The ‘Atohunrinwa’ Myth Explodes: How Patriarch’s Funeral Laid Yayi’s Detractors To Rest
By
Segun Olatunji
For years and lately, a desperate syndicate of panic-stricken political infants and self-appointed DNA registrars in Ogun State have peddled a tired, xenophobic fairy tale: that Senator Solomon Adeola Olamilekan is a “Lagos-Ekiti stranger” with no traceable roots in Yewaland. Unable to match Yayi’s colossal grassroots machinery, his staggering legislative scorecard or his ironclad grip on the 2027 APC gubernatorial ticket, these trembling detractors retreated into the gutter of identity politics, begging for residential permits instead of engaging in a contest of ideas.
But on Saturday, September 12, 2026, that lazy, fraudulent “non-indigene” narrative was dragged to the cemetery and officially buried six feet deep. As the entire political and traditional elite of the Gateway State besieged Pahayi, Ilaro, to lay the Ogundimu/Ogunleye family patriarch, Pa Michael Adelani Ogundimu, to his final rest, the opposition’s favourite weapon of mass distraction was completely annihilated— leaving a pack of terrified gatekeepers frantically scrambling to audit a grave that just proved their worst nightmare: Yayi is home, he is a son of the soil, and he is absolutely unstoppable.
Let us be completely unsparing here: the favourite pastime of these local political orphans has been playing amateur genealogists. They have weaponised the fact that Yayi achieved historic legislative feats in Lagos West as an excuse to try to exile him from his own ancestral home. “He cannot trace his lineage!” they yelled from their desolate campaign offices. “He is an imperialist invader from Lagos. No. Ekiti!” they scribbled in their poorly funded, tortuous script.
Well, I guess somebody needs to check the blood pressure of these armchair historians after last Saturday’s earth-shaking events in Ilaro. Did Yayi rent an 86-year-old family head from an old people’s home in Lagos just to satisfy their insecurities? Did he manufacture the huge crowd at the United African Methodist Church in Pahayi, or did he hire Nollywood actors to pretend to be his grieving kinsmen? The sheer stupidity of the opposition’s propaganda collapsed under the weight of reality the moment Pa Ogundimu’s casket was lowered into the very Yewa soil Yayi’s detractors claimed he had no right to step on.
This lazy, xenophobic playbook isn’t even original. It is the default survival mechanism of political cowards in Ogun State who have realised they are about to be flattened at the polls. In the heyday of the now defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD), when elder statesman, Chief Olusegun Osoba, emerged the governorship candidate to beat, he was quickly labeled an “atohunrinwa” from Osogbo, Osun State. When former governor Gbenga Daniel was terrorising his opponents with superior strategy, they suddenly discovered he was allegedly from Delta State. When corporate titans step into the ring, the local political gatekeepers immediately demand an audit of their grandfathers’ backyards. It is a pathetic, cyclical comedy. Because they cannot point to a single hospital they have built, a single youth they have empowered, or a single mega-project they have attracted to Ogun West or any other part of the state, they resort to checking immigration papers.
But Saturday’s massive gathering in Pahayi, Ilaro wasn’t just a funeral; it was a ruthless coronation of truth. First-class personalities, high-profile representatives of Yewa and Awori Obas, community stakeholders, and thousands of ordinary Yewa citizens didn’t show up to mourn a stranger—they showed up to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their prominent son. Some of the prominent dignitaries at the event included the Minister of State for Health and Social Services, Dr. Kunle Salako; Senator Iyabo Anisulowo; former Speaker of Ogun State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Kunle Oluomo; former deputy speaker of Ogun State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Tola Banjo and Barrister Biyi Otegbeye (BOT), among others.
While Senator Adeola shed tears for the loss of his family’s patriarch, his political opponents were weeping for the sudden death of their only campaign talking point. The tears of the opposition are entirely understandable; it must be deeply traumatising to watch the foundation of your entire 2027 strategy get buried in Ilaro, the headquarters of Yewa South Local Government Area.
With the APC governorship ticket locked down, Yayi represents a historic, long-overdue breakthrough for Ogun West—a zone that has been criminally marginalised and denied the governorship seat since the state’s creation in 1976. Instead of rallying behind a candidate with the national clout, financial muscle and administrative grit to finally break this jinx, these self-sabotaging detractors wanted to reduce a monumental regional struggle into a petty debate over residential permits. They wanted to lock the gates of progress just to protect their own selfish, microscopic political fiefdoms.
Unfortunately for them, the good people of Ogun State are far too smart to feed on the crumbs of desperate tribalism. The streets of Ilaro have made it clear: they do not care about the malicious fabrications of panic-stricken failures. They recognise Yayi as the son who went to the big city, conquered its turbulent political terrain, accumulated immense leverage, and has now returned home to unleash unprecedented development on his fatherland.
So, to the WhatsApp panellists, the bitter commentators and the terrified opposition strategists still trying to audit Yayi’s family tree: the game is officially over. The receipts were signed, sealed, and delivered in Pahayi on Saturday. The “Lagos-Ekiti stranger” myth has been permanently interred alongside the late Patriarch’s remains. It is time to find a new hobby. We highly recommend you try coming up with actual policies, economic blueprints, or infrastructure plans for a change—though, given your spectacular lack of capacity, we fully understand why you may still prefer to stick to fiction, even when it’s no longer fashionable.
OLATUNJI, A JOURNALIST, POLITICAL/CRISIS COMMUNICATION STRATEGIST, WRITES FROM ILARO, OGUN STATE
