by Abayomi Arabambi

My attention has just been drawn to an article written by Wale Onifade with the stated caption below : Ogun East Ticket, How Dapo Abiodun Is Bullying, Threatening And Manipulating His Way To A Senatorial Showdown

Ordinarily, I would never have dignify such insanely and mischievous diatribes with a response but due to its extremely divisive nature, it is only natural that I put this down.

The writer mission has exposed the attributes of someone who perhaps might be suffering from Pseudologia Fantastica . His mission was not only mischievous and dishonest but erroneous with incorrect narratives that can only be spun by unctuous, dissipated, debauched and desperate elements attempting to turn a perfectly organized APC Ogun East Stake Holder meetings where His Excellency Prince Dapo Abiodun was endorsed as the Senatorial candidate of APC in upcoming 2027 General elections into something mendacious and devious.

There is a season for politics, and then there is a season for statecraft. The two are not the same, though mischief-makers delight in blurring the line. We are entering the latter, a period when far-reaching decisions are made for the good of the state, when roads must be laid, hospitals stocked, salaries paid, and oil wells brought to life. Yet here comes an article dressed as investigation, parading as conscience, that offers nothing but hearsay, envelopes, and anonymous threats. This is not journalism. This is the politics of the poisoned well, and those who drink from it will find only thirst.

The piece titled “Ogun East Ticket: How Dapo Abiodun Is Buying, Threatening And Manipulating His Way To A Senatorial Showdown” can only be best described as mischievous politics taken too far. It deploys the grammar of exposure—sources say, multiple party sources confirm, one party chieftain said—but delivers no evidence, no named accuser, no audited trail of cash. What it offers instead is speculation served as fact, and malice dressed as vigilance. This is the political season, yes. But that is precisely why we must not play politics with everything around us. The Roman philosopher Seneca warned: “No man was ever great by imitation.” Yet this writer imitates the worst kind of muckraker, the one who throws stones and hides the sling.

Let us name what is happening. Governor Dapo Abiodun has performed creditably well in infrastructure, education, health, and aviation. The Gateway International Airport is not a rumour; it is tarmac and terminal. Two oil wells have been discovered in Ogun State, and soon the state will be counted among Nigeria’s oil-producing members. Salaries are paid as and when due. Pensions are paid. Gratuities are paid. When last did Ogun workers go on strike? When last did a ghost of unpaid wages haunt the corridors of power? The governor has turned a state into a construction site, not a conspiracy theory. Yet the article mentions none of this. Why? Because facts are boring. Envelopes sell.

The writer claims Governor Abiodun is bribing 400 persons at the Adeola Odutola Event Hall in Ijebu Ode. Four hundred names? No list. No photograph of an opened envelope. No bank statement.

The truth is that the hall held the full complements of Ogun East’s leadership: every counsellor, All Wards Chairmen, All Wards Executives, All Local Government Chairmen, All Local Governments Executives, All Serving Members National Assembly, All Serving Members State Assembly, All Past Members State and National Assembly and All Members Of The State Advisory Council

Therefore, what manner of slumber produces a dream where an entire political class sells its honour in full view of one another, with not a single dissenting voice or leaking hand? The philosopher Hannah Arendt warned: “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.” This writer has made up his mind to see evil where a quorum sits, and that is a mischief no election season should abide.

Chinua Achebe, that great eagle of African letters, wrote in Anthills of the Savannah: “The damage done in one year of bad politics can take ten years of good governance to repair.” This article is part of that damage. It does not seek truth; it seeks traction. It does not serve Ogun East; it serves the writer’s appetite for influence and whatever his mission was. The governor’s office had not responded as of press time, the article admits. Then why publish? Why not wait for a reply? Because waiting is honourable, and honour is not the currency here.

The most audacious paragraph accuses the governor of colliding with President Bola Tinubu. “He is calling Aso Rock’s bluff,” a senior party figure says, anonymous, of course. The Presidency has not commented, the article concedes. So the writer manufactured a collision between two leaders who have worked together to stabilise the party and the state. This is not politics. This is pantomime. The Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Gyekye reminds us: “The community is prior to the individual, not in time but in moral significance.” What moral significance does this article hold? None. It elevates one man’s rumoured ambition above the collective good of Ogun East, above the ranking Senator who has served, above the infrastructure that has been built. It asks the zone to trade its peace for a headline.

And what of the ranking Senator argument? The article insists that sacrificing a ranking Senator for a first-term freshman is self-harm. Fair point, if delivered in good faith. But this is not good faith. This is a cudgel. The same writer who weeps for senatorial seniority says nothing about the seniority of development, the seniority of road networks, the seniority of an airport that now flies, the seniority of oil wells that will soon flow. Ogun State has worn a new look. That is the ranking that matters. As Wole Soyinka wrote in The Man Died: “The man who denies the facts of his society is the man who has already sentenced himself to irrelevance.” This article denies too many facts. It sees only envelopes. It hears only whispers.

Let me say this now as later. Playing politics with everything around us—with every rumour, every anonymous whisper, every imagined slight—is the fastest way to break a state. The political season is exactly when we must hold our tongues and open our eyes. Decisions are being made for the good of the state: budgets approved, roads awarded, schools renovated, health centres equipped. If we drown these in hearsay, we lose the signal in the static. The late Kenyan philosopher John Mbiti wrote: “I am because we are, and since we are, therefore I am.” That is the philosophy of the community. But the article’s philosophy is I accuse, therefore I am. That is not African. That is adolescent.

The governor, Dapo Abiodun, has run this race and is running it still—to a gold medal, as his defenders say. That is not empty praise. That is the testimony of visible works. The airport did not build itself. The oil wells did not discover themselves. The salaries did not pay themselves. If opponents wish to slog it out, let them bring their own performance index. Let them show their own roads, their own schools, their own paid pensions. But do not bring envelopes without evidence. Do not bring threats without names. Do not bring anonymous chieftains who speak only in shadows.

The article ends with theatrical gravity: “The real verdict on who enters the Red Chamber will not be delivered in an envelope at the Adeola Odutola Hall. It will be delivered at the ballot.” Agreed. So let us wait for the ballot. Let us stop printing indictments before investigations conclude. Let us stop calling a stakeholders’ meeting a cash-and-carry operation because we dislike the convener. The philosopher Karl Popper warned of the “conspiracy theory of society”—the idea that everything is controlled by invisible hands and brown envelopes. That is a lazy mind’s explanation for complex reality.

Ogun East deserves better. Ogun State deserves better. The political season demands vigilance, yes, but it also demands restraint. Not every gathering is a bazaar. Not every endorsement is a bribe. And not every journalist who shouts fire in a crowded theatre is a hero. Some are just arsonists with bylines.

Give honour to whom honour is due. Governor Dapo Abiodun has performed. Let his works be his witness. And let this article be remembered as what it is: a mischief dressed in a trench coat, caught in the rain without an umbrella.

Note:
I know full well that the writer and his sponsors have hired armchair human rice and beans Cashtivist, Crude analysts and gutted civil society organisations to stage a media war and protest against the Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun, Let me leave them with a small parable. There was once a village that had never seen rain in December. Every elder knew this. Every farmer planned accordingly. Then came a stranger who declared: “This year, December will flood.” He hired drummers to announce it, paid storytellers to spread it, and gathered a crowd to swear by it. But when December came, the sun burned as it always had. The villagers asked the stranger: “Why did you promise what has never happened?” He answered: “I wanted to be the first to say it.” That is your war. You want to do what has never been done in Ogun East—turn a hall of leaders into a den of thieves, turn a performing governor into a villain, turn a political season into a carnival of lies. You may hire your analysts and pay your civil society prophets. But the sun will still rise.

Dr Arabambi Abayomi (FBAU)
AJAGUNGBADE 1 Of Nigeria

State Convener
Sustainability Of Ogun & Dapo Abiodun Legacy Beyond 2027
Date: Monday April 20th ,2026