As Ogun State prepares for the 2027 gubernatorial election, the question of who will lead the Gateway State into its next chapter, after Governor Dapo Abiodun would have served for the maximum of eight years, has become a major subject of public discourse.
Though the aspirants are many, the major gladiators are few. Among the latter are Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola, Senator Olamilekan Adeola, Gboyega Nasir Isiaka (GNI), Chief Ladi Adebutu, and Noimot Salako-Oyedele. As the race heats up, here is a breakdown of their antecedents, experience and political strength.
Ambassador Sarafa Tunji Isola
He is Nigeria’s immediate past High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. His academic record includes a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Ilorin and advanced training in Leadership and Development at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
He had served Nigeria at the local, state, federal and international levels, thus making him the most experienced among the governorship aspirants. His political career spans all the major political parties in the state where he still has loyalists and associates.
Isola started his political career as elected Chairman of Abeokuta North Local Government (1997–1998). He demonstrated grassroots leadership, earning him the position of Chairman of the Conference of Local Government Council Chairmen in Ogun State.
He was Special Assistant to the then Minister of State for Finance, the late Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye and also served as Secretary to the Ogun State Government during the first term of former Governor Gbenga Daniel. He was appointed Minister of Mines and Steel Development by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and later appointed Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Isola is a grassroots politician who has lived most of his adult life in Ogun State, responding to the direct needs of the people. He attends socio-cultural events where he interacts with the high and low without inhibition.
Isola is from Ogun Central, which has huge voting strength and an eagerness to return to the scene in 2027, having been excluded from vital positions such as governor, deputy governor and Secretary to the State Government in the past eight years. He is the consensus candidate of the critical stakeholders in Ogun Central such as youth organisations, traditional rulers and clubs like the highly influential Abeokuta Club and Abeokuta Sports Club.
Beyond his Ogun Central home base, he also has a strong relationship with powerful political groups in Ogun West (Yewa Zone) and Ogun East. He was Director of Campaigns for General Olatunji Olurin and for Adekunle Abdulkabir Akinlade (Triple A). Olurin and Akinlade, both from the Yewa zone, ran as governorship candidates of different parties during the 2011 and 2015 general elections respectively.
Isola’s standing within the East Senatorial District is equally unassailable. He is the Apesin Ijebu Isiwo, Aare Tayese Ago Iwoye, among other chieftaincy titles. He is an influential member of the Jubril Martins-Kuye political infrastructure, which is still relevant today in spite of the death of the man (Martins-Kuye) widely referred to as the leading leader. The present governor, who is from Ogun East, is a notable member of the group.
Isola’s stint as Secretary to the State Government during the Daniel administration, another powerful political gladiator in the state from Ogun East, is also a major advantage.
He is known to be close to, and regularly holds strategic engagements with key political figures in Ogun State, including Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Governor Dapo Abiodun and former governors Olusegun Osoba, Gbenga Daniel, and Ibikunle Amosun, advocating for politics rooted in unity, peace, love, and harmony in Ogun State.
At the socio-cultural and religious level, he holds high ranking traditional titles in towns striding all the three Senatorial Districts of Ogun State. He is also the Baba Adinni of Ogun State and later Yorubaland, Edo, and Delta States. He has been using the platform to advocate for religious tolerance, promoting harmony between Muslims and Christians. He maintains close and cordial ties with prominent Christian leaders such as the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye; Bishop Adekunle, CAN Chairman of Ogun State; Bishop Akisanya Southwest Chairman of CAN; Archbishop Okoh, President of CAN; Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Living Faith Church, Apostle Lawrence Achudume of Victory Life Bible Church, Revd. Francis Wale Oke of Sword Spirit Ministry, and Elder Joju Fadairo, a Christian leader and politician in Ogun State, among others.
Isola identifies with the entire socio-political strata of Ogun State from the lowly to the high and mighty. Indeed, he is a man of the people.
Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola
Popularly called YAYI, Senator Adeola is a chartered accountant. He is currently representing Ogun West Senatorial District in the Upper Chamber where he serves as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
Adeola, who holds the title of the Aremo of Yewaland, began his political journey in the early 2000s during Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. He was elected to the Lagos State House of Assembly, representing Alimosho State Constituency 2, serving two terms from 2003 to 2011.
Thereafter, he was elected to represent Alimosho Federal Constituency (2011–2015) in the House of Representatives and was Chairman, House Committee on Public Accounts. He also served for two terms (2015–2023) as senator representing Lagos West Senatorial District and was Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Communications.
He shifted his political base to Ogun in 2023 and won the Ogun West Senatorial seat. He has carried out many empowerment projects in Ogun West since he started representing the district. But his attempts to extend his influence to the two other senatorial districts have been met with rebuff by key political figures from the East and Central who regard him as a newcomer in the politics of Ogun.
Gboyega Nasir Isiaka (GNI)
Gboyega Nasir Isiaka (popularly known as GNI) is also a Chartered Accountant like Senator Adeola. He is a former banker and currently represents Imeko-Afon/Yewa North Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives. Now a member of the APC, he served as Special Assistant on Investments to former Governor Gbenga Daniel, then of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
He has contested the governorship position three times — under the People’s Party of Nigeria (PPN) in 2011, the PDP in 2015, and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in 2019.
GNI is highly cerebral. But he may have his chances of becoming governor in 2027 undermined by the plethora of other aspirants from Ogun West, thereby suffering from split votes, going by previous experiences.
Chief Ladi Adebutu
Chief Ladi Adebutu is from Iperu Remo, Ogun East, same hometown with Governor Dapo Abiodun. Currently the main financier of the PDP in Ogun State, Adebutu contested the governorship in 2023 but lost to his kinsman.
Son of multi-billionaire Chief Keshington Adebutu, he was in 2015 elected to represent Remo North, Sagamu and Ikenne Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives.
He is the most prominent PDP chieftain in the race for the 2027 Ogun governorship and may have no problem in picking the ticket of the party. The fact that he shares the same homestead with Governor Abiodun is, however, a huge minus for him as the bulk of Ogun State voters would prefer that the next number one man should come from elsewhere.
Noimot Salako-Oyedele
Mrs. Noimot Salako-Oyedele, an engineer, is the incumbent Deputy Governor of Ogun State. She is from Ota, Ogun West and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Lagos and a Master’s degree in Public Health Engineering from the Imperial College of Science & Technology London, United Kingdom (UK). She has in addition attended several professional courses and has over 30 years experience in Engineering Consultancy, Contracting and Real Estate Sectors.
Salako-Oyedele is the only woman in the race and that can be a huge advantage for her and revolutionary for Ogun, as the state has not produced a female governor.
She, however, does not have a political base of her own and might have to rely on the structure of other politicians to advance her cause.
• Mumuni is a journalist and historian.
