There may be an previous Yoruba saying: “When the lizard basks within the solar, it doesn’t imply it’s competing with the moon.” This knowledge involves thoughts when studying Akeem Aderibigbe’s current diatribe in opposition to Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola, fondly generally known as Yayi.
Ordinarily, such a poorly constructed piece, dripping with petty malice and inordinate ambition, wouldn’t benefit a response. However as our elders warn,
“If lies are left unchallenged, they develop fats and declare the throne of fact.”
Aderibigbe’s write-up, titled “The Starting of the Finish for Yayi’s Guber Ambition in Ogun State,” is nothing greater than a determined try and smear a person whose political stature far outshines the author’s credibility.
In Nigeria, we’re all too acquainted with “weak truths and robust lies,” the place spectators cheer for winners, not information. However let it’s identified—Senator Yayi isn’t any political upstart. He’s a seasoned chief with many years of service, a person who returned to his roots in Ogun West not out of opportunism however out of responsibility.
The try and query Yayi’s heritage is especially laughable.
“A person who doesn’t know the place the rain started to beat him can’t say the place he dried his physique,” the elders say. Senator Yayi’s lineage—paternally from Ilaro in Yewa South and maternally from Kemta Odutolu in Abeokuta—has been affirmed by a minimum of the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, who not too long ago appointed him Chairman of Ojude Oba 2025, and the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo. These royal endorsements converse louder than the scribbles of a political jobber.
Aderibigbe’s declare that Yayi is “shifting identification” is as baseless as “a calabash with out water.” A real chief connects with all his folks, and Yayi has executed simply that—bridging communities, empowering youths, and delivering infrastructure the place others solely made empty guarantees. His achievements in lower than two years as Senator are staggering: over 272 infrastructure initiatives, 6,200 solar-powered streetlights, 71 transformers, and N8 billion in empowerment programmes touching market ladies, artisans, and job seekers. These are usually not the acts of a “brash and money-driven” politician, as Aderibigbe ludicrously claims, however of a frontrunner who understands governance past mere optics.
As for the so-called “inner APC rumblings,” each political household has its debates. However “a tree doesn’t make a forest,” and the voices of a disgruntled few can’t drown out the overwhelming help Yayi enjoys inside his social gathering and among the many folks. His developmental strides—just like the Rounda-Imala and Ita Oshin-Ibara Orile roads—are usually not “federal initiatives to develop affect” however tangible dividends of democracy that profit all Ogun State residents.
Aderibigbe’s piece reeks of the desperation of a person who, because the proverb goes, “factors on the moon along with his elbow as a result of his fingers are too quick to achieve it.” Senator Yayi’s document is unimpeachable, his imaginative and prescient clear, and his dedication to Ogun State unshaken. Partaking additional with such “paid social cancers” can be like wrestling a pig within the mud—a futile train that solely dirties the wrestler.
The 2027 governorship race continues to be a distance away, however one factor is for certain: “The lizard that jumped from the excessive Iroko tree to the bottom mentioned it might reward itself if nobody else did.” Senator Yayi doesn’t want self-praise—his works converse for him. And when the time comes, the folks of Ogun State, uninterested in empty rhetoric and hungry for actual growth, will know who to belief.
Dr. Abayomi Arabambi (FBAU)
The Non-Controversial Political Voice of Motive (1999–2025)
Omo Olowu Oduru Egba Land
nineteenth June 2025
