“Empowering Ogun East: Arabambi Abayomi’s Bold Endorsement of Dapo Abiodun”
My focus has recently been directed towards an article authored by Wale Onifade entitled: “Ogun East Ticket: How Dapo Abiodun Is Intimidating, Threatening, and Manipulating His Path to a Senatorial Showdown.”
Normally, I wouldn’t have dignified such a wildly mischievous attack with a reply, but because of its highly polarizing nature, it is only fitting that I record my thoughts.
The author’s agenda has revealed the characteristics of an individual who may possibly be afflicted by pseudologia fantastica. His goal was not merely mischievous and deceitful, but also flawed, infused with false narratives that can only be spun by sycophantic, dissipated, debauched, and desperate factions attempting to distort a well-coordinated APC Ogun East stakeholders’ assembly—where His Excellency, Prince Dapo Abiodun, received endorsement as the senatorial candidate of the APC for the forthcoming 2027 general elections—into something fraudulent and sinister.
There exists a time for politics, and then a time for governance. The two are distinct, although troublemakers take pleasure in obscuring the boundary. We are entering the latter—a phase when significant decisions are made for the welfare of the state, when roads need to be laid, hospitals stocked, salaries disbursed, and oil wells activated. Yet, here comes an article masquerading as an investigation, posing as a moral conscience, that provides nothing but hearsay, envelopes, and anonymous threats. This is not journalism. This is the politics of a poisoned well, and those who partake will find only thirst.
The piece titled “Ogun East Ticket: How Dapo Abiodun Is Purchasing, Threatening, and Controlling His Passage to a Senatorial Showdown” can best be characterized as mischievous politics taken excessively far. It employs phrases of exposure—“sources assert,” “multiple party insiders verify,” “one party leader stated”—yet presents no substantiation, no named accuser, no verifiable trail of funds. What it offers instead is conjecture disguised as fact, and malevolence cloaked as vigilance. This is the political season, indeed—but that is precisely why we must not engage in politics regarding everything in our environment.
Let us identify what is unfolding. Governor Dapo Abiodun has adequately delivered in infrastructure, education, health, and aviation. The Gateway International Airport is not mere conjecture; it is asphalt and terminal. Two oil wells have been uncovered in Ogun State, and soon the state will rank among Nigeria’s oil-producing regions. Salaries are paid punctually. Pensions are disbursed. Gratuities are issued. When was the last time Ogun workers went on strike? When did the specter of unpaid wages haunt the corridors of power? The governor has transformed the state into a construction hub, not a conspiracy. Yet the article fails to mention any of this. Why? Because facts are inconvenient. Envelopes sell.
The author asserts that Governor Abiodun is bribing 400 individuals at the Adeola Odutola Event Hall in Ijebu-Ode. Four hundred names? No roster. No image of an opened envelope. No bank documentation.
The reality is that the hall hosted the entire leadership of Ogun East: every councillor, all ward chairpersons, all ward executives, all local government chairpersons, all local government officials, all serving members of the National Assembly, all active members of the State Assembly, all former members of the State and National Assembly, and all members of the State Advisory Council.
So, what sort of stupor generates a vision where an entire political establishment betrays its integrity in plain sight of one another, with not a single dissenting voice or leaking hand?
This article exemplifies the harm bad politics engenders. It does not seek the truth; it seeks attention. It does not benefit Ogun East; it caters to the author’s craving for influence and whatever agenda he pursues. The governor’s office had not responded as of the time of publication, the article acknowledges. So, why go to print? Why not await a reply? Because waiting is honorable, and honor is not the currency here.
The most audacious paragraph alleges that the governor is conspiring with President Bola Tinubu. “He is challenging Aso Rock’s bluff,” a “senior party figure” states—anonymous, of course. The Presidency has not commented, the article concedes. Thus, the author fabricates a conspiracy between two leaders who have collaborated to stabilize the party and the state. This is not politics. This is a farce.
And what about the “ranking senator” argument? The article asserts that sacrificing a seasoned senator for a novice aspirant is self-sabotage. A valid point—if expressed in good faith. But this is not good faith; this is a weapon. The same writer who laments for senatorial seniority says nothing about the seniority of development—the roads, the schools, the airport, the burgeoning oil economy. Ogun State has undergone a remarkable transformation. That is the ranking that counts.
Allow me to state this clearly: playing politics with everything around us—with every rumor, every anonymous whisper, every perceived slight—is the quickest route to fracture a state. The political season demands vigilance, yes, but it also necessitates restraint. Decisions are being made for the benefit of the state: budgets sanctioned, roads commissioned, schools renovated, health centers equipped. If we drown these in conjecture, we lose the signal amidst the noise.
Governor Dapo Abiodun has run this race and continues to pursue it—toward a gold medal, as his supporters would assert. That is not baseless flattery; it is the evidence of visible achievements. The airport did not construct itself. The oil wells did not discover themselves. Salaries did not pay themselves. If opponents wish to contest, let them produce their own performance record—their own roads, their own schools, their own track record on pensions. But do not present envelopes without substantiation. Do not deliver threats without identities. Do not invoke anonymous chieftains who only speak in shadows.
The article concludes with theatrical weight: “The genuine verdict on who enters the Red Chamber will not be delivered in an envelope at the Adeola Odutola Hall. It will be rendered at the ballot.” Agreed. Therefore, let us await the ballot. Let us cease issuing indictments before investigations conclude. Let us refrain from labeling a stakeholders’ meeting as a cash-and-carry operation simply because we disapprove of the organizer.
Ogun East deserves more. Ogun State deserves more. The political season calls for vigilance, yes—but also accountability. Not every assembly is a marketplace. Not every endorsement is a bribe. And not every journalist who cries “fire” in a packed theater is a hero. Some are merely arsonists with bylines.
Grant respect to whom it is due. Governor Dapo Abiodun has delivered. Let his accomplishments stand as his testimony. And let this article be remembered for what it is: mischief adorned in a trench coat, caught in the rain without an umbrella.
Note:
I am fully aware that the writer and his sponsors have engaged armchair “rice-and-beans” activists, crude analysts, and compromised civil society voices to orchestrate a media war and protests against Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun. Allow me to leave them with a simple parable:
There was once a village that had never experienced rain in December. Every elder knew this; every farmer prepared accordingly. Then came a stranger who proclaimed, “This year, December will flood.” He hired drummers to announce it, compensated storytellers to disseminate it, and gathered a crowd to swear by it. But when December arrived, the sun shone as it always had.
The villagers asked the stranger, “Why did you make a promise that has never occurred?”
He replied, “I wanted to be the first to say it.”
That is your battle.
You aim to accomplish what has never transpired in Ogun East—transforming a hall of leaders into a den of thieves, a serving governor into a villain, and a political season into a festival of falsehoods. You may employ your analysts and fund your civil society prophets, but the sun will still rise.
Dr. Arabambi Abayomi (FBAU)
AJAGUNGBADE I of Nigeria
State Convener
Sustainability of Ogun & Dapo Abiodun Legacy Beyond 2027
