Dr Pearse predicted that in the presidential election, only two parties will be contesting — the APC and the PDP — accusing the former of creating division within his party.
“All of this is going to work in our favour. And by the way, they’re going to be most likely two political parties in this election, because APC has contrived the whole thing now, that everybody is either APC or not APC. And the not APC will come into PDP, and we win this election,” he explained.
He boasted that Makinde would win the presidential election due to his achievements as Oyo State governor.
“Makinde will emerge as a presidential candidate by consensus. And it will defeat presidential. It will defeat because it is going to be PDP, and he is a man of integrity, a God-fearing man who has performed brilliantly in Oyo state.
“This is a new generation now of presidency. We don’t want any old man who cannot walk. I’m not sure if she, Marky Day, will speak the way you are speaking, but of course, it’s politics.
“He doesn’t have to speak the way I speak. He can only perform.
“Look at his record. Look at his personality. We know his father’s name. We know the school he went to. He is a man of great integrity. That’s what we need in Nigeria now,” he added.