Ekiti '26: 20 June will be coronation, not election day, for BAO
Politics in my dear Ekiti state has always been highly spirited. The state, carved out of the old Ondo state in 1996, earned a reputation for political volatility in the
Politics in my dear Ekiti state has always been highly spirited. The state, carved out of the old Ondo state in 1996, earned a reputation for political volatility in the Fourth Republic.
I once had to escape to Lagos, with my very young family(Ondo1983), an event that got my friends at The Guardian newspaper then, Drs Femi Osofisan and Yemi Ogunbiyi to have me interviewed by a young, well turned-out, Taiwo Obe, whose article on the front page of the paper he captioned:"Politician on The Run Sends Peace Message Home", complete with my full length photo splashed all over it. Governors were impeached, elections were overturned, and no incumbent (in Ekiti state) has secured a second straight term until now that we shall begin BAO's second term coronation on Saturday, 20 June, 2026 which will make his tenure, 2022 -2030, by the grace of God.
Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji had won the 2022 election, polling 187,057 votes to his closest rival's 67,457.
Four years later, the conversation in Ekiti ahead the coming election has shifted. The question is no longer will BAO win? Rather, it is by what margin of votes Ekiti will coronate him with and we are targeting a figure double what he got in '22, or even just a little lower than the one million votes we shall be giving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, come the 2027 Presidential election.
BAO's coronation will be strictly on the basis of his performance in office; an office he has held with panache; complete with all the attributes of one the Yorubas describe as an OMOLUABI.
The six pillars of his administration — Governance, Youth Development and Job Creation, Human Capital Development, Agriculture and Rural Development, Infrastructure and Industrialization, Arts, Culture and Tourism — have all moved from blueprint to brick and mortar.
In infrastructure, the Ado-Ekiti Ring Road, Rehabilitation of township roads in all the 16 LGAs, completed, as well as ongoing, and the Resuscitation of the Ikogosi Warm Spring, among other projects, have altered the physical and economic map of the state.
Others include the Independent Power Project in Ado-Ekiti, designed to supply reliable electricity to critical state infrastructure, public institutions, and economic hubs in Ado-Ekiti, with the aim of reducing dependence on the national grid.
Agriculture tells the same story of glowing achievement.
The Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zone in Ikole is a key development project supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB) aimed at transforming rural economies and enhance food security. It will turn Ekiti into a hub for cassava, rice, and cocoa value chains.
The state's Youth in Agriculture programme which provides tractors for land-clearing for young farmers, and the Broiler Production Scheme have pulled thousands of youths into Agribusiness.
The governor knows exactly what he is talking about when he equates food security to national security. Human capital development is not left behind. Workers' salaries are paid timeously, teachers have their promotion backlogs taken care of, just as over 1000 new teachers have been recruited.
The state's Tertiary institutions, namely, Ekiti State University, Ado -Ekiti,(EKSU), Bamidele Olumilua University of Education, Science andTechnology(BOUESTI), Ikere- Ekiti and the Ekiti State Polytechnic, Isan, all get intervention projects in addition to increased annual subventions.
The appointment of Dr. Tunji Olowolafe as the EKSU Chancellor(see my article of 18 April '26) and his ₦1 billion Innovation Fund for the institution's Agro-tech student entrepreneurs, signal a new alignment between town, gown and industry.
With these achievements and much more, BAO's campaign, which officially kicked off this past week, will not be selling promises.
He will, instead, be commissioning projects.In my political lexicon, that is the difference between an election and a coronation.
BAO brought more than significant innovation to Ekiti politics.
First and foremost, he dismantled the “winner-takes-all” mentality which largely defines Nigerian politics. His cabinet is drawn along party lines, technocrats and on senatorial basis. Traditional rulers, who are the custodian of grassroot's legitimacy, have been brought into governance through the Council of Obas with which he engages in regular consultation. Civil servants, constituting the largest voting bloc in the state, had their arrears paid, promotions released, and a new wage award implemented.
The youths, hitherto quite restive, are now productively engaged through the Ekiti Youth Development Programme, Digital skills training at the new Gbemisola Olowolafe Memorial ICT Centre, Are-Ekiti, as well as through access to the ₦1 billion EKSU Innovation Fund.
For Ekiti women, the Adire Ekiti Hub and MSME clinics provide training, capital and branding. Pensioners are not left out just as there are monthly release of funds for payment of gratuity, all of which have combined to make life a lot easier for a large proportion of the citizenry.
I call this model of governance Inclusivity - when you build a political coalition that transcends party, where civil servants, teachers, farmers, artisans, students, and monarchs, all see themselves as part of the government.
All these BAO has done in Ekiti - a real paradigm shift in governance.
As in other states of the Federation, all political parties are present in Ekiti state. Despite the intended coronation on 20 June, 2026, credible candidates, from other political parties, are still a sine qua non in a democracy. Unfortunately, as it is at the national level, so it is in Ekiti state as most opposition political parties are in shambles.
The PDP, which has severally governed the state, is yet to recover from its post-2023 challenges with some of its key members decamping to other parties. Equally, both the Labour Party and the SDP, which showed flashes in 2023, are now literally history, at least, in Ekiti.
In contradistinction to the opposition parties, however, the APC is waxing stronger. It has, in fact, achieved something rare-unity.
For instance, all the party's leaders — Otunba Niyi Adebayo, Dr Kayode Fayemi, Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele and all others are properly aligned, standing ramrod behind BAO.
There is also the massive backing he enjoys from his two former PDP predecessors - Govs Ayo Fayose and Engr Segun Oni. This eventuated in all civilian governors of the state being present at the official launch of his 2026 campaign on Monday, 27 April, 2026 - something that is a rarity in Nigerian politics.
To further confirm party unity, the June 2025 APC state congress produced consensus executives in all the Local Government Areas. With APC at the Federal level, the alignment of state and centre has removed the ogre of “federal might”; a factor with which Ekiti was highly traumatised during former President Segun Obasanjo's administration.
How time changes?
Ekitis are a very discerning people, money we may not yet have like others. The acronym 'Ekiti kete' speaks to a self-assured electorate that prides itself on education and values. That same discernment now works in BAO's favour. They have tasted drama, tasted activism, and have also seen experimentation. But under BAO, they are seeing a steady, predictable governance — and they savour it.
June 20, 2026 will,
therefore, not be a day of tension or stress for the people. Markets will open and vehicles will move, after the election, that is. Voters will move from polling units to naming ceremonies, or to wherever they may wish because the outcome is already settled, unlike what we experienced in some past elections.
INEC will count, but Ekitis have already decided.
The collation of results will be the official recording of a consensus reached long ago on farmsteads, classrooms, towns and villages, in palaces, even in churches and Mosques, over BAO's entire first four years.
A second term for him will not be about personal ambition. Rather, it will be about institutionalizing a new Ekiti model - one in which continuity defeats chaos, data defeats drama, and where governance is measured in kilometers of road, megawatts of power, and tons of farm produce.
The coronation on June 20 will be Ekiti's way of saying that the state has found a formula that works, and to make it the norm in all elections in the state.
The ink will dry on a social contract that began in 2022 between BAO and the Ekiti people but will, by the grace of God, and the will of the people, get extended to 2030 on 20 June, 2026.
This is why that day will not be election day in the old sense. Rather, it will be the day Ekiti places the crown on performance and BAO becomes the first governor in the state's history to be re-elected, literally by consensus.
Coronation confers legitimacy, but it also imposes responsibility.
Threrefore, BAO's second term must, among other things, deliver a fully functional Ekiti Airport cargo terminal as well as complete the Ado-Ekiti–Akure road dualization.
He must also work with the EKSU Chancellor, even if only through regular encouragement and strategic advice, to turn the GOM ICT Centre and the EKSU Innovation Fund into pipelines that can produce no less than 10,000 tech and Agro jobs. He must deepen Local Government autonomy so that development can reach every nook and cranny of the state.
But beyond all these, security of lives and property must be 'numero uno', among his priorities.
BAO's performance in his first term earned him all the commendation and support he is getting, especially in a state that was once almost becoming notorious e.g the Ido - Osi ruckus - for its adversarial politics of "Bo ba o pa, Bo ba, o bu lese".
His second term must justify and affirm all the encomiums.
When he accomplishes all these , as I am sure he will by the grace of God, then June 20, 2026 will be remembered as the day Ekiti decided, once and for all, that good governance is the only politics that matters or concerns them.
