President Bola Tinubu on Thursday met with a group of aggrieved politicians within the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) known as the G5 or the Integrity Group.
In attendance at the meeting at the Aso Rock are one serving governor and four former governors within the party. They are Governor Seyi Makinde (Oyo) as well as former Governors Nyesom Wike (Rivers), Samuel Ortom (Benue), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia) and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu).
The current governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah was also present.
Addressing reporters, Makinde said the G5 visited the President to apprise him of the latest happenings and the group’s stance for fairness, equity and justice in the country.
He acknowledged that nation building, which he described as a difficult task, required constant evaluation. The G5, according to him, will keep meeting with the President on the way forward for the country.
G5 Long Battle With Atiku, Ayu
The G5, who were all two-term governors before four of them handed over on May 29, 2023, formed an alliance after the party’s presidential primary in May 2022 to demand that the then PDP National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu step down for a southern replacement as a precondition to support the presidential ambition of the party’s flag bearer, Atiku Abubakar in the February 25 poll. Both Atiku and Ayu called the then governors’ bluff and did not succumb to their demands in the just-concluded elections.
Interestingly, Ortom, Ikpeazu, and Ugwuanyi attempted to cross over to the Senate which has been described as a ‘retirement home’ for former governors but the trio lost their senatorial bid in the February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections. Only Makinde won an election among G5 members.
For a number of times, Tinubu met with Wike and Makinde before the elections.
For the presidential election, Atiku lost in all the G5 states while Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi won Enugu and Abia, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) raked in Oyo, Benue and Rivers.
Tinubu, 70, came out tops in 12 of Nigeria’s 36 states, and secured significant numbers in several other states to claim the highest number of votes — 8,794,726, almost two million votes more than his closest rival, Atiku.
Atiku, 76, who has now run for president six times, got 6,984,520 votes, while Obi, who, in less than a year, galvanised young voters in a manner some have described as unprecedented finished the race with 6,101,533.
