₦airaland Forum

There’s an old saying among the elders, trust is a farm you inherit, not a house you can rent to a stranger and still call your own. That is the proverb Ogun State should be repeating to itself every time Senator Olamilekan Adeola, Yayi, opens his mouth to ask for its votes, because the distrust trailing his candidacy did not start with rumour or rivalry. It started the moment Ogun people began to notice who actually stands beside him when he thinks no one outside his circle is counting.

Yayi wants Ogun people to see his APC candidacy as the natural next chapter of a proud political career. What his August 10 birthday celebration in Ilaro actually revealed was something colder: a man whose real political home may no longer be Ogun at all, but Lagos, dressed up in Ogun colours for an election cycle.

Think about what it means, practically, for a governorship candidate’s biggest celebration in his own senatorial base to be remembered less for the Ogun politicians who built his career and more for the unfamiliar faces who surrounded him at the centre of it. Loyal local men and women who are mobilising in the grassroots, funded rallies, and stood in the sun for Yayi long before Saheed Osupa ever sang his praise, found themselves on the outside looking in. That is not an accident of crowd control. That is a preview of an administration’s org chart.

Ogun people deserve to ask a blunt question, the kind editorial politeness usually avoids; if Yayi cannot be bothered to centre Ogun’s own political family at his own birthday party, why would anyone expect him to centre Ogun in Government House?

The senator’s defenders will say none of this is proven, that no policy has been announced, that perception is not the same as fact. They are technically correct, and that is exactly the trap. Politicians who intend to import outside power structures rarely announce it. They let it happen gradually, through appointments, through who gets the ear of the governor, through who becomes Secretary to the State Government while the people who did the actual work of winning the election get thanked in a speech, given some largees and then forgotten.

That is precisely what the unconfirmed talk of a Lagos-connected financier becoming Director-General of the 2027 campaign, with a possible SSG appointment waiting behind it, should sound like to any serious Ogun voter. An alarm.

Yayi’s career itself tells the story his campaign would rather Ogun forget. He built his political identity in Lagos, rose through Lagos structures, and only later moved into Ogun West to claim a senate seat. That is his right. Nigerian politics is full of such journeys. But a journey like that leaves footprints, and Yayi’s footprints run overwhelmingly through Lagos. The people he trusts most, the networks he built when it mattered most to his own rise, belong to another state entirely. An Adeola government would not need to formally announce that Lagos comes first. It would simply staff itself the way it already appears to be staffing itself, and Ogun would wake up one day to discover it elected a governor whose real cabinet of trust sits an hour up the expressway.

This is what ordinary people in Ilaro, in Yewa, in every corner of Ogun West have started calling town rental politics, and the phrase is more honest than any campaign slogan Yayi’s team has produced. A tenant does not owe a house the same loyalty an owner does. A tenant negotiates the shortest possible stay, extracts maximum value, and leaves when the lease runs out. Ogun’s fear is that Yayi’s outside associates see the state exactly this way, as property to be occupied for four years, harvested for contracts and appointments, and abandoned the moment political convenience points elsewhere. Nobody who truly belongs to a place treats it like rented accommodation.

Contrast that with what Ladi Adebutu represents, whatever else one thinks of him. The Adebutu name is stitched into Ogun’s economic fabric across generations, in agriculture, in industry, in decades of presence that predates any election calendar. Whatever criticism one wants to level at Adebutu, nobody can seriously accuse him of needing to be introduced to Ogun.

The deepest problem here is not Yayi’s Lagos years. Every politician has a past. The problem is what those years suggest about whose interests will actually be protected when the difficult decisions of governance arrive: contract awards, appointments, budget priorities. Will the people who receive the biggest slices of an Adeola administration be the Ogun politicians who spent decades building this project from nothing, or will they be the newer, wealthier faces from outside who arrived only once victory started to look likely?

Yayi still has the chance to answer this properly, not with denials but with names, with structure, with a visible commitment to the politicians who made his rise in Ogun West possible in the first place. Until he does, Ogun State would be gambling with its own government to hand him power on trust alone. Every governor has the right to choose the people around him. But when the people closest to him increasingly look like they belong to another state entirely, Ogun voters are not being paranoid by asking who, exactly, they would actually be electing.

HacheNoire:
The APC needs to be destroyed in Ogun, it is for the good of the people.

The APC has become a threat to Ogun state. Not just an ordinary threat but one with terrorism instinct.

Ogun state people themselves are not ready to rescue themselves. They will always vote for the worst candidate. I have never seen a set of people like that in all my years on Earth.

Tell Ogun people to vote for either Okonjo-Iweala or portable olalomi, and I can assure you that, they will vote for portable

In that part of the world, incompetence seems to be competence.

3 decades and the state cannot still boast of 1 Governor. They keep electing wall clocks and door knobs.

shox:
actually Apc as a party needs to be destroyed all over the world it is not good for humanity and mynd44 can agree with that

Imagine for close to 12 years, Nigerians keep voting lifeless people and a man with ghost academic records

HacheNoire:
Our great party is not perfect but it is still the best thing that happened to our great nation!

Not even under His Excellency, President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR), we have made great progress and too giant leaps.

Yes, we had big flaws in Lagos and Ogun and that is welcomed. We never claimed to be perfect! We have more performing governors than incompetent ones.

It’s only the over-dedicated followers of the party that are voting incompetence.

I am a disciple of His Excellency, President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) but that does not make me celebrate glaring incompetence.

datola:
While this writer writes brilliantly, the content is not intelligent. And Ogun indigne based in Lagos should not be an issue to become Ogun governor.

Most Lagos state policy makers are mostly from Ogun state!

Mark it: Yati will win Ogun puberty election hands down!

datola:
While this writer writes brilliantly, the content is not intelligent. And Ogun indigne based in Lagos should not be an issue to become Ogun governor.

Most Lagos state policy makers are mostly from Ogun state!

Mark it: Yati will win Ogun puberty election hands down!

HacheNoire:
The APC needs to be destroyed in Ogun, it is for the good of the people.

The APC has become a threat to Ogun state. Not just an ordinary threat but one with terrorism instinct.

Ogun state people themselves are not ready to rescue themselves. They will always vote for the worst candidate. I have never seen a set of people like that in all my years on Earth.

Tell Ogun people to vote for either Okonjo-Iweala or portable olalomi, and I can assure you that, they will vote for portable

In that part of the world, incompetence seems to be competence.

3 decades and the state cannot still boast of 1 Governor. They keep electing wall clocks and door knobs.

humberjade:
So tell me...

What makes Adebutu a better choice to Yayi? And please back it up with fact.

It is myopic to judge every individual in a political party through the same lens simply because they belong to the same party. Politicians are individuals, and their records, character and competence should be judged on their own merits.

Unfortunately, Nigerian politicians have mastered the art of exploiting our attachment to party labels. The moment public sentiment turns against one party, many simply jump ship to whichever party appears more popular, carrying the same baggage with them—and somehow, Nigerians are expected to see them as new and improved.

Same politician. Same record. New party. Suddenly, a saint. That is exactly how they keep taking us for a ride.

HacheNoire:
Adebutu? 🤣😂😂

Ogun state is land of the insane! Check since 1999. They always have to choose among the worst!

That state has mad elites which I blame. I mean mad educated, sound, enlightened and diverse intellects, who have abandoned politics for riff raffs.

Ogun state! They have never had a brain contest for governorship in last 4 decades. It’s always the worst.

Seems the elites know even if they should try, ogun state people are programmed and destined to vote for the worst

humberjade:
Obviously, you don't know what you are talking about.

Amosun, OGD and Osoba are sophisticated people—seasoned technocrats who had established careers and proven themselves professionally before venturing into politics. As for Dapo, I am not sufficiently informed about his career and background before he started running for office.

The fact that they were all politicians or even had their shortcomings in governance does not make them riff-raffs. Those are two entirely different things.

In fact, if Adebutu ever becomes governor, he would, in my opinion, be the least qualified person to have occupied that office in Ogun State's history.

humberjade:
I’d rather hand over the keys to someone with a proven record than someone riding on Daddy’s gambling surname. Show us the achievements—private or public—because a surname is not a résumé. The irony is rich: asking us to bet on a gambling family while Daddy waits in the wings as the de facto governor.

And please, stop making a haystack out of nothing—where a man celebrates his birthday is his choice, not a constitutional duty. None of that erases the fact that he remains the best Senator this state has produced in recent times.
Still waiting to be proved wrong. 😏

So, enough with the propaganda and playground name-calling. Tell your man to find his voice, build a record, and earn the keys. Until then, he can wait for the turn of Ogun East again.

As if all your previous governors weren’t Lagos-based before returning home to pursue politics. The hypocrisy is almost impressive. Apparently, it’s only a problem when it suits the narrative.


Iperu cannot replace Iperu.

Afobaba33:
As a bona fide son of the soil, with my PVC intact

Am voting YAYi for state election

And OBI for President

HacheNoire:
Of those people did great works, where is it?

Ogun state is an eyesore. Length and breadth!

What did those past administration do?

Those list you mentioned were just opportunist. Let them talk and you will know how empty they are!

What do they do!

Length and breadth of Ogun state is an eyesore

humberjade:
They might be everything you mentioned, but they are not riff-raffs. That's my point

bunmioguns:
I don't see any governorship candidate defeating Yayi in Ogun State... The popularity the man has gathered is second to none

Kingpele:
If he can import capacity from lagos nothing is wrong with it...afterall a certain drug lord came all the way from osun state and created lagos state from the ocean

bestofnollywood:
https://www.countrytimesng.com/ogun-is-not-yayis-to-give-away-by-seun-faleye/

HacheNoire:
Apologies my language and glad you know where I am driving at.

That state has close proximity to Lagos. It should be greatest state after Lagos but just ddrive length and breadth of date and you will be disappointed.

I went to a place 2 years ago called Ipokia. Not sure if o got the spelling right. I almost cried

If I took a picture there, Nairalanders won’t believe I am in the west.

humberjade:
You got the spelling right. That’s why I believe that district needs to produce the next Governor. They’ve been neglected for far too long. Even the so-called business hub at Ado-Odo/Ota is an eyesore.

HacheNoire:
You are a true gem for conforming my stance!

It’s rare to find people like you on this forum!

humberjade:
Well, bad is bad. When you place Ogun’s gigantic IGR side by side with the disgraceful state of its roads, you can’t help but ask the uncomfortable question: where exactly is all the money going?

For years, successive governments have presided over the neglect and decay of the state’s road infrastructure, and the result is there for everyone to see. A government that is genuinely serious about development would have to do far more than make promises and patch a few roads here and there. It would need to work relentlessly to reverse years of infrastructural failure and restore Ogun to the level its revenue should have made possible.

A state that generates this much revenue has no business looking this badly maintained.