By Segun Olatunji
There is a unique type of courage that belongs only to the stupendously rich. It is the kind of boldness that makes a man wake up, look in the mirror and decide to spend his mornings collecting polite rejections from royal fathers. Hon. Ladi Adebutu, the perpetual governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State, seems to have mastered this art. His latest masterclass in political tourism took place on Tuesday morning, August 18, 2026. The venue was the palace of the Olota of Ota and Chairman of Awori Obas, Oba (Prof.) Obalanlege. The mission was simple: ask the Awori Obas for their blessings for the 2027 governorship race. But the result was beautifully predictable.
To truly appreciate the comedy of errors that is Adebutu’s 2027 campaign trail, one must look at the map of Ogun State through the lens of political irony. For months, the PDP flagbearer has embarked on what can only be described as the “Great Ogun Farewell Tour.” It is a tour where he visits various royal palaces, presents his ambitions, and is gently but firmly told to pack his bags and go home because the seat is already reserved for someone else. Specifically, the number one seat it is reserved for Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly called “Yayi,” the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
There’s no doubt that the Ogun State political landscape has officially transformed into a high-stakes comedy of errors. The stark contrast between the two frontline governorship contenders for 2027 shows that one man’s royal nightmare is another man’s palace party. While Adebutu, the PDP candidate is busy collecting polite rejections in Ogun West, the APC consensus flagbearer, Senator Adeola Yayi, is being showered with royal blessings in Ogun East. The contrast between the campaign stops of both governorship candidates reads like a tale of two completely different political universes.
*The Ota Tea Party: Blessings, But Not for You*
Imagine the scene at the palace of the Olota of Ota. The air is thick with majesty. Revered monarchs seated on their exalted seats, adorned in heavy beads and majestic caps. Enter Chief Ladi Adebutu and his entourage, smiling with the confidence of a man who believes that royal doors can be unlocked by sheer persistence. They came to seek support. Hoping for an endorsement, they came to ask the Awori people to forget the last 50 years of Ogun State history and look at the umbrella of the PDP.
But the response from the monarchs was nothing short of a masterclass in royal sarcasm. Oba Prof. Adeyemi AbdulKabir Obalanlege, the Olota of Ota, did not use stones to chase the PDP candidate away. Instead, he used something far more lethal: an admixture of both Yoruba and English languages, and a history lesson.
Oba Obalanlege welcomed Adebutu with the type of warmth usually reserved for a distant relative who shows up uninvited to a family dinner. Then came the heavy blow delivered with a royal smile. The Olota reminded the gathered crowd that Ogun West, which includes the Awori and Yewa subnationalities, has suffered “indescribable marginalisation” for exactly half a century. For 50 years, since the creation of Ogun State, the West has been looked down upon, treated like the backyard of the state’s political mansion.
The Awori Obas, including the Oloja Ẹkun Igbesa, the Onilogbo of Ilogbo Asowo, and the Alagbara of Agbara, sat in agreement. They had a simple message for Adebutu: it would be highly irresponsible for them to support an outsider when their own son is standing right there. They have already found their champion. His name is Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola Yayi. He is a son of the soil. He is competent. He is credible. And most importantly, he is actually from the zone that deserves the seat.
In a final move of supreme political irony, the Olota invoked the academic concept of “consociational democracy.” It is a grand phrase that simply means power must be shared fairly if peace is to exist. The Awori monarchs basically told Adebutu that they had already travelled across the state, visiting the Egbas, the Remos, and the Ijebus, to seal a deal for Yayi. The die, they told a sweating Adebutu, is already cast. The campaign has not even fully started, and the gates of Aworiland are already locked, bolted, and barred against the PDP. But because monarchs are polite, they offered him a consolation prize: they wished him “good luck.” In Nigerian politics, when an entire council of Obas wishes you “good luck” while endorsing your rival, it is time to check your life choices.
*The Concrete Jungle: Yayi’s Development Juggernaut*
Of course, the monarchs are not merely acting out of deep love for Yayi’s usually smiling face. They are acting out of love for the massive, unyielding wave of infrastructure that the Senator has unleashed upon Ogun West since 2023. While Adebutu has been traversing the state distributing beautiful manifestos and smooth promises printed on expensive glossy paper, Yayi has been throwing literal bags of cement and heavy iron rods at the region’s problems. It is a classic battle between poetry and raw engineering, and in Ogun West, engineering is winning by a landslide.
Take the roads, for instance. For decades, previous politicians treated the international border corridors of Ogun West like abandoned bush paths. Yayi went ahead and facilitated a massive Trans-Border Highway Monopoly from the Federal budget. This mega road cut directly across the neglected communities of Imeko Afon, Yewa North, Yewa South, and Ipokia. It effectively demolished the classic “bad road” campaign talking points that opposition candidates usually rely on.
Right there in Ado-Odo/Ota, where Adebutu stood begging for votes, Yayi had already paved and asphalted major commercial transit gridlocks like Ilogbo Road, Maltina Road, Arije Road, and the high-traffic Atan Market Road. The monarchs can see the asphalt from the windows of their respective palaces. It becomes highly awkward to look at a man who gave you a brand-new road and tell him you prefer a candidate who brings a promise of a road.
Then comes the economic colonisation through markets and civic hubs. While the PDP entourage was busy rehearsing their campaign speeches, Yayi was busy inaugurating the Ijoun Ultramodern Market in Yewa North, boasting 40 lock-up shops and 60 open stalls, complete with solar-powered boreholes to keep the traders happy. He built modern markets at Oba TT Dada and Ajibawo, handed them over to the local market women, and then capped it off by building a massive 1,000-seater modern town hall in Ota. To ensure the monarchs and their subjects live long enough to see the 2027 elections and beyond, Yayi even built a state-of-the-art Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the local State Hospital.
*The Yewa Prequel: Lightning Strikes Twice*
If the Ota rejection was a shock to Adebutu’s system, it means he has a very short memory. Just a few months prior, the PDP candidate suffered the exact same fate further down the road in Yewaland. One would think that after being rejected by the left hand, a man would hesitate before offering his cheek to the right hand. But not Chief Adebutu.
Months ago, Adebutu and his campaign train drove into the domain of the Yewa Traditional Council. The council is led by the Olu of Ilaro and Paramount Ruler of Yewaland, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle. The objective was the same: smile, distribute campaign promises, and ask for royal backing.
The response from Oba Olugbenle and the Yewa monarchs was a mirror image of the Ota disaster. They did not mince words. They told Adebutu the home truth: Yewaland has waited five decades for the governorship seat. They have watched other regions pass the crown back and forth like a family heirloom. Now that the stars have aligned, and their son, Senator Yayi, has emerged as the frontline contender under the APC, they would have to be politically insane to vote for a PDP candidate from a different zone.
The Yewa Council effectively told Adebutu that while his visit was appreciated for its entertainment value, their political loyalty was already signed, sealed.and delivered to Yayi. Why? Because Yayi had practically re-wired their entire economy. He facilitated a dedicated 33KV power line directly from the Papalanto Transmission Station straight into Ilaro Township, ending years of soul-crushing blackouts. For the agrarian villages that felt forgotten by civilisation, Yayi went on a transformer offensive, dropping heavy-duty 500KVA transformers across off-grid border communities. He literally turned the lights on, leaving Adebutu’s campaign team to fumble in the dark.
*The Classroom Assembly Line and Agrarian Cash*
The sheer scale of Yayi’s infrastructure tsunami makes Adebutu’s presence look like a polite, underfunded hobby. In the educational sector alone, the Senator has set up a virtual assembly line, facilitating over 156 new primary and secondary school classrooms across the senatorial district. This includes a landmark, fully-furnished two-storey educational facility at Mayigi Community High School in Ilashe, alongside fully-equipped Information and Communications Technology (ICT) centres at Sango High School.
To ensure the local farmers—who form the backbone of the voting population—were completely insulated from opposition sweet-talk, Yayi gathered 2,557 of them at Ilaro and handed over actual tractors, transport tricycles, and advanced farm tools. He followed this up by pumping direct ₦100,000 cash grants to over 3,820 agricultural beneficiaries. In the language of grassroots politics, a tractor in the barn and a ₦100,000 alert on a mobile phone will always speak louder than a two-hour lecture on PDP party solidarity.
*The Ijebu Tale of Two Cities*
To fully understand how devastating this royal blockade is for Adebutu, one must look at what was happening elsewhere in the state at the exact same time. While Adebutu was busy collecting “No, thank you” letters from the Yewa and Awori Traditional Councils, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola Yayi was having a completely different experience in Ijebu Ode.
While Adebutu was being treated like an unwanted door-to-door salesman peddling some fake products in the West, Yayi was being received like a conquering hero by the Ijebu traditional rulers. The Ijebu monarchs did not lecture Yayi on marginalisation. They did not tell him that the die was cast against him. Rather, they opened their doors wide, showered him with prayers, and declared their total acceptance of his candidacy.
The contrast is sharp enough to cause political whiplash. On one side of the state, you have the PDP candidate travelling hours to receive polite rejections from monarchs who openly tell him they are backing his rival. On the other side of the state, you have the APC candidate visiting areas outside his immediate home zone and being embraced with open arms by rulers who recognise that a man who can build an ICU and a 33KV power line is a man worth backing.
It seems the entire traditional institution of Ogun State has coordinated their calendars. They have collectively decided that 2027 belongs to Ogun West, and specifically to Senator Yayi. Someone clearly forgot to add Chief Adebutu to the group chat where this decision was made.
The Tragedy of Persistent Ambition
There is something deeply comical about a political strategy that relies on visiting people who have already publicly vowed to defeat you. The Awori Obas were very explicit. They named the specific monarchs present at the meeting just so there would be no confusion later. Oba Abdulazeez Akinde of Igbesa, Oba Samuel Ojugbele of Ilogbo, Oba Jayeola Agunbiade of Agbara, Oba Adedayo Shyllon of Agbado, and Oba Nosiru Tesilimi of Odan Abuja were all there. They all watched as their leader told Adebutu that the Awori people cannot and will not shift their position on the eve of the campaign.
Yet, one can be certain that this will not be the last palace Chief Adebutu visits. He will likely dust off his agbada, order his drivers to refuel the campaign buses, and head to the next community. Perhaps he hopes that if he visits enough palaces, one monarch might accidentally bless his ambition out of sheer exhaustion.
Until then, the 2027 Ogun State governorship race is shaping up to be a walk in park for Senator Yayi, cleared by the very concrete, transformers and classrooms he left behind. Ogun West has declared that fairness demands they produce the next governor. They have chosen their man, and he isn’t the one carrying the PDP umbrella. But we must thank Chief Adebutu for providing the state with such high-quality political comedy. After all, it takes a special kind of dedication to travel all the way to Ota just to be told that you are 50 years too late.
Olatunji, a Journalist, Political/Crisis Communication Strategist, writes from Ilaro, Ogun State
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