Work has started on the YAYI For OGUN 2023 Guber project. And this is authoritative. City People can reveal that YAYI’s loyalists have begun to regroup for the 2023 race, now that they feel the coast is clear.
Although, the race to 2023 governorship race appears a long distance away, politicians in Nigeria don’t usually wait till the last minute before their intention to contest for any post is made known. It was the way things turned out last year in Ogun State, especially in the APC that forced Senator Olamilekan Adeola, otherwise known as Yayi to suspend his ambition to contest Ogun Governorship and went back to Lagos.
Recall that the Yewa-born Lagos Senator was one of the popular gubernatorial aspirants in Ogun State who shook the state and was a palpable threat to the then Governor, Ibikunle Amosun. In reaction, Senator Ibikunle Amosun ensured that nearly everyone who was close to Yayi and had anything to do in Ogun State was dealt with one way or the other.
So, Senator Adeola had to put his ambition to contest Ogun State Governorship on hold till 2023 to contest the senatorial seat he was holding in Lagos for a second time. After all the chaos that went on for months in the APC, the National Working Committee announced Dapo Abiodun, the standard-bearer of the Apc in the next gubernatorial election in 2019. Dapo Abiodun, an oil magnate, is a close ally of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He was part of Tinubu’s camp that funded the Amosun election in Ogun State during the Acn’s days. Let’s tell you more.
Prior to 2019, primary election, Tinubu backed Yayi as the next APC standard-bearer in Ogun gubernatorial elections. This decision met stiff resistance from Governor Amosun’s camp in Ogun State.
While the struggle was on, it was said that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu had a plan for Yayi to either recontest in Lagos or go to Ogun in 2023 to clinch the gubernatorial ticket of the party. Yayi immediately chose to stay back in Lagos and backed Dapo Abiodun and called his camp in Ogun to work for the emergence of Dapo as the standard-bearer.
The incumbent Chairman of Apc, Adams Oshiomole, also belongs to the Tinubu camp of Acn in Apc caucus. Oshiomole was pivotal in ensuring the Ogun State chapter of Apc went through a direct primary against Gov. Amosun’s call for Consensus candidate and option of indirect primary.
Yayi was Tinubu’s object of distraction in the race for the Ogun standard-bearer, while Amosun was working hard to fight against the emergence of Yayi and to ensure his anointed candidate emerge as the standard-bearer through Consensus,. Dapo Abiodun’s camp quickly closed their ranks and teamed up with the Nwc led by Oshomole to insist on Direct Primary.
After the direct primary was conducted Gov Amosun’s anointed candidate lost out to Dapo Abiodun, in a way nobody saw coming. Immediately after the primary, the Nwc led by Oshiomole listed Dapo Abiodun as the party’s standard-bearer for Ogun State gubernatorial elections 2019.
Senator Yayi immediately congratulated Dapo Abiodun. He knew if Yewa could not assume office for the first time as the Governor of Ogun State in 2019, nothing will stop his ambition come 2023, no matter what. Although his followers are still with Dapo Abiodun, The political family he left behind are still, however, loyal to him any day. It could be said that Yayi greatly helped Dapo Abiodun win the 2019 gubernatorial election. His followers were not only in Yewa Awori alone, but spread across the state in huge numbers.
No doubt, he is still very influential in the state and has his ears to the ground on daily bases. This explains why he had top members of his campaign team on Dapo Abiodun’s list of appointees a few weeks after assuming office.
The political loyalists and strategists of the former Ogun Governorship aspirant and the incumbent Senator representing Lagos-West, Senatorial District, Senator Solomon Adeola, were appointed into mainstream positions of the new administration in Ogun State.
Political analysts regard this as a boost to the governorship ambition of their boss (Solomon Adeola) in 2023.
Governor Dapo Abiodun released the list of 7 senior aides, a few weeks after his swearing-in. They are Senior Special Adviser on Political Affairs – Hon, Tunji Egbetokun; Special Adviser, Government House – Hon. Babatunde Olaotan; Special Adviser on Housing – Jamiu Akande Omoniyi; and Senior Special Assistant on New Media – Emmanuel Ojo. The new Special Adviser on Housing is 50-year-old Jamiu Akande Omoniyi. HBO as famously called was the Personal Assistant on Political Matters to Senator Olamilekan Solomon Adeola (Yayi) in August 2015.
Emmanuel Adediran Ojo is a New Media expert who specialises in New Media Analysis and Digital Marketing.
Emmanuel Ojo was one of the social media aides of Solomon Adeola – Yayi, until the arrival of Dapo Abiodun in Ogun political race.
The Senior Special Adviser on Political Affairs, Hon. Tunji Egbetokun, was Speaker, Ogun State House of Assembly between 2008 and 2011. He had also served in the capacity of Senior Special Adviser, Political and Intergovernmental Affairs between 2011 and 2014. Egbetokun was the major factor that frustrated then ex-Governor Gbenga Daniel’s administration through Ogun State House of Assembly G-factions. Until the arrival of Dapo Abiodun into Ogun State political scene, he was a major political compass to Solomon Adeola – Yayi in his then governorship bid. Egbetokun is a political factor, even though controversial and he is a loyal subject of Sen. Solomon Adeola.
The list of the 18 nominated commissioners has more than half of the members from Yayi Group. Apart from the fact that they are from Yewa, they are mostly Yayi’s loyalists. Inside source revealed that the Lagos Senator is already gearing up for Ogun 2023 gubernatorial race, as he has not lost touch with his followers.
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