Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has justified his choice of a former Commissioner for Finance in the state, Abimbola Adekanmbi, as his preferred successor in 2027.
Mr Makinde, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) aligned with the faction that recently lost the legal leadership battle for the control of the party, said his choice of preferred candidate goes beyond party affiliation.
The Supreme Court recently nullified the convention held last year in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, and the meeting’s outcomes, including the emergence of the Kabir Turaki-led executives backed by Mr Makinde.
In recent days, the media have reported Mr Makinde’s imminent declaration of his intention to run for the presidency in 2027 and his planned announcement of a political alliance between the PDP and the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) ahead of the forthcoming polls.
Speaking on Wednesday in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, at the International Tourism Summit organised by the state government, Mr Makinde said his priority is to have a capable candidate who can move the state forward succeed him.
He said party affiliation would not influence his choice of successor.
The summit had as its theme: “From Groundwork to Governance: Building Tourism That Endures.”
Responding to critics of his decision to pick Mr Adekanmbi — the commissioner for finance during the administration of the late Governor Abiola Ajimobi and a late entrant into his government in 2025 — the governor said “what matters is competence, and provided the candidate is an indigene of the state.”
“My role is to recommend a preferred successor for the people of Oyo State. It is the electorate that will decide,” he said.
The governor assured people of the state that the winners of the 2027 election would not be determined by “federal might”.
According to him, the votes of the electorate will determine the outcome.
This comes weeks after a national summit of some opposition parties held in Ibadan on 25 April to hone plans to form a coalition and field a single presidential candidate in 2027 to challenge the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking on the summit, Mr Makinde said his administration has put in place major policies, actions and economic enablers that would make Oyo State the hub of tourism in South West and a major tourism destination in the country.
According to him, with key infrastructure development projects connecting towns and communities in the state, improved security as well as ongoing efforts to revitalise major tourist attractions, the number of tourism activities in the state will increase in the next few years.
He explained that another major factor that would make the state a tourism hub was in the area of continuity of policies and ideas.
The governor said that policies underpinning tourism development have been institutionalised, with structures and systems well built and ideas aligned to sustain the sector.
He added that his administration had been showcasing tourism assets and building structures to institutionalise them beyond his term in office with a deliberate approach and strategy. He said this went beyond initiating projects.
Mr Makinde added that his administration created a system where investment in the state is not only possible but also structured, protected and enduring for investors.
He said that investors should nurse no fears about leadership changes, as the teeming people of Oyo State would support members of his team in the next election cycle in order for them to sustain policies and ideas that have worked out well in the interest of the state.
Mr Makinde rallied the people of the state, especially traditional rulers, to continue backing the administration and to key into its vision, focusing on the state’s continued prosperity of the state.
The special guest at the event, former Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, observed that tourism thrives only where there was structure, hospitality, clarity of purpose, and continuity.
READ ALSO: Makinde-backed PDP regrets offering Wike platform, apologises to Nigerians
Mr Fayemi said the global tourism sector was no longer peripheral but a strategic instrument of economic transformation, cultural diplomacy, and global positioning.
He maintained that nations spend considerable time projecting themselves to the outside world.
The former Ekiti governor maintained that the graveyard of the country’s tourism was not littered with bad ideas, “but littered with good ideas that were never institutionalised or carefully executed.”
He said tourism succeeds when “the vision becomes policy, when policy becomes systems, when systems become institutions, and when institutions become enforceable frameworks that survive political cycles.”
Mr Fayemi, a former Minister of Mines and Steel Development from 2015 to 2018, urged Mr Makinde’s administration to mainstream tourism into the state’s economic planning to succeed in the sector.
He also advised the government to prioritise good transportation systems, other basic infrastructure, and effective security.
(NAN)