Lagos/Ogun politics: Will Lagos be magnanimous to Yayi Again?

Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known and fondly called Yayi, is the Senator representing Lagos West District at the upper chamber of the National Assembly. Adeola is currently on his first four years at the red chamber.

He had at various times served as member, Lagos State House of Assembly where he represented Alimosho constituency 01 for two consecutive terms before he moved to the House of Representatives in 2011 where he also served the Alimosho Federal Constituency between 2011 and 2015.

Yayi, prior to the 2015 general election had expressed his interest in the politics of his home state where he intended to represent Ogun West Senatorial District at the 2015 general elections.

With this in mind, Yayi stormed Yewa land in full political force making himself loudly visible through very big billboards, different sizes of posters, flyers and other campaign materials in readiness for his participation in the party primaries and the real election in the state.

However, findings revealed that Yayi did not enjoy the support of his people back home and as a typical Nigeria politician that he is and not ready to take a break and deny himself the peck of office like every politician in this part of the world,

Yayi ran back to base and warmed himself back to the leaderships of the party in Lagos and became the “wonder boy” and became the “boy is good” in the judgment of the party leaders who rallied support for him over other aspirants who had engaged in a rigorous mobilisation and support for the party while Yayi was away in the Gateway State to test his popularity among his Yewa people.

After the Accountant turned politician suffered rejection among his Yewa people he therefore, rushed back to base to fight for the Lagos West Senatorial ticket of the All Progressive Congress (APC) which he won and also went ahead to win the general election, thus becoming the Senator representing the Senatorial district after the 2015 general election.

Among those who contested but lost the Senatorial ticket to Yayi at the 2015 primaries election was a son of the soil and former Minister of State, Agriculture, Ademola Seriki who had earlier enjoyed the support of the leaders of the party in the Senatorial district but was later dumped for the “good boy” on his return from his root.

As the race to 2019 begins, Senator Adeola again expressed interest in political office in his home state of Ogun, this time, the governorship seat and had earnestly started mobilising both human and financial resources to the state towards the realisation of his ambition.

“support Yayi for Governor 2019” posters and billboards had again flooded the Gateway State early in the year while the robust legislator had continued to consult and engaging the stakeholders in the local politics of the state as well as generously mobilising his field soldiers towards consolidating his chances of clinching the party ticket for the gubernatorial election in the state.

As the Lagos West Senator forges ahead on his campaign programmes towards the realisation of his ambition, the ruling structure and caucus in the state appears not to favour his ambition and not ready to accommodate any “foreign aspirant.”

Yayi, like every Nigeria politician who will not wish to take a break from public office irrespective of their performance in office and not willing to be off the game again quickly retraced his steps to Lagos to fight for a return ticket to the Senate.

Meanwhile, APC faithful at the Lagos West Senatorial district where the Senator currently represents have accused him of marginalisation, claiming the Senator has continued to short change them by diverting over 60 percent of the constituency budget meant for the Lagos West to Ogun West to oil his governorship ambition in the state even though the Senator representing the area also gets constituency budget for the same area.

A petition against Yayi on this, opposing his continuous representation of Lagos West was forwarded to the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the State executive of the party and other leaders of the party in the state.

Even though Yayi has twice shown interest in the politics of his home state and twice he was rejected, this notwithstanding, he has continued to blast the trail in the politics of Alimosho and Lagos West where he remains the poster boy at every election held in the area.

However, at the just concluded National Assembly primaries election of the APC in Lagos, Yayi whose the Gateway State governorship ambition was rejected by the people and political structures in the state ran back to Lagos, contested and defeated every other aspirants in the senatorial race for the Lagos West ticket.

Ironically, Yayi, at the primary election defeated an Awori, Lagos rooted aspirant and former commissioner for Transportation in the State, Comrade Kayode Opeifa and a female aspirant, Aareagbo Elegbede while another “son of the soil,”

a former Local government council boss, Commissioner, Senator, Minister and Nigeria Ambassador to Ghana, Musiliu Obanikoro was said to have withdrew from the race to pave way for Yayi’s emergence as the party candidate.

Twice he was rejected in Ogun, his home state and twice he retraced his steps to Lagos to shine on the APC platform. With the belief and saying among the Lagos indigenes that Lagos affairs has been left in the hands of non indigenes for too long and they obviously cannot offer 100 percent allegiance because they have nothing at stake,

the big question now is, will the people of Lagos and Lagos West in particular again demonstrate magnanimity to this robust and tactical politician at the general election in 2019?