By Mikail Mumuni
As political activities gather momentum ahead of the 2027 governorship election in Ogun State, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, is keeping his attention firmly on the central objective of his campaign: presenting a development agenda to the people of the Gateway State.
Rather than allowing the emerging political contest to be defined entirely by personalities, permutations and partisan exchanges, Adeola has increasingly sought to place issues, policies and measurable development objectives at the centre of his public engagements.
While some actors prefer the sideshows of identity questions, primary disputes and personal barbs, Yayi has consistently redirected attention to what matters most: a clear, measurable plan for the Gateway State.
Adeola,as the All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate,has refused to be drawn into the distractions that typically consume election seasons. Allegations about his state of origin, rival claims to the party ticket, and attempts to frame the contest around pedigree rather than performance have met a steady response: the work continues. He has kept his eyes on the ball.
That ball is the ITESIWAJU agenda, the nine-pillar development framework he has presented to stakeholders across the state. The acronym captures Infrastructure; Tourism and Culture; Economic Empowerment; Security and Welfare; Inclusive Growth and Well-being; Women, Youth and Poverty Eradication; Agriculture and Food Security; Job Creation and Industrialisation; and Urbanisation and Transparency. It is not a slogan invented for the campaign trail.
Adeola has described it as the product of sustained consultation and a commitment to continuity, building on the foundations laid by successive administrations rather than starting from zero.
Recent public engagements have reinforced this posture.
During interactions with journalists at the Ogun State Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat in Abeokuta and meetings with inter-party stakeholders, Yayi outlined concrete targets: training 100,000 young people in digital skills, establishing Youth Enterprise Hubs, facilitating the creation of more than 500,000 jobs, expanding the state health insurance scheme, advancing local government financial autonomy in line with the Supreme Court ruling, and improving intra-state transport through bus mass transit and commuter rail links with Lagos.
These are the issues he insists should define the campaign.
The choice is deliberate. Ogun State sits at a pivotal moment. It is already a significant industrial and manufacturing hub. Its proximity to Lagos offers both opportunity and pressure. Internally generated revenue has grown substantially in recent years, yet challenges remain in collection efficiency, infrastructure gaps, youth unemployment, flooding in key corridors, and the need to make major projects such as the Gateway International Airport commercially viable.
A candidate who spends precious time litigating ancestry or responding to every provocation risks losing the plot. Yayiโs approach recognises that voters ultimately judge leaders by results, not by the volume of controversy generated around them.
His emergence itself reflected a preference for consensus and structure over prolonged internal warfare. The APC primary process produced a decisive outcome, and the party leadership has repeatedly reaffirmed his candidacy. Visits to key Ogun stakeholders, including three former governors โ Olusegun Osoba, Gbenga Daniel and Ibikunle Amosun โ as well as Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola and others in the aftermath of his emergence, were framed not as transactional begging but as consultations for guidance and consensus-building.
Engagements with traditional institutions and support groups across the three senatorial districts have followed the same pattern: listen, present the plan, and invite partnership.
Critics will always find something to amplify. Questions of roots have been raised before and answered by community leaders, traditional rulers, the candidate himself, his family members and record of service to Ogun West and the wider state.
A few primary challengers have tested the process and met the partyโs institutional response at both the state and national levels affirming and reaffirming him.
These episodes are not unusual in competitive politics. What is unusual is a leading candidate who treats them as secondary and refuses to let them redefine the conversation.
Yayiโs legislative experience, particularly his work as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, has given him a practical understanding of how federal resources and state priorities can be aligned. His empowerment programmes, scholarship interventions and constituency projects across Ogunโs districts are unprecedented and have given him a presence that predates the formal campaign.
These are the assets he is deploying, not as a substitute for a programme but as evidence that delivery is possible.
As the campaign gathers pace, the test for all contenders will be the same: can they articulate a credible path from the current baseline to a more productive, more inclusive and more resilient Ogun State? Yayi has chosen to answer that question with policy detail and institutional focus rather than with counter-attacks. In doing so, he is setting a standard that elevates the contest. He has challenged his rivals to do the same if they can.
Keeping eyes on the ball does not mean ignoring legitimate scrutiny. It means refusing to allow noise to drown out substance. For Ogun in 2027, that discipline will prove the most valuable political quality of all.
The people of the state deserve a conversation about jobs, infrastructure, agriculture, security and opportunity. Senator Adeola is giving them exactly that.
*Mikail Adegoke Mumuni is a member of the Media and Publicity Committee of the Ogun APC Campaign Council.
