Ogun 2027: Ladi, PDP Having Headache, Campaign Fatigue Over Senator Yayi’s Projects – Oladele
ABEOKUTA – A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and Chairman of the Planning Committee of the Ogun State APC Presidential and Gubernatorial Campaign Council, Hon. Kayode Oladele, has said the growing number of development projects facilitated by Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, is giving the Peoples Democratic Party and its leading figure in Ogun State, Ladi Adebutu, “headache and campaign fatigue.”
Oladele, reacting to what he described as sustained attacks on Adeola and his projects by opposition elements, said the PDP should concentrate on presenting its own development programme to the people rather than, in his words, “manufacturing controversies” around projects that communities can see and use.
He cited the latest completion and delivery of the three kilometre Magbon INEC Road in Abeokuta South Local Government Area, facilitated by Adeola, as another example of the senator’s infrastructure interventions beyond Ogun West.
“These projects are enough to give the PDP and Adebutu both headache and campaign fatigue. While they are busy manufacturing controversies, Yayi is busy delivering projects. In politics, you can argue with rhetoric, but you cannot argue with roads, schools, hospitals and infrastructure that the people can see and use,” Oladele said.
According to him, the significance of the Magbon INEC Road goes beyond the completion of another road project, as its location in Abeokuta South demonstrates what he described as the statewide spread of Adeola’s interventions.
“Magbon INEC Road is in Abeokuta South, not Ogun West. Yet another project has been completed for the benefit of our people. That should ordinarily be something every well meaning citizen welcomes, regardless of political affiliation.
“The motorists using that road will not be asked whether they belong to APC or PDP. The children learning in classrooms will not be asked about the politics of their parents. Patients receiving treatment in healthcare facilities will not be required to show party membership cards. Development belongs to the people,” he said.
He added that instead of focusing on campaign issues, the pattern of criticism by the PDP and its gubernatorial candidate, Hon. Ladi Adebutu had become predictable.
“If Yayi facilitates a road, they complain. If classrooms are delivered, they complain. If healthcare facilities are provided, they complain. If markets and other community infrastructure are delivered, they complain. At some point, the people themselves will ask what exactly the PDP and Adebutu are quarrelling with: the projects or the man facilitating them?”
Oladele described the Magbon INEC Road as a particularly useful illustration of the difference between political rhetoric and physical infrastructure.
“The Magbon INEC Road is not a press release. It is not a social media post. It is not campaign rhetoric. It is three kilometres of physical infrastructure that people can see, drive on and benefit from. You cannot wish away a completed road simply because its existence does not fit conveniently into your political narrative.
“ You can manufacture controversies. However, you cannot argue away a road on which people are driving, a classroom in which children are learning or a healthcare facility serving a community. Visible projects have a language of their own,” he said.
The APC chieftain nevertheless called for a campaign based on issues, saying political differences should not prevent parties from acknowledging development while offering alternative policies of their own.
He said the 2027 governorship conversation should focus on infrastructure, education, healthcare, employment, agriculture, industrialisation and other issues affecting the lives of Ogun residents.
“What we must avoid is a politics in which every road, school, hospital or community project suddenly becomes objectionable simply because it was facilitated by somebody you are politically opposed to. Ogun State belongs to all of us, and every genuine development project ultimately belongs to the people,” Oladele said.
He added that the final assessment of the competing records, programmes and claims would be made by the electorate through the democratic process.
“Yayi will continue to put his record and programme before the people. If Hon. Adebutu and the PDP wish to focus their attention on criticizing anything Yayi, good luck to them. Ultimately, it is the people of Ogun State who will make their judgment on February 6, 2027”, Oladele said.
