IBADAN Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde on Thursday formally entered the 2027 presidential race, announcing his candidacy before a joint rally of the Peoples Democratic Party and the Allied Peoples Movement at Mapo Hall in Ibadan.
“The time to reset Nigeria is now. I, Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde, announce my candidacy for the position of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” the governor declared to the crowd.
Makinde framed his bid as a response to what he described as a deepening national crisis, saying the country’s deteriorating conditions had placed “the majority of Nigerians on survival mode daily” while government officials abdicated their responsibilities to citizens.
The declaration came alongside a formal merger agreement between the PDP’s Taminu Turaki faction in Oyo State and the APM. Makinde and APM National Chairman Yusuf Dantalle signed a Memorandum of Understanding under which PDP faction candidates from governorship down to state assembly seats will contest the 2027 elections on the APM platform.
“This handshake will allow us to field candidates at all levels from the presidency to state assemblies, and everything in between,” Makinde said.
Pushing back against critics who doubted opposition cohesion, Makinde argued that the real opposition in Nigeria extended beyond political parties. “The opposition is the everyday Nigerian for whom the country does not work,” he said.
The Ibadan rally marks the first major formal alliance of opposition forces ahead of 2027, with Makinde positioning himself as its standard-bearer.
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