–Professionals’ steering committee chair, Bamgbose
Since the creation of Ogun State 50 years ago, Ogun West Senatorial District has been the only area out of the three zones in the state that has yet to produce a governor for the state. Fired by the determination to break this 50-year old jinx in 2027, a group of indigenes under the aegis of Ogun West Professionals have risen to this daunting challenge. In this interview, the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the group, Dr Yemisi Bamgbose, who is also the Executive Secretary of the Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), speaks on the efforts being made to surmount all the obstacles hindering the zone from achieving this political milestone, particularly ahead of the 2027 gubernatorial election in the state. He also speaks on other sundry issues concerning the Ogun West Senatorial District.
Excerpts:
What is the group, Ogun West Professionals, all about?
Most of the professionals came together as a group of individuals from various disciplines. I’m not one of the visionaries. I was only saddled with the responsibility of steering or planning the group’s media chat, which is one of their various programmes; maybe because I belong to the media profession. Later, I was co-opted into the administration.
The primary intention of this group, as I understand, is to ensure that there is coherence among the people of Ogun West, I mean Ogun West Senatorial District.
The Ogun West Senatorial District has not been fortunate enough to occupy the number one position in Ogun State in terms of gubernatorial seat since the state was created in 1976, especially under this democratic dispensation. And this has been largely alluded to the fact that the people from the zone, especially the politicians, have not been speaking with one voice. So, the Ogun West Professionals identified lack of unity, one voice and coherence among the people as militating against their desire to win the governorship seat.
The professionals are indigenes of various towns and villages across the zone; that is, we have them from the Awori, the Yewa, the Anago, the Ketu, etc in all the Ogun West’s five local governments: Ado-Odo Ota, Imeko Afon, Ipokia, Yewa North and Yewa South. We want to correct this mistake.
The hidden agenda of the group is to present a common front before 2027. But the senatorial district is known for divisions. Do you think the professionals can break the jinx and unite the people?
In all these local governments, we have these professionals full of determination this time around. They want to find a way of making sure that there is unity among the people; so that with that unity from the internal, then we can sell our unity to the external – that is to the two remaining senatorial districts in Ogun State (Ogun Central and Ogun East). That is the primary focus of the group, to break the jinx of not being able to produce a governor since Ogun State was created in 1976.
So, the path the group is charting is to look around and then look at the various political aspirants, those that have been showing interest that they are going to contest and they are looking for the right platform.
Are your members and other groups reaching out to other interests from other zones and the zone itself?
So, the media chat is being organised in Ilaro, where the attendance is expected to be over 2,000 because the professionals themselves – a platform of a little close to a thousand members – is reaching out to other formidable groups, formidable clubs and the artisans across the state.
They have been contacted to ensure that they are part of the programme. The primary intention is that we are looking at everything that we can do to harmonise opinions, to bring people together so that a formidable team and a formidable voice can emanate from Ogun West Senatorial District so that we can get the buy in of Ogun Central Senatorial District and Ogun East Senatorial District in terms of support, so that come 2027, we’ll be able to get the nod for it. So, I think the body is equally looking at who is likely and who is more favourable within the ranks of the politicians that are clamouring to contest.
So, these are the things that I know about it: we want to bring unity and allow coherence to happen among the politicians. Certainly, we cannot get 100 per cent support for any particular candidate because as long as we have different political parties, there will be different interests and there could be different candidates. But this time around, I think part of what the Ogun West Professionals are clamouring for is to make sure that aspirants from the zone in key political parties ensure that they are made the gubernatorial flagbearers of their parties so that the people of Ogun West Senatorial District can eventually determine who they want.
What is your February 1 media chat all about?
The Ogun West Professionals are having a media chat with Senator Olamilekan Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, in Ilaro on Sunday, February 1, 2026 at Frontiers Hotel, Ilaro, Ogun State. He is the senator representing the district. The event is purely organised by the professionals who came together to contribute funds to organise the programme.
The attendance is expected to be over 2,000 because the professionals themselves – a platform of a little close to a thousand members now – is reaching out to other formidable groups, clubs or the artisans across the state to be part of the agenda.
The professionals said let’s have a media chat with Senator Adeola to hear from him directly and to let him tell the whole world what he has on the table to ensure that Ogun West can win the gubernatorial election that is coming in 2027. Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District, is slated to be our guest speaker at the media chat.
Senator Adeola, a frontline aspirant on the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC), will face the invited media representatives, monarchs, community leaders and guests on his agenda for the zone at the media chat.