Ifeoluwa Akinola and Israel Arogbonlo
Created on November 20, 2022, the G5 (Integrity Group) comprises five governors, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, Samuel Ortom of Benue, Seyi Makinde of Oyo, and Nyesom Wike of Rivers. Before the 2023 elections, the Wike-led G5 governors have been clamouring for the PDP National Chairman, Dr Iyorchia Ayu’s resignation shortly after a northerner, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, won the party presidential ticket.
The Integrity Group saw the need for the South to produce the party’s national chairman after Abubakar because the party’s presidential candidate for the 2023 general election is from the North. Hence, the group was formed on equity, fairness, and justice — a maxim some analysts have faulted for lacking substance as it is more like a conglomeration of individuals with distinct interests rather than a common goal.
Things fall apart
Following an unholy alliance with the opposition, the G5 became a shadow of itself, as three of its members failed in their quest to move to the Senate after their two terms as governors elapsed.
Recall that the leader of the group, Governor Ortom, had endorsed Peter Obi of the Labour Party a few days before the February 25 poll, while his colleagues, Wike and Makinde, according to unsolicited sources, also pledged support for the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, leading to the division in the group.
Based on the foregoing, the G3 paid the ultimate prize for their anti-party politics with shocking defeats recorded in the just-concluded National Assembly election in their respective States.
Ikpeazu
Though he was said to have lost his Senatorial bid following his abysmal performance in the State, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu could not ride on his incumbent power to clinch the Abia South Senatorial ticket. The outgoing governor could only garner 28,422 votes against Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) ‘s 49,693.
Ortom
The leader of the G5, Ortom, lost his election bid for Benue North West Senatorial District in the National Assembly after polling 106,882 to his All Progressives Congress (APC) counterpart in the district, Titus Zam. Ortom’s defeat was described as one of the greatest upsets in the just-concluded election.
Ugwuanyi
In what seems like another greatest upset in the 2023 elections, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu lost his bid to represent Enugu North Senatorial District in the National Assembly. Okechukwu Ezea of the Labour Party defeated Ugwuanyi in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) election on Saturday. While Ezea scored 104,948 votes to emerge the winner, Ugwuanyi came second with 46,948 votes.
Will Seyi, the last of the G5, remain standing after March 11?
Since the outcome of the last general elections on February 25, 2023, which led to the displacement of the majority of the G5 governors, there has been anticipation around the re-election bid of Governor Seyi Makinde, who remains the last of the G5 governors standing.
The body language of his party shows he has little support from them because of his inclinations towards the Tinubu camp in the presidential elections. The coldness of his party is due to Gov Seyi Makinde’s body language before the presidential elections, which indicated he and other G5 governors were not aligned with the candidacy of the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar. The last senatorial and house of assembly elections leave the All Progressive Congress Party (APC) with most of the senatorial and house of representative seats. At the same time, PDP has the second majority seat at the federal level.
PDP is losing its structures in Oyo, but there is a divide in the Oyo political sphere about the definition of Seyi Makinde’s success. Even though Gov Seyi Makinde’s Campaign is based on his past projects in the education, health and transportation sectors of Oyo, his opponents, like Senator Folarin from the APC(All Progressive Congress Party) and Bayo Adelabu from AP(Accord Party), are all strong influences and are not newbies in the gubernatorial race in Oyo.
To show how disunited the PDP front as a party is at the moment, over 190,000 members of Oyo PDP, who are aggrieved at Makinde’s seemly support for Tinubu rather than Atiku disclosed their support for Folarin of the APC on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, due to their party due to their party’s poor performance in the presidential and National Assembly polls.
However, APC, PDP and other political party loyalists have yet to make the point made in the last Presidential elections. Three of Gov Makinde’s G5 comrades in the PDP have failed to regain their mandate, and Wike and Makinde, who aligned with APC’s Tinubu, seem to have delivered their states to whom they have aligned. However, is the presidential election’s outcome a true yardstick to predict Gov Seyi Makinde’s success or failure come March 11?
So far, the dynamics that played out during the presidential elections show many more surprises to expect. Unexpected plots will play out among party stalwarts and non-partisan electorates. There is an awakening among the masses to vote for a particular party or vote based on their judgement of the individual vying for the post. Will Seyi Makinde succeed or fail at the guber polls because of his party affiliations or past performance in Oyo?
The gubernatorial election will be held in Oyo on March 11, 2023. In the past few days, political parties and major political players have started to align and talk with each other. Nyesome Wike, one of the G5 governors, recently visited Oyo to support Seyi Makinde’s campaign.
Meanwhile, Folarin from Oyo APC is going all out in the confidence of the Presidential elections to claim they will gain victory in the guber elections.
However, it is believed the APC and the disunited PDP parties, among other contenders, will remember that elections are evolving. Loyalists and non-partisan electorates are the ones to decide their fates. So far, there is still a palpable popularity of Seyi Makinde among the masses in Oyo. Hence, the outcome of the Presidential election might not have a direct predictive power for the gubernatorial elections.
So will Seyi Makinde remain the last man of the G5 standing? Will his popularity among the people work for him, or will the victory of APC at the Presidential elections be the end of his political journey in the Oyo State house? Only time will tell, and only the electorates can extend his mandate as a governor, either as a G5 or not.
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