Senator Olamilekan Adeola Yayi: The Man, The Record, And The Mandate That Opponents Cannot Stop
WHY OGUN MUST JUDGE YAYI BY PERFORMANCE, NOT BY SPONSORED SMEAR
By
Ola Jones
In every election season, when a candidate’s record becomes too towering to attack, opponents resort to the oldest trick in Nigerian politics: smear, distract and discredit. That is the story of Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, the All Progressives Congress consensus candidate for the 2027 Ogun State governorship election.
As the February 6, 2027 polls approach, the attempt to shrink a 24-year legislative giant into a debate about origin and name change has failed woefully before the people. Ogun State will vote for capacity, not calumny.
ANTECEDENTS: A RARE LEGISLATIVE ASCENT
Senator Adeola’s political career is not an accident; it is a masterclass in consistent delivery and electoral trust.
He rose from the Lagos State House of Assembly (2003-2011) where as Chairman, House Committee on Finance, he authored the historic law that transformed the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) into an autonomous institution — catapulting Lagos IGR from N5 billion monthly to over N20 billion, now over N75 billion. He chaired Public Accounts in the House of Representatives (2011-2015), became Chairman, Senate Committee on Local Content, Senate Committee on Finance, and now holds arguably the most strategic seat in the National Assembly — Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations, overseeing the nation’s budget including the N68.3 trillion 2026 Appropriation Bill.
A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (FCA) and Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), Yayi is a six-time consecutive election winner across three different constituencies — a record no opponent in Ogun can match.
CONTRIBUTION AT NATIONAL AND STATE LEVEL: FROM RHETORIC TO REALITY
Since 2023 when he returned home to represent Ogun West, Yayi has redefined representation.
His footprints are visible, tangible and deeply felt across Yewa-Awori land and beyond:
Infrastructure: Over 300 projects in two years alone — including 115 road projects (including the over 100km Ilara/Ijoun/Oja Odan/Ifonyintedo/Ilashe road, Ilogbo, Maltina, High Court roads), 30 school buildings, 32 Primary Healthcare Centres, 25 modern markets, 13 town halls, 10 ICT centres, 2 Intensive Care Units, 2 libraries, 8 police stations.
Electrification & Social Amenities: Over 200 transformers, 250 solar street lights, 26,000 electric poles, and personal commitment to restore power to 100 communities in perennial blackout.
Human Capital & Socio-Economic Development: Over 50,000 constituents empowered with skills, tools and cash grants; 15,000 market men and women with N25,000-N50,000 grants; 2,557 farmers in his second agricultural edition alone empowered with 10 tractors, 250 haulage tricycles, 1,500 sprayers, 8,000 bags of fertilizer, water pumps, and N100,000 cash each. Over 4,500 tertiary students with N100,000-N200,000 scholarships and bursaries.
At the national level, his fiscal reforms enabled Lagos to access international development funds, and his Appropriations leadership has secured funding for FUNAAB, Federal College of Education Osiele, and multi-billion Naira TETFund projects that led to the historic conversion of TASUED to a Federal University.
THE SMEAR CAMPAIGN: A WEAPON OF THE WEAK
Aware that they cannot match this record, opponents have manufactured a cocktail of allegations — that he is from Ekiti, that his name change is fraudulent, that his transformer interventions amount to misuse of government assets.
All have collapsed.
Yayi himself has dismissed the Ekiti origin claim as the work of “jesters.” — _”My late father was from Ogun State, my mother is from Ogun State. I am from Ogun State. Those who claim I am from Ekiti are jesters. My father was not buried in Ekiti; my father was buried in the house he built at Ogunsola Street at Alaguntan in Alimosho”_.
What is more telling is that even litigants who filed suits against him are withdrawing. Former CBN Deputy Governor Tunde Lemo withdrew his ambition to support Yayi. The NNPP candidate Akinbola Hammed Rotham withdrew suit No. FHC/AB/CS/135/2026 challenging his indigeneship, stating he did so to prioritize the Ogun West agenda. Plaintiffs from ADC, BOOT, LP, YPP and ADP voluntarily discontinued four separate pre-election lawsuits. If the cases had merit, why the mass withdrawal?
These allegations are not investigations; they are orchestrated attempts to discredit a man whose emergence as APC consensus candidate with 304,055 votes has made other aspirants partyless.
HIS CHANCES VS OPPONENTS: A NEAR POLL VICTORY IN SIGHT
The 2027 field as per INEC final list released October 10, shows 13 candidates, but without real structure.
– PDP’s Ladi Adebutu — his strongest rival in 2023 — has been excluded from INEC’s final list alongside his running mate, effectively barring PDP from the contest.
– Other parties — ADC’s Lawal Jimi Adebisi (included only by court order), AA, ADP, APM, BP, NDP, NNPP, SDP, YPP — have no statewide structure, no financial war chest, and no federal alignment.
In contrast, Yayi enters the race with:
- The Incumbency Alliance: Governor Dapo Abiodun as Campaign Chairman, Yayi as Co-Chairman, with former Governors Olusegun Osoba as Grand Patron, Gbenga Daniel and Ibikunle Amosun as Deputy Grand Patrons — a united APC front never seen before.
- The Ogun West Equity Factor: For 50 years since 1976, Ogun West has never produced a governor. Yayi’s candidacy is now a movement for justice.
- Federal Might: As Appropriations Chairman and close ally of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who mentored him from Lagos days, he guarantees Ogun direct access to federal projects, a point even his opponents concede.
That is why at the APC Interfaith Prayer at Ake Palace, Yayi could boldly declare: _”There will be nobody, because they are all partyless… God is going to give us victory without a fight”_.
JUDGMENT:
Ogun State does not need a learner. It needs a man who understands budgeting, who knows how to grow IGR as he did in Lagos, who has delivered roads, transformers, schools and jobs without being governor, and who carries the historic mandate of Ogun West.
The smear will not stick. The record will speak. On February 6, 2027, the near poll victory will become a landslide victory.
Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola Yayi is not just contesting — he is coming to complete a 24-year preparation for service.
