By Kayode Sanni
Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (aka Yayi) aims to try his hands in a position of higher responsibility for the general good of Ogun State but he is keeping everything under wrap. Characteristic of conventional power play, however, there have been swirling speculations about his governorship ambition for the sake of curiosity. Anyway, it’s an evolving wind of change. But as we all know, there is time for everything under the sun.
For strategic reasons, the lawmaker representing Ogun West Senatorial District has yet to declare his intention to vie for the exalted position. Before then, it is apt to explore the outstanding attributes that make him a delight to everyone and how he has knowingly or unknowingly assumed a household name in the state.
This has become necessary in our evolving democracy where the selection of candidates is increasingly becoming competitive. Unlike in the recent past when most people got their opportunities to serve on a platter of gold, prospective aspirants now have to cross the hurdle of public scrutiny to secure the electorate’s acceptance as a candidate in an election. With the increasing level of political awareness and grassroots participation, candidate selection is no longer an exclusive preserve of individual authority or party leaders alone. When a decision has to be made among competing party lists, stakeholders will certainly consider a large set of candidates’ attributes, including track record, position on issues of good governance, competence, personality traits, celebrity status, incumbency status, and prior experience, among others.
To a large degree, therefore, selecting a candidate among competing alternatives will normally involve considering the social characteristics of aspirants, their personalities, and the policy positions they represent. It is not enough for a candidate to be popular; he or she must combine popularity with political acceptability. Political acceptability defines the general attitudes of politicians within a range of societal values. A candidate is acceptable if his overall objective of seeking political power is to serve the good of the greatest number of people or if his attitude is approved by most people in a society. At any rate, a candidate’s popularity matters for electoral outcomes. In tight contests, popularity of a candidate can determine election outcomes, particularly as voters cast their ballots based on the chances of being able to swing votes. A candidate’s popularity enhances his ability to govern effectively, providing him with ‘political capital’ to enact his political agenda. Popularity can also help a candidate to bolster his leadership position vis-à-vis other party competitors.
More importantly, it engenders public participation. Participation in turn improves governance, including increased democratic legitimacy because of close links with citizens, increasing opportunities for active citizenship as well as greater accountability because of more effective information dissemination.
All of these combined are the major attributes that stand out Senator Adeola among his other prospective contenders. His popularity is increasingly becoming infectious across the three senatorial districts in the state, as his philanthropy and benevolence gestures know no religious, political, or dialectical boundaries.
With the dynamism of his youthful age, he is already serving us with what we need most in our march toward a smooth power transition in Ogun State. We need him to sustain the #Building Our Future Together’ mantra of the current administration.
Over the years, the popular hymn-“Omo Ogun, Ise Ya” has come to symbolise a call to action and a commitment to the growth, development, and progress of the Gateway State. It connotes the spirit of hard work, dedication, patriotism, pragmatism, unity, and collectivity towards the advancement of the state and the well-being of our people. It serves as a unifying force to drive the government and the people of Ogun State towards a common goal of prosperity and sustainable growth and infrastructural development.
Leveraging on his popularity and acceptability status, he will ensure greater social cohesion by bringing diverse and sometimes hostile political interests together, bringing ‘hard to reach’ and ‘disadvantaged’ groups into discussions, building relationships within and between different communities and social groups ‘bonding’ and ‘bridging’ social capital, strengthening and creating new networks that enable different interests to work together based on a better knowledge of each other, and increased equality of access to policy and decision-making processes.
With decades of experience in governance, he will improve quality of service; and initiate projects and programmes based on people’s expressed needs to engender a genuine sense of ownership. By so doing, he will reduce project maintenance costs by reducing vandalism and misuse of public infrastructures. As a grassroots person, he will do his utmost best to reduce conflict among different parties, thus increasing trust and confidence through better communications thereby enabling people to share in the responsibility for improving their quality of life.
With his track record, he will ensure policy inclusivity, transparency, openness, and genuine sincerity of purpose. An open and transparent process engenders broader participation, trust, and confidence in the people.
As evidence of his capacity for service delivery, within a short time of his election into the Senate, he has raised the bar of good representation in his Ogun West district, while also working hard to support the effort of Governor Dapo Abiodun towards the promotion of the general well-being of the people of Ogun State. Since its inception, the present administration has recorded tremendous successes in creating a conducive environment for industrial transformation through infrastructure, agriculture value-chain, youth empowerment, healthcare service delivery, sustainable economic growth, human capital development, ease-of-doing business as well as other complementary reforms initiatives that have turned the Gateway State into an investment destination of choice not only in Nigeria but the West Africa sub-region.
At this stage, the state cannot afford to elect into power someone who will put the developmental strides of the administration in reverse gear. We need continuity and sustenance of the good work of the present government. We need somebody with the right vision and mission who can effectively pilot the affairs of the state to take the baton after the successive completion of Governor Abiodun’s tenure in 2027.
Adeola’s track record of success in various capacities he had served either as a private sector player or a politician remains enviable. The trajectory of his political career as a lawmaker since the advent of the present political dispensation has been without blemish. As the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, he is currently one of the high flyers in the Senate and a major pillar of support for the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Brought up under the tutelage of President Tinubu, he has been adequately groomed through mentorship to take over the mantle of leadership. At different levels of his political career as a legislator, beginning from Alimosho constituency in Lagos to the Federal House of Representatives where he rose to the Senate, he has proved his mettle beyond a doubt.
To navigate through the hurdles of the selection process, it has become imperative for Governor Abiodun to make demonstrable character, resourcefulness, political clout, and the capacity to take the state to the next level of development the ultimate focus of his succession plan.
Coincidentally, Yayi is one of the outstanding achievers in Ogun West who have demonstrated capacity in all fields of human endeavours. He represents the face of the Yewa/Awori people whose rightful agitation to produce the next governor has been the highpoint of public discussion in the State because of their prolonged marginalization by successive governments. In our present circumstance, the only path to a peaceful transition process in 2027 is a power shift arrangement to the Ogun West Senatorial District. That is the only concession that can be seen to be just, fair, and equitable.
It is now auspicious to look into their complaint and apply the appropriate remedy. All that is required to right the wrong of the past is the fair, just and equitable sharing of power among different interest groups in the state in consonance with Section 14 (3) of the constitution which clearly states the need for zoning and power rotation to ensure national cohesion. The objective of the framers of the Constitution in advocating power sharing is to ensure that there is no dominance of a particular ethnic group or tribe over the other.
At the national and state levels, the power rotation convention is a necessary lubricant that oils the principles of fairness and justice. It is lawful and consistent with the Constitution to listen to the agitation of the Yewa/Awori (Ogun West) people to produce the next governor after the successful tenure of our performing Governor.
Without any iota of doubt, giving support to Senator Adeola as the most trusted and tested son of the Yewa/Awori community for the job will not only help to heal the wounds of the past but also go a long way to promote a genuine sense of belonging. Given the opportunity to serve at the executive level, he will build on the achievements of the present and past administrations and steer the economy of Ogun State toward a brighter future through innovative ideas, new policy initiatives, inclusive governance, and a sustainable developmental agenda.
This confidence derives from the commitment he has demonstrated through outstanding legislative performance, constituency projects, philanthropy, and countless numbers of benevolent gestures such as youth empowerment, job creation, and infrastructural development. Within and outside Ogun West Senatorial District, his imprints are present in virtually all sectors. His popularity, generosity, and general benevolent gestures remain matchless. Within one year of the attainment of his enviable position as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, he has facilitated many infrastructural projects across the length and breadth of Yewa/Aworiland within Ogun West Senatorial district and beyond. If allowed the opportunity to govern the state, he will leverage his closeness to the President to attract more federal presence in the state for the ultimate good of all and sundry.
Already, Adeola has a plethora of notable achievements that speak volume to his vision and genuine determination to transform the socio-economic landscape of Yewa/Awori people in particular and Ogun State in general.
His signature projects covering human capital development, healthcare service, and security are all over the place. As of the last count, he has over 78 life-impacting projects to his credit, while several others are in the pipeline. A fond supporter of President Tinubu, Yayi symbolizes the renewed hope agenda of the present administration not only in Ogun West but in Nigeria as a whole.
In his recent public statement at Ilaro, he pledged to use his position in the Senate as Chairman, Appropriation Committee, to make Ogun West a “Small London” by the end of his four-year tenure. This is not impossible, especially considering his immense capacity for lobbying. Lobbying is an essential part of the democratic process. Organisations, interest groups, representative bodies, industries, and NGOs all provide inputs and feedback through communication of their views and concerns to the government. His emergence as the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee is a testament to his legislative competence. Before then, he had served and proved his mettle as chairman in other important capacities such as the Committee on Finance as well as a member of the Appropriation, Local Content, Science and Technology, Banking, Insurance and Financial Institution, Health (Primary and Tertiary), Aviation and Inter-Parliamentary Affairs Committees, among others. In the current dispensation, he’s been making waves in the Senate where he is now shining like china wares.
Having attained the enviable height he has achieved in his legislative career, it is only natural for him to try his hands at a new endeavour that will afford him a higher responsibility of transforming the overall socioeconomic landscape of Ogun State. That is his main motivation for eyeing the Oke Mosan Government House in 2027 to continue the good work of Governor Abiodun.
Sanni writes from Obantoko, Abeokuta, Ogun State capital
