Opinion

Day Ayinla Omowura and Ayinde Barrister dueled in Philadelphia

Published

4 years ago

November 22, 2022

Bala-blu-blu-bulaba, All Progressives Congress (APC’s) festival of incoherences, should attract a writer. So also the celebration and justification of its impending fatality. Feeble and laughable as it may seem, Festus Keyamo’s Ananias and Saphirra role in this frightening reality too should not escape a dissection. I would have loved to ask Keyamo, in the words of Peter Tosh, “Where are you gonna run to” on judgment day? However, about the time of this meaningless waffle, I was presenting a paper entitled Between Ayinla Omowura and Ayinde Barrister: Conflicting Notions of Superstardom in Fuji and Apala Music at the African Studies Association (ASA) conference which ended yesterday. It was held in Philadelphia, United States.

You will recall that I began the discourse on the theme of that paper in my piece of December 20, 2020, which I entitled Ayinde Barrister: In memoriam of a musician who peaked by Ayinla Omowura’s graveside. Permit me to share my abstracted arguments and submissions at the conference, after defrosting the paper of its academic niceties, below:

The death of Ayinla Omowura, a popular Apala musician, in 1980, is a watershed in Yoruba popular culture. The vacuum left by his demise could not be filled by any other Apala artist. Rather, another artist, Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, who played a different genre called Fuji, rose to the limelight from the shadows of invisibility. This presentation places the careers of Ayinla and Barrister in perspective. It engages with major economic transformations in the 1970s and 1980s in Nigeria which aided the rise of these powerful artists and the musical genres they played. The creation of superstardom in the art cannot be separated from contrasting notions of “good” and “bad” and “new” and “old” music. This problematic schematization of sound and art played a significant role in the rise of these two artists and the public politics built around their personalities.

Stars are creations of the media and their audiences are called fans. Stardom or superstardom is worthy of study because it has a cross-cutting relevance and implication for society. Indeed, musicians are linked to the social health of society and have a sweeping hold on the public sphere, so much so that they compete for attention with politicians and statesmen.

Ayinla Omowura and Ayinde Barrister (born Sikiru Ayinde Balogun) attained superstardom images in their respective genres among their Yoruba people. Their audiences constructed different and differing natures of the worth of their stardoms. While Omowura was arguably one of the foremost and most original musicians to sing the indigenous musical genre of Apala in Yorubaland, Barrister pioneered Fuji, and both shared stardom at about the same time.

In his creation of the Fuji music genre and taking it to the height it currently enjoys in popular culture music in Yorubaland, Ayinde Barrister made a mastery blend of existing traditional musical genres that ranged from Apala, Sakara, Awurebe, and others, making them into a fast-paced, danceable and modern genre. He projected the traditional African values of the Yoruba, and their daily struggles against life’s forces and in the same vein captured the attention of a modernist world which looks out for racy, entertaining music, Ayinde Barrister is reputed for his unexampled creativity.

Ayinla Omowura was bohemian, profound and unarguably, one of the most original Yoruba musicians of post-colonial Nigeria. He was highly talented and between the period of his superstardom, 1970 to 1980, and the time he got killed in a barroom brawl, he straddled the musical scene of western Nigeria and the west coast like a colossus. Using dense imageries, literary allusions, proverbs, and wise sayings, Omowura constructed sceneries that loom large in the subconscious of his listeners. Imageries of animals, human engagements and the blacksmithry where he once worked with his father, Yusuff Gbogbolowo, were deplored with relative ease in his songs.

Ayinla was apparently aware of the talismanic hold of his superstardom and the awesome powers of his talent. He flaunted these in the face of his musical traducers and competitors. This mastery of the geography of music and his flaunting of this understanding verged on arrant arrogance which rebounded on many of his contemporaries. This probably got him relentless combat against a string of enemies which even a combination of a thousand people would probably engage in their lifetimes. Yet, Ayinla was diffident and confident about conquering them all. His confidence was in his unique talent and in the talismanic powers of African traditional medicine.

While they were both reputed for their contributions to popular music and traditional culture in the southwestern region of Nigeria, scholarly arguments have ensued on the comparative weights of their individual stardom. The arguments began while they were both alive but it has outlived them at their passing. It was developed by their fans, out of engrossment with their talismanic and prodigious musical enchantments that still endure. More than four and one decades respectively after their departures, the most recent of the theses on their stardoms is that if Omowura, who pre-deceased Barrister, had not died, the stardom of Barrister would most probably not have had the sweeping hold it had on the dancehall for three decades before his own passing.

Of a truth, Ayinde Barrister, between 1980 when Omowura died and 2010 when he eventually passed as well, garnered a huge contemporary audience than Omowura probably gathered in his lifetime. Both of them rose to stardom in the period of Nigeria’s immediate post-civil war era beginning in 1970. It was a time of economic boom which came after the discovery of oil in abundance in the country. The petro-dollar craze in Nigeria at the time resulted in an era where there was a stampede by virtually all sectors and individuals to take a bite of the perceived surplusage that was touted in the Nigerian economy. It was also a time that witnessed an upshot in the craft of popular music. Musicians were forced to also engage in major economic transformations during the period of the 1970s and 1980s to ply their trades. The economic boom of this period, in no small measure, aided the rise of these powerful artists and the musical genres they played.

Their fans were the first to decipher the geography of consent and dissent from darts thrown at live music gigs and then smelled a mutating tiff between the two musicians. Omowura, however, burst the bubble in an album entitled Omi Titun (Vol.17) and laid bare the supremacy battle between him and Ayinde Barrister.

In a track of the album, he first began by cloaking who the subject of his harangue was. A man known for his cantankerous musical darts on his musical adversaries, He sang: Ayinde, ma je ki n gbo/ pe mo ji e l’orin lo/Ko je je be, oro apara ni…/E ma de ma gbe’ra san’le ni’waju iru wa/To ba se pe e gbe’raga ni iba san/A nroju je’ko obun lowo/Obun lohun nse fuji ni’gboro/O nf’owo y’okun, okuta nbo/Eyin ko mo pe, ka to p’elede, ese a pe/Ka to p’aja, ese a p’egbeta ndan?/Eni ba fe wo’le odu, a se’tutu…

Translated, it read, Ayinde, perish the thought that I stole a line of your song/This allegation cannot be so; it smacks more of a huge joke…/Don’t pump up a non-existing ego before a musician like me/If you really want to articulate your supremacy over me, say so for the world to hear/I merely honoured you by taking a sip of what belongs to you/Just like sharing a bite from a meal in the hand of someone sworn to a life of filth/This filthy Fuji musician now announces his worth and supremacy to the world by reason of my condescension/Don’t you know that music is like a coven and anyone who desires to share the dais with us will make sacrificial offerings?

In the same track, the next stanza saw Omowura going rather frontal, with an effusion of acidic diatribes against the said Ayinde. He sang: O fe je soda ni’le orin/Ayinde, o fe je soda ni’le orin/Ohun t’enikokan ki je laye/Eni to yo, to npanu e nile orin/Eni ti o yo lohun o ran’kun/N’isoju ojogbon, se lo mi a be…

Translated: He really wants to commit suicide on the bandstand/Ayinde wants to swallow a soap/A deadly poison that no human being who values their existence will ever contemplate/That move is comparable to someone going beyond their reach/The end result will be cataclysmic.

Barrister’s reply to Omowura in a track entitled Awa o ja was more mature than that of Omowura. He said that his own “Ayinde” could not have been the referent in the song by one Alapala – an Apala singer – attacking “one Ayinde” in an album. He said there were many Ayindes in the musical community and wondered why the said musician must choose him for attack since they didn’t engage in any duel over the snatching of each other’s wife. Even if he was the one that the said musician was attacking, said Ayinde, it was a reflection of his rising stardom. I gathered that the reason for Ayinla’s diatribe was that someone mentioned to him that Barrister claimed that a musician plagiarised his song and that description fitted Ayinla.

Based on secondary information gathered in the course of interviews with surviving family members, band members and close associates of the late Apala maestro, I had narrated elsewhere in a biography on Omowura (Adedayo: 2020) how there existed mutual friendship and veneration of individual talents between the duo, prior to this public spat. The relationship was really very cordial until 1974 when Ayinla invited Barrister to sing at the naming ceremony of one of his children which was held in Mushin. Barrister’s singing talent was unfolded here, to the admiration of Ayinla Omowura’s core financiers and backers present. He won the hearts of many of Omowura’s fans, one of whom was Alhaji Bejidande who was President of Omowura’s Fans Club. This apparently angered Ayinla Omowura.

The uniqueness of Barrister’s singing talent was his ability to code-switch, mime the song of whichever musician he desired and perhaps even outshine the originality of the musician. Coupled with the fact that he was possessed of a humble disposition that contradicted Omowura’s audacious underscore of his musical elan, to the chagrin of his contemporaries, it became rather easy for Ayinde Barrister to harvest admiration of fans and musical backers of Omowura. For those who knew Omowura, with his open demonstration of musical envy, this unsolicited harvest of affection and admiration by Omowura’s fans was akin to crossing the borderline..

During the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca the next year, 1975 which the duo undertook differently, Ayinde Barrister attempted and did secure a thaw in the frosty relationship that existed between Omowura and another musical rival of his, Fatai Olowonyo. They had both been engaged in a very frightening musical war. Barrister sought a resolution of this spat in the bid to ingratiate himself to the heart of Omowura who was generally dreaded on the music scene. However, upon the resolution of this spat, in a seeming ad-lib track entitled Ade Oluwa, Omowura briefly referenced the resolution of the fight and neither acknowledged Barrister as one who ensured its resolution, nor did he give it more than a cursory mention.

A conflicting narration of what eventually became the denouement of the conflict between the two artists was an event that happened in 1978, two years prior to the murder of Omowura. Many sources close to the two musicians confirmed its veracity. Omowura had reportedly personally visited Barrister’s music organization’s booking office in Lagos to request that he sang at his (Omowura’s) child naming. Meeting Ayinde Barrister’s Secretary in the outer office, the Secretary reportedly asked that Omowura should fill out the guest’s request form before he could have an audience with her boss. Enraged by what he perceived as diffidence on the part of Barrister, Omowura reportedly stormed out of the office and proceeded to Ijebu-Igbo home of another great Apala musician, Haruna Ishola, to request that he sang at the said ceremony.

There is no doubt that mutual reverence of stardom existed between the two artistes, even though they both operated from different genres of traditional African music. To reinforce the notion of this mutual reverence, Ayinde Barrister competed in a keenly contested election for the Captaincy of Ayinla Omowura’s Fans Club. Wasiu Bejindade, famous Lagos auto dealer, emerged chairman of the Club in the election. While Barrister’s essentialization of Omowura must have made this possible, the decision by Omowura to invite Barrister to sing at his child naming ceremony, twice, must also have resulted from his underscore of Barrister’s superstardom too.

Yet, Ayinla Omowura was acutely jealous and abhorred rivalry and as such, the rise of a junior musical colleague like Barrister would naturally rebound with him. During my fieldwork penultimate writing his biography, virtually all respondents who interfaced with him testified to this. He fought musicians who tried to spar with him and he was dreaded for his spirituality. In one of his songs, he declared that any musician who dared duel with him had invariably received a visa to journey out of this world – Olorin to ba f’oju di mi lode, jije mimu e tan n’le aye. Omowura was feared like the cult world dreaded the Capon.

Barrister had shown huge telltale signs of superstardom as at 1980 when Ayinla died. Far more educated than Omowura who didn’t go to school, Barrister had even embarked on musical tours out of the country, a feat that Omowura couldn’t attain till death came calling. Though quantification of stardom is subjective, appreciation of the duo’s songs by their individual and most times, the interwoven sprawling clientele of fans at the time, which spread across the Yoruba-speaking western region, was dispassionately in favour of Omowura.

In his posthumous tribute to Omowura in his album, Aiye (1980) while he struggled to deflect arrows shot at him by allegations that he had a hand in the murder of the Apala musician, Barrister acknowledged Omowura as Baba wa – our father.

Again, Barrister’s copious lapping up of Omowura’s songs without attributions after his demise is reputed to lend credence to an appreciation of the latter’s musical supremacy. One of such songs was Omowura’s Ajikogba ede track. Omowura composed and sang the song at live performances before his death. Ayinde Barrister subsequently lapped up this track. There are also many lines of Omowura’s songs which, after his passage, Barrister copiously re-sang without an acknowledgement.

Many schools of thought say that there was no need for a comparative analysis of the duo’s superstardom-ness because they sang different genres of traditional African music. In Ayinla Omowura: Life and times of an Apala legend (2020) I attempted to state that in the history of Yoruba traditional music, there had always been seemingly fratricidal wars between musical counterpoises, their different musical domiciles notwithstanding. While there are no recorded tiff between Abibu Oluwa, forerunner of Sakara genre of music and Lefty Salami Balogun, S. Aka Baba Wahidi dueled with fellow Egba kinsman, Yusuff Olatunji because they sang same Sakara. Kasumu Adio, born 1928, who died very young, dueled with Haruna Ishola as well as Raji Owonikoko, leader of self-styled Kwara System Originator Band. However, Ibadan-based musical anecdotist, Epo Akara, who, genre-wise, was in a world of his own, engaged in musical supremacy and occupation of the stardom world with fellow musicians who sang variants other than his Awurebe genre. As such, genres may be different, the topmost echelon of stardom is coveted by these African musicians and the race to the top necessitates rivalry, backbiting and musical brick-bats against one another.

This problematic schematization of sound and art played a significant role in the rise of Ayinla Omowura and Ayinde Barrister, as well as the public politics built around their personalities. My submission is thus that, though Ayinde Barrister appropriated and approximated the absence of Omowura in an awesome way to flourish musically, even dying greater than Omowura, the death of the former gave fillip to this massive superstardom among the Yoruba audience of his Fuji music. I thus submit that, if both musicians had existed side by side into 2010 when Barrister died, the latter could not have been able to unbuckle the musical shoes of Omowura who bestrode the Yoruba traditional musical scene of the 1970s like a colossus.

Our panel, tagged Fuji: An African Popular Culture, paraded very interesting papers as well. Professor Saheed Aderinto of the Western Carolina University, a known Fujician and amala cuisine promoter, presented “Musicians Should Avoid Partisan Politics”: Sikiru Ayinde Barrister and Political Fuji, 1980 – 2020, while Ayorinde Oladele of the Dept of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Indiana University, Bloomington presented Ayinde Barrister and this “complex whole” called Fuji: Notes on Genre-making and agency in African popular culture and Stephen Boluwaduro of the University of Wisconsin-Madison presented Negotiating Body, Sex and Self-fashioning in Fuji Performance. Aderinto thawed the ice when, upon the refusal of the Power Point gadget to work, he jokingly told the audience that the spirit of Ayinla Omowura was in the hall and was probably angry.

I must thank Professor Aderinto who invited me to the ASA conference and for the delicious amala he treated me to inside the Marriot hotel venue of the conference. I also thank panel discussant, Jesse Weaver Shipley, an ethnographer, filmmaker and artist, who is also John D. Willard Professor of African and African American Studies and Oratory, as well as Panel Chair, Dr. Rosemary Popoola of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It was also an opportunity to meet young Nigerian scholar mentees of Aderinto who hovered round him like bees do nectar. I was excited to meet Mojeeb Akanji Jimoh, a graduate student of Duke University and my classmate in the UI Law class who flew in from Durham, North Carolina solely to listen to my presentation. After the event, I fled in search of my rascally friends – Wale Adebanwi and Ebenezer Obadare – who were part of the several scholars from across the world who attended the ASA conference. It was an opportunity to fill in the gaps of space and time that separated us.

Celebrated columnist, journalist and Lawyer, Dr. Festus Adedayo writes from Ibadan, Oyo state

Related Topics:Day Ayinla Omowura and Ayinde Barrister dueled in Philadelphia

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G-WAGON: Dare Adeleke, A Liar’ll Steal; Why’re You Desperate To Conceal The Truth? | Maroof Asudemade

Published

1 week ago

November 6, 2026

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I have read Dare Adeleke’s rather vacuous response to my article on Governor Seyi Makinde’s presentation of a brand-new Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon 500 to the President-General of the Central Council of Ibadan Indigenes (CCII), Barrister Sulaimon Ajeniyi Ajewole. Unfortunately, beneath the insults, name-calling on my person and his apparent eye-service desperation to impress his political benefactor, there is hardly any substance worth engaging.

Adeleke devoted considerable space to calling me a drunken, lowly writer. Yet, in all his verbal gymnastics, he conspicuously failed to address the fundamental questions raised in my article. Has Governor Makinde paid the statutory salaries and entitlements of the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja, and the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Akeem Owoade, since their ascension to the respective thrones? Has his administration provided them with official vehicles, as expected under the applicable government arrangements? These were the issues Adeleke ought to address not my personality.

If he had any credible answers to these questions, he would have provided them. Instead, he chose to exhibit his wrakness as an intellectually exhausted defender. He resorted to abusing the messenger when he couldn’t dismantle the message.

However, there is one particularly interesting aspect of Dare Adeleke’s response that deserves immediate correction. He lied that Governor Makinde spent N1 billion on the completion of the Olubadan Palace. Is he sure he’s not addicted to stealing as a liar? The financial contributions towards the completion of the palace came from multiple sources, including the 11 local governments in Ibadanland, each of which contributed N50 million, amounting to N550 million.

Governor Makinde contributed N250 million. The governor’s contribution was N250 million, not N1 billion! Why would Adeleke inflate the governor’s contribution from N250 million to N1 billion? Is he so desperate to manufacture an impressive record for his political principal that figures have become expendable? Or does he imagine that exaggerating the governor’s generosity will make the unanswered questions of ridiculing our royal fathers disappear?

The 11 local governments of Ibadanland have a responsibility towards the Olubadan institution. Their contributions towards the palace should not be presented as a personal sacrifice by Governor Makinde. They are contributions made by public institutions to an institution that belongs to the people of Ibadanland.

Even more disturbing is Adeleke’s inane argument that because Makinde contributed money towards completing the Olubadan Palace, the governor deserves appreciation rather than criticism. This argument betrays a shocking failure of Adeleke to distinguish between governmental responsibilities and statutory obligations.

Let us even assume, for the sake of argument, that Makinde personally spent N1 billion on the palace. How does constructing or completing a building discharge the government’s obligation to pay the statutory salaries and entitlements of the Olubadan and the Alaafin? How does a palace building become a substitute for official vehicles? Are these royal fathers supposed to live in beautiful palaces while their statutory entitlements remain unpaid?

By Adeleke’s ‘logic’, Governor Makinde could build a magnificent headquarters for the Nigeria Labour Congress and subsequently refuse to pay workers their salaries, expecting the labour movement to applaud him for his generosity. Would that be acceptable? Could the government substitute office buildings for workers’ wages? Dare Adeleke is glaringly a peripheral thinker!

A building is a capital project. Salaries and official entitlements are separate obligations. Since Adeleke knew he could not understand this elementary distinction, he should have smelt his argument before presenting it to the public. His defence is not only logically defective; it is intellectually sour.

More importantly, the completion of the Olubadan Palace was not the subject of my article. I did not dispute the governor’s contribution. I questioned the apparent contradiction between his extravagant generosity towards the CCII President-General and the allegations of neglect concerning the official entitlements of the Olubadan and the Alaafin. Adeleke has not answered that question. He has merely introduced an unrelated expenditure in an attempt to divert attention.

I have no objection to Governor Makinde giving G-Wagons, aeroplanes or even private jets to people he loves, provided he does so with his personal resources. He is entitled to his private generosity. But public accountability should not cease because a governor is generous to his friends, associates or political admirers. The issue is not his freedom to give birthday presents. It is his responsibility to discharge governmental obligations.

As for Adeleke’s unnecessary personal attacks, I refuse to dignify his descriptions of me as a drunken or lowly writer with an elaborate defence. Neither description reflects my personality, and neither alters the substance of my argument. He only needs to be aware that despite his opinion of me as a drunken, lowly writer, I am his better by far as a family man and a responsible father – two essential duties he has failed in. I will also not allow his inability to sustain an intelligent argument to dictate the level of my engagement.

I am upset with Dare Adeleke for not living up to his claim of belonging to Oja’ba. He lacks the intellectual discipline, street wisdom and argumentative dexterity traditionally associated with the historic Ibadan community. His response has demonstrated an unfortunate deficit in all three. “Dare ò m’èsì, ó tún gọ!”

There is also something deeply incongruous about Adeleke’s pretentious defence of Governor Makinde. Those familiar with the undercurrents of Oyo politics may find his public posturing rather amusing. He presents himself as an unquestioning defender of the governor, yet political hypocrisy has a way of concealing its true colours beneath an appearance of loyalty. If the human stomach were transparent like a calabash, perhaps the governor would have a clearer view of Dare Adeleke as the green snake lurking beneath the green grass.

But my concern remains the dignity of the Olubadan and Alaafin institutions, not Adeleke’s political theatrics. He has had an opportunity to answer straightforward questions. He failed. He has had an opportunity to correct the allegations with verifiable facts. He avoided them. Instead, he manufactured a N1 billion contribution, inflated the governor’s generosity and attempted to intimidate a critic with insults.

Let me therefore restate the questions he could not answer: Has Governor Makinde paid the statutory salaries and entitlements of the Olubadan and the Alaafin since their ascension? Has he provided them with their official vehicles in accordance with applicable government policy? If yes, let Adeleke produce the evidence. If no, let him explain why.

A G-Wagon cannot answer questions about unpaid salaries. A palace cannot substitute for statutory entitlements. And N1 billion in political propaganda cannot turn N250 million into N1 billion. Dare Adeleke may choose to defend Makinde with insults, exaggerations and emotional outbursts. I will continue to interrogate the administration with facts, logic and questions that public officeholders owe the people answers to.

The dignity of the Olubadan and the Alaafin is far more important than Adeleke’s desperate attempt to earn political applause. And no amount of name-calling will make me abandon the responsibility of holding those in power accountable.

Opinion

OYO AHEAD: Senator Alli Blueprint for Oyo Renewal | Muji Armstrong-Bello

Published

1 week ago

November 6, 2026

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The unveiling of Senator Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli’s OYO AHEAD manifesto has introduced a new dimension to the 2027 Oyo State governorship conversation. Beyond the usual campaign promises, the document presents an attempt to define not just what a government intends to do, but how it proposes to govern. Its central message is that Oyo State needs a development model built around grassroots empowerment, economic productivity, institutional accountability and measurable performance.

What makes the manifesto politically significant is its attempt to connect the candidate’s personal political journey with a proposed programme of government. From his experience as Chairman of Ibadan North Local Government to his service as Secretary to the State Government, Chief of Staff, Senator and Chairman of Odu’a Investment Company, Alli presents himself as a politician whose experience cuts across grassroots administration, constitutional politics, legislative representation and business management. These experiences provide a solid foundation for effective governance and reinforce the expectation that his proposed agenda can be translated into tangible results for the people of Oyo State.

The first pillar, local government autonomy, may well become the most politically consequential. By promising transparent access to council allocations, monthly funding arrangements and greater freedom for local governments to address community needs, BSA is placing grassroots governance at the centre of his development philosophy. The message is unmistakable: democracy must be felt beyond the Government House, and the dividends of government must reach the communities where ordinary people live and work.

His infrastructure proposals also deserve attention. Rather than concentrating exclusively on new construction, the manifesto promises an audit of unfinished roads, published completion schedules, farm access roads, improved electricity, potable water and affordable housing. This suggests an understanding that infrastructure should be judged by its economic and social usefulness, not simply by the political visibility of projects.

In healthcare, the proposed Oyo Care Guarantee for infants, pregnant women and residents above 70 is a significant social intervention. The commitment to strengthen primary healthcare, address shortages of medical personnel and expand health insurance coverage recognises that healthcare is not a privilege reserved for those who can afford it. With the right funding arrangements, adequate staffing and firm institutional commitment, these promises can be translated into a sustainable healthcare system that delivers tangible benefits to the people of Oyo State.

Education is another area where the manifesto attempts to reconnect Oyo with its historic reputation as a pioneer of educational development. Reducing classroom congestion, repairing schools, expanding scholarships, establishing skills centres and linking graduates to employment are proposals that speak directly to the future of the state’s young population. These interventions are designed to translate educational investment into measurable improvements in learning outcomes, practical skills and employment opportunities for the next generation.

Perhaps the most compelling economic proposition is the commitment to move Oyob beyond an economy of consumption towards one of production, investment and job creation. The proposed industrial parks, revival of the Oluyole Free Trade Zone, ₦10 billion Youth Fund, digital skills programme and support for small businesses suggest an administration seeking to make employment creation a central responsibility of government. The ₦150 billion annual internally generated revenue target reflects an ambitious vision of economic growth, driven by expanded business activity, increased investment, efficient revenue administration and the elimination of financial leakages, while preserving a favourable environment for citizens and businesses to prosper.

Agriculture gives the manifesto another important regional dimension. Oyo possesses considerable agricultural potential, particularly across Oke-Ogun, Ogbomoso and Ibarapa. The proposals for processing facilities, revived farm settlements, mechanisation, storage, agricultural insurance and export promotion recognise that farmers cannot prosper merely by producing crops; they must also have access to markets, processing facilities and value chains. If properly executed, this could transform agriculture from subsistence activity into a major engine of industrial growth.

Security, appropriately, is treated as the foundation upon which every other pillar depends. The proposed strengthening of community security networks, protection and insurance for hunters and vigilantes, improved surveillance and farmer-herder mediation reflect the reality that development cannot flourish where fear controls access to farms, schools and businesses. The accompanying commitment to public disclosure of projects, contractors and costs also reinforces the argument that security and accountability are inseparable responsibilities of government.

One particularly striking feature is the candidate’s personal commitment to publish quarterly performance reports and to decline a second-term request if Oyo State is not measurably better by the end of his first tenure. This is a bold political undertaking. It shifts the conversation from the traditional entitlement of incumbency to the obligation of performance. This commitment further underscores the importance of measurable performance targets, transparent reporting and regular public assessments as the foundation for accountable and results-driven governance.

The strength of OYO AHEAD lies not only in the breadth of its promises but also in the opportunity to translate them into a practical development programme. The proposed revenue expansion, healthcare guarantee, youth and women empowerment funds, educational reforms and infrastructure projects provide an ambitious agenda for the state. With proper financial planning, sound legal frameworks, effective coordination and measurable implementation targets, these proposals can form the foundation of a purposeful and results-oriented administration.

This places an important responsibility on the OYO AHEAD Steering Committee. Beyond campaign mobilisation and public presentation, the Committee must sustain the technical work required to support the manifesto with reliable data, realistic costing, legal guidance, implementation timelines and measurable outcomes. The depth of this preparation will be central to demonstrating that OYO AHEAD is not merely a collection of campaign promises, but a carefully considered programme for governing Oyo State.

As the 2027 governorship election approaches, the debate should increasingly focus on the future of Oyo State: the governance philosophy, experience, policy direction and preparedness of those seeking the people’s mandate. Political alliances and personalities will naturally shape the contest, but the enduring question is which proposals offer a clear and practical pathway to development, prosperity and accountable leadership.

OYO AHEAD has placed such a pathway before the people of Oyo State. Its seven pillars provide a framework for addressing the state’s development priorities, while its emphasis on grassroots governance, economic productivity, human capital development and accountability speaks to the need for a new direction. With his political experience, administrative background and familiarity with the challenges of Oyo State, Senator Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli is well positioned to lead the effort to translate this blueprint into meaningful progress. The promise of OYO AHEAD is renewal; its ultimate measure will be the transformation it delivers to the lives of the people.

Prince Armstrong-Bello, JP. Akogun Aliiwo Ibadanland, Author of “Yoruba Leadership in Diaspora: Equity Justice and Tradition” is a Political Communication Strategist and Public Affairs Analyst

Opinion

OYO 2027: MAKINDE EATS SOUR GRAPES, ADEKANMBI’S TEETH MUST BE SET ON EDGE

Published

1 week ago

November 4, 2026

Sola Abegunde

The confusion within the ranks of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) is becoming increasingly difficult to describe.

The political empire built by Governor Seyi Makinde on what critics describe as lies, betrayals, broken promises and greed appears to be crumbling by the day.

Indeed, Makinde and his APM loyalists are providing an endless source of amusement these days.

Virtually everyone who leaves the Makinde administration is suddenly dismissed as a “paperweight” by the party’s social media attack dogs.

I have often wondered whether these fellows are unaware of the wisdom behind the Yoruba belief that even cotton wool, when gathered in sufficient quantities, can become a load too heavy for one person to carry.

As the Yoruba proverb puts it: Eni ní òwú ò t’ẹrù; ìwọ̀nba tó fẹ́ fi tan iná ló mú.

You keep losing prominent politicians and influential party stakeholders, yet you dismiss them as political nonentities. But which heavyweight has the power to cast more than one vote for a preferred candidate?

I am certain that even Bimbo Adekanmbi must be wondering how things deteriorated so badly for the APM.

Before his emergence as Governor Makinde’s anointed governorship candidate was made public, I granted an interview on a television station during which I openly predicted that Adekanmbi would get the governor’s endorsement and that his choice as successor would spell trouble for both men.

To one another, both men have become potential political albatrosses. Unfortunately, Governor Makinde’s ego appears to have blinded him to realities beyond his immediate political calculations.

I am particularly surprised that Adekanmbi failed to recognise that he was walking into a political trap by accepting Makinde’s endorsement.

Greed, indeed, can be a dangerous disease. In Adekanmbi’s position, no discerning politician would have ignored the number of political enemies Governor Makinde had accumulated during his seven years in office.

It follows, therefore, that Adekanmbi would inevitably inherit many of those political liabilities. Sadly, he either failed to appreciate the implications or simply chose to overlook the consequences.

By the time Governor Makinde, or perhaps Seye Famojuro, settled for Adekanmbi, the governor was already embroiled in disagreements with prominent political figures, including former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Ambassador Taofeek Oladejo Arapaja, Alhaji Bisi Olopoeyan and several first-class traditional rulers in Oyo State.

He had also fallen out with several influential political figures, including Senator Hosea Agboola, Alhaji Razak Gbadegesin, former Deputy Governor Barrister Gbolarunmi Hazeem, Chief Mrs Jumoke Akinjide, Hon. Mulikat Adeola Akande, former Deputy Governor Engr. Rauf Aderemi Olaniyan, Prince Diran Odeyemi, former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose, former Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike and even President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Beyond these strained relationships, several stakeholders within the Makinde political camp were already uncomfortable with the process that produced Adekanmbi as the APM governorship candidate.

There were also contentious discussions about whether Governor Makinde should be succeeded by a Christian. Equally troubling to some stakeholders was the question of whether it made political sense for Makinde to present Adekanmbi as his preferred successor when both men hail from Ona-Ara Local Government Area.

At the time, agitations were mounting over Governor Makinde’s alleged failure to comply with the Supreme Court judgment granting financial autonomy to local governments.

Other contentious issues included the controversial Circular Road project, the sale of government assets and the proposed transfer of Oyo State farm settlements to estate developers.

The state’s debt profile, which has remained a subject of public concern and debate, was another issue that had yet to be satisfactorily addressed.

All these issues were already in the public domain before Adekanmbi accepted the offer to become Makinde’s anointed candidate.

One is therefore compelled to ask: what could have persuaded Adekanmbi to accept such a politically dangerous offer?

I can only think of one reason: greed.

When Governor Makinde claimed that he had advised Adekanmbi not to inherit his enemies, he was being economical with the truth.

The reality is that those political liabilities became Adekanmbi’s the moment he accepted Makinde’s endorsement.

The governor knows that he is carrying a political baggage that could weigh heavily on his preferred successor. Yet, he appears unwilling to be held accountable for the political consequences of his own administration.

Unfortunately for both men, even Adekanmbi’s campaign slogan tells a story of its own: “Omi Tuntun 3.0”.

How, then, does he intend to separate himself from the “Omi Tuntun” administration and the controversies surrounding it?

Governor Makinde has never hidden his discomfort with genuine local government autonomy. Adekanmbi, by his posture, appears prepared to sustain the same political template, which critics blame for weakening the 33 local government councils in the state.

On virtually every issue over which the people of Oyo State have expressed concern, Adekanmbi appears to be offering continuity rather than a departure from the policies of the present administration.

He has failed to condemn the controversy surrounding the proposed transfer of the Ogbomoso Farm Settlement to estate developers, despite protests by residents of the ancient town.

He has equally remained silent over the controversy surrounding the administration’s reported moves involving the Saki Farm Settlement.

He also appears untroubled by the reported transfer of the 4,000-hectare Eruwa Farm Settlement to investors, whose whereabouts and activities have, according to critics, remained unclear two years after the arrangement.

Indeed, Adekanmbi appears not to appreciate the extent of the challenges facing the state. For instance, Oyo State is said to be short of six general hospitals if the benchmark of one general hospital per local government area is adopted.

Yet, when Senator Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli promised in his manifesto to address this deficit, APM spokespersons reportedly went on the offensive, describing the manifesto as “lacking in originality”.

Governor Makinde has been in office for more than seven years. During this period, his administration has received ecological funds on several occasions.

The question, therefore, is simple: what has happened to those funds?

There are concerns over the utilisation and accountability of the ecological funds received by the state. The governor owes the people a clear explanation of how these resources have been deployed.

There are also questions surrounding the proposed upgrade of the Alakia Airport, a project for which Adekanmbi himself was appointed by Governor Makinde to head a committee.

I have been reliably informed that the contract sum for the airport upgrade was reportedly reviewed upwards from its original figure of over N50 billion to well above N150 billion.

I have raised this question before, but I am yet to hear Adekanmbi offer a convincing explanation or response to the allegation.

Similarly, Governor Makinde reportedly approved more than N60 billion for the renovation of the Government House, an expenditure that attracted public criticism.

As of today, the visible works include the construction of a hall, the painting of the Government House mosque and church, and the replacement of tiles in both places of worship.

I challenge Governor Makinde to tell the people of Oyo State how much of the more than N60 billion reportedly approved for the renovation has actually been released and expended.

Beyond that, the governor should invite members of the press to conduct an independent assessment of the work carried out so far. The people deserve transparency and accountability, not unanswered questions.

The state government’s performance in education is another area that demands urgent attention.

Oyo State’s performance in WAEC and NECO examinations has continued to attract concern, particularly when compared with the performance of other states, including neighbouring Osun, which has been celebrated for its fifth-place position in a recent examination ranking.

Senator Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli has argued that the state must return to an educational system that makes teaching and learning more conducive. One of his proposals is a 30-pupils-per-classroom policy.

But rather than engage constructively with the proposal, APM voices have dismissed its feasibility.

Adekanmbi, as the party’s governorship candidate, has also failed to offer a clear departure from the present arrangement, under which many public primary and secondary school classrooms remain severely overcrowded and unconducive to effective learning.

Oyo State cannot afford another administration that merely promises continuity without addressing the shortcomings of the present one.

The people deserve better, and they now have an alternative in Senator Sharafadeen Abiodun Alli.

Governor Makinde has eaten sour grapes. Unfortunately, Bimbo Adekanmbi appears destined to bear the consequences.

His teeth, indeed, must be set on edge.