Rejoinder: Yayi Camp Must Explain Who Failed Ogun - If Ogun Needs “rescue And Rebuilding,” What Happened Under Dapo Abiodun?

By Atinuke Otedola 

The latest outburst from the camp of Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, has raised a far more serious political question than the writers apparently intended.

In their attempt to ridicule Hon. Abayomi Hunye and defend their preferred candidate, they declared that Senator Yayi won the APC primary because Ogun people “trust his capacity to rescue and rebuild Ogun State.”

That single sentence deserves more scrutiny than the entire press statement.

Rescue Ogun from what?

Rebuild what?

And, most importantly, who are they saying allowed Ogun to get to the point where it now allegedly requires rescue and rebuilding?

This is where the Yayi camp has walked directly into a political contradiction of its own making.

For years, the political establishment around Governor Dapo Abiodun has presented the administration's record as evidence of progress in Ogun State. Yayi's political camp has also operated within that same APC political structure.

Now, suddenly, the same people are asking Ogun voters to believe that their candidate is coming to “rescue and rebuild” the state.

From whom?

From what?

And from whose government?

If the answer is that Ogun does not need rescuing because the present administration has performed excellently, then the language of “rescue and rebuild” is politically misleading.

But if the Yayi camp genuinely believes Ogun requires rescue and rebuilding, then it owes the people of Ogun a clear explanation of what went wrong, who was responsible, and why the people should now entrust the same political establishment with the responsibility of fixing it.

They cannot have it both ways.

This is not an attack on Governor Dapo Abiodun.

It is a question directed at Yayi's campaign rhetoric.

If Dapo Abiodun's administration has delivered the Ogun that the APC has consistently celebrated, then Yayi should be telling Ogun people that he intends to continue, consolidate and improve that legacy.

But when his camp chooses the words “rescue and rebuild,” they are introducing a completely different political narrative.

A rescue operation presupposes a crisis.

Rebuilding presupposes something has been damaged, weakened or badly constructed.

Therefore, Yayi's campaign owes Ogun voters an explanation:

Is Ogun working perfectly under the current political direction, or does it require rescue and rebuilding?

If it requires rescue, what exactly needs rescuing?

If it requires rebuilding, what exactly needs rebuilding?

And if the APC government is responsible for the achievements they celebrate today, why are they suddenly campaigning as though Ogun is a collapsed structure waiting for Yayi to pick up the pieces?

That is the contradiction the Yayi camp must address.

The attempt to reduce every political disagreement to Hunye's alleged “zero vote” is itself a distraction from the larger political conversation.

Even assuming the primary result is exactly as presented by Yayi's camp, winning an internal party primary does not automatically answer the larger question of governance.

Ogun voters are not merely being asked to vote for somebody who can defeat an opponent at a party primary.

They are being asked to decide who should govern the state.

That requires a debate about roads, education, healthcare, employment, industrialisation, agriculture, security, local government development, infrastructure and the overall direction of Ogun.

Instead of spending all their energy attacking Hunye and celebrating a primary victory, Yayi's camp should tell Ogun people precisely what they mean by “rescue and rebuild.”

Because that phrase may have created a political problem far bigger than the one they were trying to solve.

There is an unavoidable choice here.

If Dapo Abiodun's government has performed as well as the APC has claimed, then Yayi's campaign should not be presenting itself as a rescue mission.

If, however, Yayi's camp believes Ogun requires a rescue and rebuilding exercise, then the campaign should be courageous enough to identify the failures that created the situation.

They cannot spend one breath celebrating the APC's record and the next breath campaigning as though Ogun is a broken project.

Ogun people deserve clarity, not political doublespeak.

This is why the Yayi camp must answer one simple question:

Was it the system?

Was it the administration?

Was it the political leadership?

Was it the policies?

Or is “rescue and rebuild” merely a convenient campaign slogan that sounded good in a press statement but was never properly thought through?

The people of Ogun are listening.

And the more Yayi's camp repeats the phrase “rescue and rebuild,” the more they will be asked to explain what exactly went wrong before the supposed rescuer arrived.

Yayi's supporters cannot demand accountability from others while exempting their own political family from scrutiny.

If they want to sell Yayi as the man who will rescue and rebuild Ogun, they should be prepared for the obvious follow-up questions.

What is he rescuing?

What is he rebuilding?

What did the previous political leadership get wrong?

What will he do differently?

And why should Ogun people believe that the same political establishment that has governed the state for years will suddenly become the instrument of its rescue?

Those are legitimate political questions.

No amount of name-calling, insults, references to “zero votes,” or accusations of “blackmail” can make them disappear.

The issue is no longer Hunye.

The issue is Yayi's own campaign message.

They have told Ogun that their candidate is coming to “rescue and rebuild.”

Fine.

Let them explain what happened to Ogun that requires a rescue mission in the first place.

Until they answer that question, the people are entitled to ask whether the Yayi campaign has inadvertently admitted that something went seriously wrong under the political order it now seeks to inherit.

That is a question the campaign cannot silence with another press release.