THE REJECTED NOMINEE: How Tinubu’s No to Adekanmbi Exposed Makinde’s Godfatherism and Reawakened the Oyo APC // By Aderogba Adebayo Taofik, mni
THE REJECTED NOMINEE: How Tinubu’s No to Adekanmbi Exposed Makinde’s Godfatherism and Reawakened the Oyo APC // By Aderogba Adebayo Taofik, mni
In the fluid theater of Nigerian politics, what is not said is often more revealing than what is said. Governor Seyi Makinde’s recent disclosure on Fresh FM 105.9 that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu rejected his ministerial nominee, Bimbo Adekanmbi, and instead imposed Adebayo Adelabu as Oyo State’s representative in the Federal Executive Council, is a moment of rare candour that has far-reaching implications for the political future of Oyo State.
Makinde’s narrative is straightforward. In the aftermath of the G-5 governors’ tacit support for Tinubu’s presidential bid, he approached the President with the credentials of Adekanmbi, former Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Planning under the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi, as his preferred candidate for Minister of Budget and Economic Planning. Adekanmbi, a banker-turned-technocrat with a reputation for fiscal prudence, was presented as the competent hand Oyo could offer to the nation. President Tinubu, according to Makinde, reviewed the file and declined. His instruction was blunt: go and take ownership of Bayo Adelabu as your minister.
This revelation has been interpreted in some quarters as a testament to Makinde’s democratic temperament, proof that he is not the omnipotent godfather his critics claim. That interpretation, however, collapses under critical scrutiny.
The paradox of Makinde’s position is glaring. He attempts to present himself as anti-godfather by showcasing a rejected nominee from outside his Peoples Democratic Party fold, yet he is simultaneously engineering the most elaborate godfatherism project Oyo has witnessed in recent times. Adekanmbi, who left the All Progressives Congress after failing to secure a senatorial ticket, has now been unveiled as Makinde’s anointed successor under the banner of the Allied Peoples Movement. At the APM unveiling, Makinde was unequivocal: “Did you enjoy Omituntun 1.0 and 2.0? Bimbo Adekanmbi is Omituntun 3.0.” It is therefore clear that the ministerial nomination was not an act of selfless statesmanship, but the first attempt to plant a loyal successor in the federal cabinet while still in office as a PDP governor. President Tinubu’s refusal thwarted that early incarnation of godfatherism.
The implications for Oyo politics are profound.
Firstly, it demystifies Makinde’s federal reach. For two years, the political legend in Ibadan was that Makinde was a co-architect of the Tinubu presidency and therefore the ultimate gateway to Abuja. His own admission that his nominee was ignored and that only Nyesom Wike truly benefited from the G-5 alliance exposes the limits of that influence. It signals to the political elite and the electorate that access to the President does not automatically confer influence over his decisions.
Secondly, it forces a clarification of political identities. Adekanmbi’s journey from Ajimobi’s kitchen cabinet to Makinde’s successor-in-waiting compels the progressive family in Oyo to make a choice between ideological lineage and personal patronage. His emergence as Omituntun 3.0 is, in essence, an admission that Makinde’s successor cannot win a competitive primary within the PDP and must therefore be outsourced to a smaller platform where imposition is easier. This validates the criticism by Hon. Akin Alabi that Makinde’s presidential ambition under the APM is not a genuine pursuit of the highest office, but a tactical maneuver to remain on the ballot and pull Adekanmbi along, who, in his words, “can’t contest alone.”
For the Oyo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, the President’s decision represents a strategic windfall, perhaps its most significant since 2019.
The first gain is organizational independence. By rejecting Makinde’s nominee and retaining Adelabu, a thoroughbred progressive who contested the 2023 governorship on the APC ticket, President Tinubu ensured that the Oyo APC has a federal anchor who does not owe his position to Agodi Government House. The party no longer needs to negotiate its relevance through Makinde. It has its own minister, its own access, and its own voice in the Federal Executive Council.
The second gain is narrative clarity ahead of 2027. The APC can now credibly frame the next election as a contest between authentic party competition and a manufactured continuity agenda. It can argue that while Makinde seeks to govern Oyo from retirement through a proxy whom even the President found unsuitable for ministerial appointment, Oyo deserves a governor who emerges from the people, not from a godfather’s laboratory.
Finally, the departure of Adekanmbi has allowed the APC to consolidate. Rather than being a loss, it has externalized internal contradictions and allowed the party to coalesce around Senator Sharafadeen Alli as its gubernatorial prospect and Adelabu as its federal powerhouse.
In sum, ultimately, President Tinubu’s “no” was more than a personnel decision. It was an assertion of presidential prerogative over gubernatorial suggestion, and an inadvertent act of party preservation. It inadvertently saved the Oyo APC from being co-opted into Makinde’s extended political family and provided the party with a minister who owes his loyalty to the centre, not to Agodi Government House. It saved the Oyo APC from absorption into Makinde’s expanding political family and exposed the contradiction at the heart of the Omituntun 3.0 project: a governor who denounces godfatherism while diligently practicing it. Whether the people of Oyo State will accept this re-branded succession as competence or reject it as sophisticated imposition will determine the outcome of 2027.
About the Author: Comrade Aderogba Adebayo Taofik, mni, is a unionist in the food, beverage, and tobacco industry, with professional expertise in logistics and supply chains. He is also a policy research and public affairs analyst, an advocate for good governance, and a chieftain of the Oyo APC. He writes from Ward 12, Ibadan North Federal Constituency, Oyo State, Nigeria.