You can’t just wake up and involve us in merger – PDP Govs reveal reason for rejecting Atiku’s led coalition

You can’t just wake up and involve us in merger – PDP Govs reveal reason for rejecting Atiku’s led coalition

Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has clarified why the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors rejected the proposed coalition led by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Speaking during a television interview, Makinde stated that the merger or alliance initiative was never formally discussed within the PDP and remains unknown to the party’s leadership and organs.

“You don’t just wake up and involve the party in any kind of arrangement without consulting its structures.

The organs of the party have no idea what this coalition entails—whether it’s a personal project or truly in the interest of the party and the country,” Makinde said.

His comments came in response to the coalition announced by Atiku on March 20 at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja, where he and others, including former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai, unveiled plans to form a united opposition front against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 elections.

Makinde also reiterated the position of the PDP Governors’ Forum, which had distanced itself from the coalition. He defended the communique issued after their April 14 meeting in Ibadan, stressing that it was the outcome of broad consultations with key party stakeholders.

He added: “The acting National Chairman, National Legal Adviser and the National Organizing Secretary were there with us. Other members of the NWC were waiting around the venue of the meeting, just in case there would be any need for them.

“We decided to tackle headlong the challenges within our party, and I’m quite glad we were able to make those decisions.

“There must be a process. If the managers of the party, the organs of the party are going into a merger or coalition, there’s need for the managers of the party to know.

“But, if you have individuals, it is still within their right to associate with whoever they want to associate with. However, as a party, we haven’t gotten there. Our first assignment is to put the party on a sound pedestal.

“Politics is a game of interest. You must be interested, you must have alignment with the wider organs of your party before you go out to meet other people.”

The governors also dismissed the claims of Senator Samuel Anyanwu and Monday Ude-Okoye to the position of National Secretary of the PDP.

However, in defiance of the Forum’s directive that Deputy National Secretary Setonji Koshoedo should serve in an acting capacity, Anyanwu pushed back, arguing that the decision contradicts the Supreme Court’s ruling on the party’s leadership dispute.