Seyi Makinde: Can APM presidential candidate ‘travel’ beyond South-West?

In Nigerian politics, the easiest promise to make is that performance will speak for itself. Seyi Makinde has built his political identity around precisely that proposition. Now, as the 2027 presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement, APM, he is asking a much bigger electorate to accept that what he says he has achieved in Oyo State can be scaled directly to Nigeria.

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Makinde, formally Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde, was born in Ibadan on December 25, 1967. His route to Government House was unusual for a politician. Politics tested that image early. Makinde, formally trained as an electrical engineer at the University of Lagos, graduated in 1990 and went into the oil and gas industry. He worked with Shell before moving through engineering and field-management roles and eventually establishing Makon Engineering and Technical Services in 1997. The business grew into the Makon Group.

From Engineer to Political Contender

That background matters because Makinde has consistently presented himself less as a professional politician than as an engineer who entered public life with a problem-solving instinct. In 2007, he contested the Oyo South senatorial seat on the ANPP platform and lost. He later sought the PDP ticket for the same senatorial district in 2011 and failed at the primary. In 2014, he pursued the PDP governorship ticket for the 2015 election, was unsuccessful, moved to the Social Democratic Party, SDP, and contested the governorship, finishing third with 54,740 votes.

The Defeats Before Government House

Those defeats were politically instructive. Makinde was learning that money, professional reputation and personal ambition could open the door to politics, but they could not by themselves command its machinery. He returned to the PDP in 2017, secured its 2019 governorship ticket and, on his fourth major electoral attempt, won Oyo.

His victory established the businessman as an executive politician. Re-elected in 2023, Makinde has made education, health, infrastructure, security and economic development pillars of his administration. His government abolished several education levies, expanded education spending, pursued road projects, supported healthcare interventions and promoted investment and agribusiness. The administration also points to regular salary payments and welfare measures for workers and pensioners.

Oyo Becomes the Makinde’s Argument

The record, however, deserves scrutiny beyond government scorecards. Much of the evidence used to describe Makinde’s performance comes from the administration itself, while supporters credit him with fiscal discipline, visible infrastructure and a comparatively business-friendly environment.

Critics can reasonably ask whether state-level achievements demonstrate the capacity to manage Nigeria’s vastly more complicated federal system, security architecture and fiscal pressures.

Performance Meets Political Reality

That question follows him into the APM. Makinde remains identified politically with the PDP, yet the party that once carried his ambitions did not become his 2027 vehicle. The APM convention in Bauchi on August 13 formally presented him as its presidential candidate, with Bauchi Governor Bala Mohammed emerging as national leader.

Makinde has argued that Nigerians should judge leaders by measurable results, while calling for a stronger opposition and greater devolution of powers to states.

Why APM Chose Him

The choice is revealing. For APM, Makinde offers an incumbent governor with an executive record, national name recognition and a technocratic profile at a time when opposition parties are struggling to convert dissatisfaction with the ruling APC into a coherent national alternative. His appeal also lies in the possibility of bridging constituencies: a southern governor with northern political connections, a businessman comfortable with policy language, and a politician who can point to two electoral victories in Oyo.

His selection of former DSS Director-General Lawal Daura as running mate reinforces that calculation. It gives the ticket a security-heavy northern component and signals that Makinde understands the limits of a technocratic message.