Affable and polished, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, accountant and politician, is perhaps the most charismatic of the aspirants hoping to become the next governor of Ogun State in May 2027.
So far, the incumbent Senator representing Ogun West Senatorial District in the National Assembly has operated in a rather subtle but effective style, which creates the impression that he is a loyal party man with an acute sense of duty.
A gentleman, philanthropist and distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic, Senator Adeola is the man that the people of Ogun State need to take over the Oke-Mosan Governor’s Office, Abeokuta, from Governor Dapo Abiodun in 2027.
Senator Adeola may be a gentleman, but he is a firebrand politician. He is blunt to the core and unequivocal about that. He has changed the complexion and pattern of the entire political ballgame in the All Progressives Congress and he has sent cold shivers down the spines of all the other aspirants. He has impacted on the people using his service in government more than any of the contemporary aspirants in the race across party lines.
His train is like a political movement. Senator Adeola has an admirable personality that endears him to both the young and the old in Ogun State.
When the Independent National Electoral Commission finally blows the whistle on the 2027 general elections, the people of the Gateway State will have waiting for them the YAYI factor to confront in the shifting balance of power in Ogun State
He has created so much waves in the last few years that most APC faithful in Ogun State have continued to argue that Governor Dapo Abiodun would have to buckle up to anoint a successor.
Senator Adeola is said to be very close to President Bola Tinubu and a party source said this might in the months to come, translate into a huge support for Adeola’s aspiration.
Besides, he seems to be at home with all the APC bigwigs in Nigeria and Ogun State.
You may like Senator Adeola. You may not like him. You may approve of his politics. You may not approve of them. But give it to him: he has guts, he has courage. He is a politician with high survival instincts. All his achievements since he entered into politics at the dawn of the 4th Republic bear testimony to this.
Senator Adeola was born on August 10, 1969 at the Lagos Island Maternity Hospital to Mr. Ayinde Adeola Ogunleye and Madam Abeeni Olasunbo Ogunleye (née Akinola).
Adeola’s grandparents originated from Isaga Orile in Abeokuta North Local Government before migrating to Pahayi in Ilaro, Yewa South Local Government Area, when Isaga Orile was ravaged by a war many years ago.
His grandmother was an indigene of Joga Orile, a town in Yewa North Local Government. Adeola’s father was named Ogunleye, and their family house in Isaga Orile is called Onibata.
His great grand- father migrated from Isaga Orile to Pahayi in 1862. The three of them who migrated to Pahayi then were Akanni, Akinola and Olege. Those are the big families in Pahayi today. Olege gave birth to Ogundimu, Motawe and Sangolade. It was Ogundimu that gave birth to Adefunke, Onilude, Ogunleye (Adeola’s father), Abimbola, Alayande, and Ojeyemi. Ogunleye was the only son of his mother.
There are other people who fled from Isaga Orile to different places such as Iju Isaga, Isagatedo, Surulere, in Lagos State, and the Republic of Benin.
Senator Adeola opted to adopt his father’s middle name as his surname instead of using Ogundimu or Ogunleye, his grandfather and father’s names, because the names are attached to the Ogun deity.
He grew up in Alimosho where he began his education at State Primary School in Alimosho, Lagos. He proceeded to Community Grammar School, Akowonjo, Lagos for his secondary education. His quest for knowledge took him to the prestigious Ondo State Polytechnic, Owo now Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, Ondo state where he bagged a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Accounting.
He became a Chartered Accountant at a very young age, and he is a distinguished Chartered Accountant-Associate Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
Senator Adeola had a stint with the flagship of Nigerian newspapers, The Guardian Newspapers Limited for 12 years and rose to the position of Accountant.
Senator Adeola proceeded to Olatunji Omoyeni & Co, a chartered accounting firm, where he led the audit team for several years and was later promoted to the position of a Senior Auditor.
He later established his own company, SOOTEM Nigeria Limited, where he was the managing director and chief executive officer in the firm that specialized in tax consultancy.
Following his decision to join active politics, sometimes at the dawn of the 4th Republic, Senator Adeola was nominated and won the primary of the then ruling Action Congress of Nigeria and was elected as a member to represent Alimosho State Constituency 2 at the Lagos State House of Assembly from 2003 to 2007 and again from 2007 to 2011.
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He was reputed to have been instrumental to the enactment of the law that strengthened the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service, a legislation that catapulted the revenue of the state from N5 billion monthly to over N20 billion. He was also part of the team that passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act and the Public Procurement Act of Lagos State.
He was elected to the Federal Legislature to represent Alimosho Federal Constituency at the House of Representatives in 2011.
He previously served as the Senator from Lagos West from 2015 to 2023 before winning the 2023 election as the Senator representing Ogun West.
And in all his years as a legislator, Senator Adeola set the standard for effective representation of the people that saw his repeated re-elections. He is noted for his numerous personal and constituency projects in Ogun West.
The people of Ogun West can never forget his developmental initiatives in the area of provision of water through boreholes, provision of electric transformers, regular free medical programmes and rehabilitation of roads.
Of the three senatorial districts in Ogun State, only Ogun West is yet to savour the seat of power since the state was created in February 1976.
The first civilian governor, late Chief Olabisi Onabanjo was an Ijebu indigene from Ogun East.
He was succeeded by Chief Olusegun Osoba, an Egba from Ogun Central, followed by Otunba Gbenga Daniel from Ogun East.
At the expiration of Governor Daniel’s eight years in 2011, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, an Egba man from Ogun Central stepped in.
When he completed his second term on May 29, 2019, he was succeeded by the incumbent, Prince Dapo Abiodun from Ogun East.
To many people, Senator Adeola is the man to beat. Some of his admirers already consider him as the Governor-in-waiting. The man has been associated for so long with the 2027 governorship race. He has more or less become an issue in most political circles.
A thorough digest of his personality, especially his evolution from a humble background to stardom reveals him as an epitome of many virtues, ranging from resilience to self-motivation, hard work, vision, sagacity, integrity, kind heartedness and humility.
Senator Adeola possesses all those qualities. But besides, the 55-year-old politician is immensely smart and shrewd in his ways. He is an engaging speaker, who shoots straight. He is exciting, not a bore by any means.
He has established himself as a serious political commentator whose views must be taken seriously because of his enormous capacity for good.
Senator Adeola is by all accounts a man of enterprise, a diligent crusader for a wide range of genuine causes from which he does not retreat even when the odds are high and the opposition is thick.
With providence propelling him all the way, he has been able to blend all the qualities, overtime, to reach the pinnacle of his chosen profession while impacting positively on humanity.
Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (YAYI) understands the political terrain better than all his opponents.
.Durojaiye is the Executive Editor, The Point newspaper, Lagos.