A political storm is brewing in Southwest Nigeria after Senate Majority Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, a senator from Ekiti State, was caught on video openly canvassing support for Senator Solomon Adeola Olamilekan — popularly known as Yayi — as the next Governor of Ogun State, a state he neither represents nor was elected by.
The video, which has circulated widely on social media, has reignited concerns about federal lawmakers interfering in state-level democratic processes. For many observers, it was not an isolated incident. Weeks earlier, Bamidele had traveled to Ogun West, where he delivered what was billed as an academic paper but was widely interpreted as a political pitch for Yayi’s gubernatorial ambitions. He subsequently forwarded excerpts to Ogun State Deputy Governor Noimot Salako-Oyedele, apparently expecting a warm reception.
He did not get one. The Deputy Governor responded bluntly, telling Bamidele he was meddling in affairs that were none of his business and making clear that Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun remains the undisputed leader of the APC in Ogun State. Her terse reply — “Thanks, but no thanks” — has since taken on a life of its own in Southwest political circles.
Rather than stepping back, Bamidele appears to have pressed forward, making the viral video the latest chapter in what critics are calling an unsolicited crusade.
The concern raised by commentators goes beyond personality clashes. When a federal lawmaker of Bamidele’s seniority inserts himself into a state’s succession politics, his interventions do not arrive as those of a private citizen. They carry the implicit weight of federal authority, federal patronage, and federal leverage. Critics argue this effectively converts what should be a locally driven democratic conversation into a transaction brokered in Abuja — precisely the kind of external imposition that has historically destabilized Nigerian politics.
The parallel being drawn is uncomfortable but pointed. The electoral catastrophe of 1983 was, in no small measure, the product of powerful figures reaching across state lines to anoint candidates and override community will. The consequences for Nigerian democracy were generational.
Bamidele’s defenders may argue he is acting out of personal friendship or political solidarity. But the question his critics insist must be answered is a harder one: what underpins this level of investment in a candidate whose ties to Ogun State remain, by the admission of many, a matter of legitimate public debate? The people of Ogun State — particularly those in Ogun West — will want to know whether Yayi’s roots in the soil run deep enough, whether his claim to govern the state is earned through service and presence, or whether it rests on borrowed endorsements from Abuja.
Calls are now growing for President Bola Tinubu, himself a central figure in the architecture of Southwest politics, to intervene and rein in his Senate Majority Leader. The argument is that the APC structure in Ogun State, under Governor Abiodun’s leadership, has both the standing and the mandate to manage its own political future — and that this process deserves to unfold on its own democratic terms, without the suffocating weight of external enthusiasm dressed up as fraternity.
The message from Ogun State’s political establishment is becoming harder to misread: Ogun is not Ekiti, it has never been Ekiti, and its people intend to choose their next governor themselves.
Senator Bamidele is widely regarded as a man of political intelligence. That is precisely why observers believe he understands the risk he is running. Political goodwill squandered through overreach is notoriously difficult to rebuild. The Southwest is watching, the APC leadership in Ogun is watching, and the people of Ogun State — who keep political ledgers with quiet precision — are watching too.
When they speak, they will speak for themselves.
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