Yayi, Lado, and the Ogun Battle That Transcends APC and PDP

The most interesting question in the Ogun 2027 governorship race may not be who has the bigger rally.

It may be a much older question.

Who has the stronger claim to speak for Yewa?

That question has followed Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, for years.

It was there before he became the APC’s 2027 governorship candidate. It was there when he moved from Lagos politics to Ogun West. It was there when traditional rulers backed his emergence as Aremo of Yewaland.

And it is still there now, with Yayi facing a serious challenge from PDP candidate Ladi Adebutu.

The latest spark came from former ambassador Folake Marcus-Bello, who recently questioned Yayi’s Yewa ancestry and said she possesses documents to support her position.

Her comments have revived an argument that is much older than the latest television interview.

But the real story is not Marcus-Bello.

The real story is what the record says.

The paper trail goes back years

In 2017, years before Yayi became senator for Ogun West, descendants of Isaga communities publicly defended his Yewa identity.

The group said Yayi was a bona fide son of Yewa and traced his family to Ago-Isaga, Pahayi, in present-day Yewa South.

Their account placed his great-grandfather, Olege, in a migration from Isaga-Orile to Ago-Isaga, Pahayi, following the Dahomean invasion of Isaga-Orile in 1862.

That is not a new political argument created for the 2027 election. It was publicly presented in 2017, when Yayi was still a Lagos politician.

The significance is important.

The argument from Yayi’s supporters is not simply that he has spent time in Ogun.

They argue that his family history connects him to Yewa through ancestry.

That distinction matters because Ogun politics is not simply about where a politician lives.It is heavily shaped by questions of origin, district, traditional identity and the long-running demand that Ogun West should eventually produce a governor.

But Yayi’s political history makes the question more complicated

There is another part of the record that cannot be wished away. Yayi built the most significant part of his early political career in Lagos.

He represented Alimosho in the Lagos State House of Assembly before moving to the Federal House of Representatives.

He later became senator for Lagos West, a position he held from 2015 to 2023.

In 2023, he moved his senatorial ambition to Ogun West and won the seat. That political journey is now central to the argument made by his critics.

They ask a straightforward question: if Yayi’s political base was Lagos for so long, when did Ogun West become the centre of his political identity?

The answer from his supporters is equally straightforward.

Political representation and ancestry are not the same thing. A person can build a political career in Lagos and still trace his family to Ogun.

Indeed, Yayi’s supporters have repeatedly used his family genealogy to make precisely that argument. That is why the debate cannot be settled merely by pointing to his Lagos political career.

Then came the palace

Perhaps the strongest evidence offered by Yayi’s supporters did not come from a political party.

It came from Yewa traditional institutions.

In 2021, the Olu of Ilaro and Paramount Ruler of Yewaland, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, publicly backed Yayi’s identification with Yewaland during the controversy surrounding his proposed traditional title.

Yayi was subsequently announced for the title of Aremo of Yewaland. The decision itself generated opposition.

Some Ogun West stakeholders questioned the title and demanded greater scrutiny of his background.

But the Yewa traditional council proceeded with the recognition. By 2022, Yayi had been installed as Aremo of Yewaland.

That does not automatically settle every genealogical question.

Traditional recognition is not the same thing as a court judgment on ancestry. But it is also impossible to ignore.

A man whose Yewa identity was supposedly obvious to nobody would hardly have been given one of the most politically significant traditional honours in the area without resistance, debate and a public defence of the decision.

The controversy itself is therefore evidence of something important.

The question has never been as simple as “Yayi is Yewa” or “Yayi is not Yewa.”

There has always been a contest over what qualifies someone as Yewa.

And that is where Ladi Adebutu enters the picture

Adebutu’s emergence has changed the argument. He is not simply another opposition politician attacking Yayi.

He represents another political route to the same destination. The PDP candidate has his own political base, family history and established network in Ogun.

His supporters argue that Ogun East should produce the next governor and that the candidate must have an unquestionable connection to the area.

This is where Ogun’s 2027 debate needs more discipline.

Marcus-Bello has now challenged Yayi to produce evidence and says she has documents that contradict his Yewa claim.

Those are serious allegations.

But allegations remain allegations until the documents are produced, examined and independently verified.

At the same time, it would be equally careless to dismiss every question about Yayi’s origin as political mischief.

The questions have existed for years.

So have the counterclaims. There are public records from Isaga descendants supporting Yayi’s Yewa ancestry.

There are traditional rulers who have publicly recognised him as a son of Yewaland.

There are also political groups that have challenged that identity.

The responsible question is therefore not, “Who shouted louder?”It is:What does the evidence actually establish?

That is a much harder question. And it deserves a much better answer than campaign slogans.

Ogun 2027 is bigger than Yayi

There is another reason this argument matters.Yewa has never produced a governor of Ogun State.

The demand for power rotation has therefore become one of the strongest forces shaping the 2027 contest.

Recent political alignments have already exposed the fault lines.

Some Yewa traditional rulers and political actors have backed Yayi.

Other Ogun West groups have supported Adebutu.

The disagreement is no longer simply between APC and PDP. It is also between competing interpretations of Yewa’s political future.

That makes the election unusually important.

If Yewa’s long-standing argument is that it deserves its turn, then the question of who carries that aspiration becomes almost as important as the party platform.

But there is a danger here.

A people can demand their turn without surrendering their right to ask what the candidate will actually do with it.

Being Yewa or Awori should not become a substitute for competence.

Being Egba should not become a disqualification.

Being Ijebu or Remo should not become a political crime.

And having built a political career in Lagos should not, by itself, erase a person’s ancestral claim to Ogun.

So, who owns Yewa?

Perhaps that is the question Ogun politicians should stop asking. No politician owns Yewa. No party owns Yewa.

No traditional title owns Yewa.

And no campaign rally can rewrite family history.

What the 2027 election should determine is something more useful.

Who can convince Yewa voters that he understands their history, respects their expectations and can translate their long-awaited political opportunity into development?

That question puts Yayi and Adebutu on the same stage. It also puts both men under the same burden of proof.

Yayi must defend the historical claim that has followed him from Lagos into Ogun West.

Adebutu must explain why his own candidacy represents more than simply an opportunity to defeat APC.

And Yewa voters must decide whether ancestry alone is enough. Because after decades of waiting for the governorship, the people of Ogun West may eventually ask a much harder question: If the son of Yewa finally gets the seat, what will he do with it?

That may prove more important than where either candidate’s great-grandfather came from.

ValidViewNetwork reports that the Yayi ancestry dispute predates the latest political season by years, with public records showing both repeated challenges and repeated affirmations of his Yewa identity.

The 2027 contest will therefore not be decided by Marcus-Bello’s interview alone.

It will be shaped by the evidence, the political structures behind Yayi and Adebutu, the traditional institutions of Yewaland, and ultimately the voters who must decide which claim deserves their trust.