Ogun Punch Consensus Gubernatorial Candidate and the Politics of Convenient Denial-by Segun Omoboriola

Only a week after The Punch Newspaper reported Senator Solomon Adeola Yayi as the emerging consensus gubernatorial figure within critical APC circles in Ogun State, the same politician has now turned around to deny the very ambition his political machinery has been advertising across the state. That contradiction is the entry point to this entire drama: a man widely projected as the centre of a consensus suddenly claiming he has not even joined the race.

When Solomon Adeola issued his statement today appealing to supporters about campaign billboards, he asked Ogun State residents to believe something extraordinary. He wants us to accept that the massive campaign infrastructure bearing his name and governorship ambitions across the state exists without his knowledge or consent. More remarkably, he insists he has “yet to declare” his intention to run for governor in 2027.

The statement would be amusing if it weren’t such a brazen insult to public intelligence.

Senator Yayi’s billboards have become fixtures of Ogun State’s landscape. They don’t whisper suggestions or hint at possibilities. They proclaim a gubernatorial candidate. Yet now, with his ambition crumbling under party resistance and public scrutiny, the Distinguished Senator claims ignorance of these materials and invokes the language of due process and party tradition. This from a man who launched his governorship bid on the first day of Governor Dapo Abiodun’s second term, who has operated as a shadow governor with nothing but contempt for political protocol.

The performance is familiar because we’ve seen it before. Senator Yayi has perfected the art of the grand entrance followed by the hasty exit. In 2015, facing resistance from the Ibikunle Amosun government, he abandoned Ogun State and scurried back to Lagos. In 2019, after promising alliances with Isiaka in the ADC, he again retreated to Lagos to secure his Senate seat representing Ogun West. The pattern is consistent: arrive with fanfare, spend lavishly, create chaos, then flee when resistance emerges.

What makes this iteration different is the scale of resources wasted and the depth of the deception. For months, Senator Yayi has conducted himself as Ogun State’s governor-in-waiting. He has used financial muscle to create an illusion of inevitability, overshadowing the sitting governor who accommodated his return to the state. His people have organized rallies, distributed materials, and built a campaign machine that runs on the assumption of his candidacy. All of this has happened with his knowledge, approval, and funding.

Now he claims surprise that billboards exist. He appeals to supporters to exercise caution because the party hasn’t released a timetable. The same senator who showed zero respect for timing when he launched his ambition before Governor Abiodun’s chair was warm suddenly discovers the virtue of patience.

The timing of this statement reveals everything. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent visit to commission the Gateway International Airport exposed the hollowness of Senator Yayi’s supposed dominance in Ogun politics. While Yayi expected to shine, it was Isiaka who demonstrated genuine connection with the party and the people. The senator’s foot soldiers, usually omnipresent, were conspicuously absent. The man who has spent hundreds of millions creating an aura of political invincibility stood diminished at a major party event in his supposed stronghold.

That humiliation, combined with warnings from party leadership and the loss of even his Senate ticket, has produced this carefully worded retreat. The senator who never met a microphone or billboard he didn’t want to dominate now counsels restraint and procedural correctness.

ADVERTISEMENT

His claim of 35 years as a progressive deserves particular scrutiny. When exactly did progressivism as a political movement begin in Nigeria that Senator Yayi can claim such lengthy membership? The casual inflation of credentials, the rewriting of personal history, the expectation that no one will question these assertions, all speak to a politician who believes he operates beyond accountability.

True progressives respect party structures. They don’t attempt to use money to bulldoze over established hierarchies. They don’t launch gubernatorial campaigns while a governor is still settling into office. They don’t operate parallel power centers that undermine sitting executives. Senator Yayi’s behavior has been that of a political carpetbagger whose loyalty extends only as far as personal ambition serves.

Consider the human cost of this political theatre. Young people were mobilized. Groups were organized. Supporters invested time, energy, and resources into what they believed was a serious political project. Millions of naira have disappeared into billboards and campaign materials that the candidate now disowns. These same supporters are now being asked to stand down, to pretend the campaign they participated in never happened, to accept that the candidate who inspired their efforts has “yet to declare.”

The statement speaks of “tested brand of grassroots politics grounded in due process and rules.” But where was this respect for process when Senator Yayi was flooding Ogun State with campaign materials before any official timetable? Where was this deference to rules when he was acting as de facto governor, using money to create the impression that the 2027 election was already decided? Where was this concern for tradition when he was constantly overplaying his hand in ways that forced party leadership to issue warnings?

Due process is not a garment you wear when convenient and discard when ambition calls. It’s not something you invoke only after your plans have collapsed. Senator Yayi has shown nothing but contempt for process throughout this misadventure. His sudden conversion to procedural propriety convinces no one.

The people of Ogun State deserve politicians who respect them enough to be honest. They deserve leaders who say what they mean and stand by their commitments. They deserve better than transparent fiction masquerading as political strategy.

Senator Solomon Adeola Yayi has declared his gubernatorial ambition in every meaningful way. His billboards declared it. His spending declared it. His behavior declared it. His overshadowing of the sitting governor declared it. His foot soldiers declared it on his behalf. The only thing missing is the formal acknowledgment, and that absence is now being weaponized into a denial of reality itself.

But reality persists despite attempts to rewrite it. The billboards existed. The campaign happened. The money was spent. The ambition was clear. And when that ambition met resistance, when the brick walls appeared, when the party pushed back, when the President’s visit revealed the emperor’s nakedness, Senator Yayi did what he always does.

He ran.

The pattern holds. When Yayi meets serious resistance, he retreats to Lagos, leaving supporters stranded and resources wasted. His political biography is written in abandoned ambitions and broken promises. 2027 is simply the latest chapter in a familiar story.

His supporters should study this pattern carefully. They should remember that the senator who claims not to have declared his ambition has been running for governor since the day Governor Abiodun took his oath of office. They should recognize that the billboards being disowned today were paid for with full knowledge and intent. They should understand that political courage is not measured by how loudly you proclaim ambition when the path seems clear, but by whether you stand firm when obstacles appear.

On that measure, Senator Yayi’s record speaks clearly. He has never stood firm. He has always run.

The billboards may come down. The campaign materials may be removed. The senator may continue his performance of surprise and procedural correctness. But the truth remains visible to anyone willing to see it. Senator Solomon Adeola Yayi ran a full-scale gubernatorial campaign in Ogun State, spent lavishly to create an impression of inevitability, and is now executing a familiar retreat while claiming he never declared his intention.

Ogun State has seen this show before. The only question is whether the senator’s supporters will finally recognize the pattern, or whether they’ll allow themselves to be mobilized again for the next grand entrance and inevitable exit.

The billboards told the truth. The senator’s statement does not. In the end, that’s all anyone needs to know.

Segun Omoboriola writes from Ogbere, Ogun State