By Luminous Jannamike

ABUJA — Oyo State governorship aspirant, Hazeem Gbolarumi, on Thursday criticised Governor Seyi Makinde over his exit from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and described his presidential ambition as ‘inordinate’.

Gbolarumi, who spoke in Abuja, questioned Makinde’s political experience and said he could not rate the governor highly politically because of his departure from the PDP, despite acknowledging his administration’s infrastructure record.

He said, “I found Seyi Makinde’s ambition as inordinate. It should be an inordinate ambition for him to have even aspired for president. At what stage? At what age?

“Where has he acquired that experience? Maybe when you have money, and you believe you can just do otherwise, and you believe because you are governor of the state, so the next thing for you is just to aspire for president. It’s not like that. It doesn’t work that way.”

Gbolarumi said Makinde left the PDP after benefiting from the party’s support.

“This is a party that assisted him to be what he is today. And he dumped the party all of a sudden. To gain what? He benefited from the PDP. And he dumped the party for no reason,” he said.

Describing himself as a loyal party member, Gbolarumi said political loyalty should matter in public life.

“That is for me, because I’m a party man. I so much believe in party. Whatever you believe in, do it very well,” he said.

He said Makinde belonged to other political parties before joining the PDP and argued that the party supported him politically.

“I think he was an SDP, Social Democratic Party member or thereabouts. All of a sudden, he came to the party. The party said we should assist him.

“We assisted him to be what he is. And he became the governor of the state. So, the next day is for him to just leave the party. And go for another party.

“Does that make sense? That’s for me, it doesn’t make sense. So, I can’t rate him anything more than zero,” he said.

Despite the criticism, Gbolarumi credited the governor for infrastructure projects in the state.

“On infrastructure, he has done his best. He has tried his humanly best in the state. If we have to do our own campaign, we can work on that. Because he has done this, he has done that. So, maybe I rate him 70 per cent in the state,” he said.