By Yomi Osibogun
For over fifty years since Ogun State was created, the Yewa/Awori people of Ogun West have waited for their turn at the governorship. Power has rotated between East and Central while the West watched from the sidelines. Now that the long-denied opportunity finally stands within grasp, one figure has repeatedly positioned himself as the decisive obstacle: Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as Yayi. In Nigerian political slang, his name is increasingly spoken alongside “Omisore”, the flexible operator who aligns with the strongest hand, switches calculations when convenient, and prioritises personal relevance over any collective agenda.
The comparison is no accident. Senator Iyiola Omisore earned his reputation in Osun State through calculated realignments that left his own party’s candidates exposed. In the 2018 Osun governorship election, Omisore ran as the Social Democratic Party candidate and finished third. When the poll was declared inconclusive and a rerun became necessary, he became the most courted figure in the state. Both the APC and PDP scrambled for his support. In the end, he threw his weight behind the APC’s Gboyega Oyetola, helping secure a narrow victory in the rerun. The move drew sharp criticism; Afenifere even suspended him for working against the broader progressive consensus and effectively undermining the PDP candidate who had been marginally ahead. Many saw it as classic political opportunism, sacrificing party loyalty for personal leverage and future relevance.
The pattern resurfaced in the 2026 Osun governorship contest. Allegations flew that Omisore, by then a senior APC figure and former National Secretary, withheld full support from the party’s candidate in key areas, particularly his Ife stronghold, contributing to the APC’s defeat. Party insiders accused him of prioritising his own long-term ambitions over the ticket, repeating the same flexibility that defined his 2018 manoeuvres. That is the Omisore brand: the man who can tilt an election by working against his own side when personal interest demands it.
It is precisely this brand that critics now attach to Yayi in Ogun State. The pattern is clear and documented. In the run-up to the 2019 governorship election, Yayi had earlier positioned himself as a strong contender from Ogun West and even enjoyed endorsements as a consensus figure from some consultative forums. He later withdrew from the race after the majority of support are in favours of Gboyega Nasir Isiaka. Instead of throwing his weight behind fellow Yewa aspirants, notably Gboyega Nasir Isiaka (GNI), who emerged as the African Democratic Congress candidate and carried significant regional goodwill, or Adekunle Akinlade of the Allied Peoples Movement, Yayi pitched his tent firmly with Dapo Abiodun’s Remo agenda.
Sources close to the politics of that period noted that Adeola, unhappy with former Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s opposition to his own earlier ambitions, retaliated by abandoning any firm commitment to an Ogun West governorship and backing Abiodun. Governor Abiodun has himself publicly acknowledged the critical role Yayi’s network played in the closely contested 2019 victory. What many in Yewaland saw as a golden chance for the zone was diluted by one man’s strategic realignment.
History repeated itself with sharper edges in 2023. Biyi Otegbeye, a Yewa son from Ilaro running on the ADC platform and openly backed by Amosun, emerged as the clearest regional challenge to Abiodun’s re-election. Once again, Yayi deployed his influence in Ogun West to shore up the incumbent. He publicly affirmed full support for Abiodun and the APC ticket, dismissing any suggestion of divided loyalties. When the results came in, Abiodun prevailed; Otegbeye finished a distant third. For many observers in the West, it was the second consecutive cycle in which Yayi’s machinery had worked against a credible Yewa candidacy, personal calculation over regional destiny, just as Omisore is accused of doing in Osun.
These are not distant memories. In July 2026, the Ogun West Concerned Stakeholders, meeting in Ilaro, openly rejected Adeola’s governorship aspiration. They accused him of having “fought against the success of Ogun West” in both 2019 and 2023, declaring that he “stood against this land he claimed to have come from, even when we know clearly that he’s never been one of us.” The group insisted his candidacy does not represent genuine Yewa-Awori interest and demanded candidates with verifiable local roots and a consistent record of advancing the zone’s agenda.
Adding fuel to the resistance are persistent questions about Yayi’s own origins and identity. Critics, including prominent voices from within and outside the APC, have alleged Ekiti ancestry and pointed to his decades-long political career representing Lagos constituencies before crossing into Ogun West in 2023. His aides have confirmed that he was originally known as Sulaimon Ogunleye and changed his name to Solomon Olamilekan Adeola after converting from Islam to Christianity while working at The Guardian. While they insist the change was personal and lawful, the complete transformation, coupled with competing claims about ancestral homes in Pahayi/Ilaro versus alleged Ekiti ties, has left many voters uneasy. In a zone hungry for authentic representation after half a century of exclusion, such unresolved questions create fertile ground for distrust.
Yayi’s defenders point to his projects as senator for Ogun West and the formal endorsement he now enjoys from Governor Abiodun and the APC structure as proof of competence and continuity. Yet for a growing number of Yewa voices, past actions speak louder. Twice the zone’s strongest opportunities were subordinated to calculations that kept power outside the West. Twice personal and strategic interests appeared to outweigh the equity agenda. The fear now is that the same pragmatism will be deployed again, this time to install as governor a figure many still regard as an outsider whose deepest political roots lie elsewhere.
The people of Ogun State are not without options. Rather than accept a foreigner in the person of Yayi as their governor, many are prepared to cast their votes for candidates of other political parties who are true sons of the soil and indigenes with clear, verifiable roots in the state.
At the same time, no sensible voter is expected to reward the APC with continued support. The cumulative weight of anti-people policies at both the federal and state levels has brought widespread hardship, rising costs of living, economic pressures that squeeze ordinary families, and governance that too often appears disconnected from the daily struggles of the people. Ogun citizens have felt the impact of these policies firsthand. Loyalty to a party that has delivered such suffering is no longer an automatic obligation.
Ogun State was home to organised kingdoms and sophisticated societies long before the modern Nigerian state was assembled. Its people have historically known how to defend their interests when the moment demanded clarity. The coming weeks and months will reveal whether that proud tradition still holds firm, or whether external calculations and the ambitions of a few will override the clear desire of the Ogun people. The people’s choice has a way of asserting itself in the end. The likes of Yayi who have worked against the interests of Yewa in the past would do well to remember that history is watching and will not forget.
https://www.nairaland.com/8760850/ogun-decides-2027
