YAYI: THE SAD STORY OF A POLITICAL GAMBLER
Gambling is a game of chance that always ends in tragedy. It usually starts on an encouraging note for the gambler who will win at first and get stuck to it. But in the end the gambler loses from the venture even though he still will find it difficult to leave because of addiction.
Such is the story of Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (Yayi) who until recently has been having it rosy politically, getting one office after the other. He came into politics in 2013 and for 16 years consecutively Yayi was at the Lagos State House of Assembly, Federal House of Representatives and the Senate. He was Chairman, House Committee on Finance in the Assembly and also headed the Public Account Committee in the House of Reps. He currently chairs…….. Committee in the Senate.
Unfortunately, all these divine favours do not matter to this self acclaimed Egbado-born politician because he desperately wants to be Governor of Ogun State and will not mind sacrificing anything for the coveted office. This has made him to continue to double-deal between the two states. When he was in the House of Reps Yayi used 3 out of the 4 year tenure fighting for the ticket of Ogun-West Senatorial district and pumped so much money into engaging Governor Ibikunle Amosun in supremacy contest. Rather than being humble to accept that he has a lot to learn from the incumbent governor Yayi was stupidly arrogant and tried to use his money to unsettle the state. And when it became clear that he would not clinch the ticket he quickly ran back to come and hi-jack the Lagos-West Senatorial ticket from the former Lagos State
Deputy Governor, Hon Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, a respected awori woman being humiliated in her fathers land.
Currently as he is in the senate, Yayi has spent the last 33 months fighting for ‘OGUN 2019’ and has used the resources of Lagos to set up offices in all the local governments in the state. At a time he tried to court Governor Ambode to assist him to finance the project but when he (Ambode) refused to invest Lagos money in the project Yayi and his political godfather, Enilolobo,
became arch enemies of the Governor, vowing to ‘deal’ with him. That was why they made a big issue out of the list of supervisors and rallied their cronies in Alimosho to give the governor real showdown.
On 12th March 2018 when the leaders of Lagos-West senatorial district gathered to endorse Ambode for second term at the LTV Blue Roof the gambler in Yayi came to play as he tried to steal the show. He quickly gathered some boys to drum up support for him. Some of his banners read: NO VACANCY IN LAGOS-WEST. YAYI FOR SECOND TERM. He thought he was going to have it easy by riding on the huge support that the crowd gave the Governor.
But alas! KORO was waiting for him with his own active and willing supporters. Yes, the same Koro, Musiliu Obanikoro. He proved book makers right as he stole the show and humiliated Yayi with his charisma, confidence and mastery of the game. The last straw that broke Yayi’s back was when Koro’s supporters composed a song for him thus:
YAYI, LORI OKE OUN PETELE
IBE NI WON BI E SI O
IBE NI WON TO E DAGBA O
IBE LO NLO
PADA, PADA, PADA O SORI OLUMO,
PADA, PADA, PADA O SILU BABA E.
This, obviously, was a big blow for him because he was not prepared for it. All he could do when he later gathered himself together was to to address the press at his Aromire office where he, then, formally declare for second term in Lagos-West. There, he,as usual, tried to drop Asiwaju and Ambode’s names as people who ‘begged’ him to come back to Lagos-West.
Now, the latest of his antics is that Yayi is back to Ogun and is now contesting in both Lagos and Ogun states simultaneously. This may seem like TALES BY THE MOONLIGHT but that’s the game this gambler is playing. Just last Sunday (March 18) Yayi was at Afowowa/Itori in Ewekoro Local Government with his usual rented crowd campaigning for Ogun Governor and denying ever showing interest in the Lagos-West slot. What a manner of man is this and why does he feel he can continue to deceive people all the time.
We still don’t know how he wants to do it but we are happy that the people of Lagos-West are not fools and so will not continue to give him their mandate when he has shown them twice now that he is not their own. His supporters have been boasting about that Yayi knows how to buy his way through with money and that he has reserved what he will spend to turn the table to his side when the time comes. Enilolobo thought Lagos west is like where a stranger is been used to oppress the residents. Let’s wait and see.