The primary elections of the two leading political parties in Ogun State have come and gone, leaving behind a political landscape charged with anticipation, calculation and consequence. On the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, Ladi Adebutu, the familiar and perennial contender, has once again emerged, although the lingering factional disagreements within his party – and the question of whether his candidacy will ultimately receive the full imprimatur of INEC – remain matters of speculation.
On the platform of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, has secured the ticket. Naturally, all eyes are now on him.
But this moment must not be reduced to personalities, slogans or partisan triumphalism. It is bigger than ambition. It is about the destiny of Ogun State. It is about whether the developmental compass already set under Governor Dapo Abiodun’s ISEYA agenda – Infrastructure, Social Welfare, Education, Youth Empowerment and Agriculture – can be refined, expanded and elevated into a durable roadmap for inclusive prosperity.
It is about whether governance in Ogun will continue as a relay race, where one administration hands the baton to another in good faith, or whether the state will once again be dragged into the familiar Nigerian tragedy of policy summersaults, abandoned projects and wasted public investments.
