‘Our agenda for Ogun West governorship candidate’

As next year’s governorship election draws near, a group, Ogun West Professionals, works towards cohesion and unity of purpose among major political players within the zone. In this interview, the Chairman of Steering Committee of the group, Dr. Yemisi Bamgbose, the Executive Secretary of Broadcasting Organisation of Nigeria (BON), bares his mind why the zone should produce the next governor. He speaks with Bola Olajuwon

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 since the state was created in 1976, most especially under this democratic dispensation. And this has been largely alluded to the fact that the people from the zone, most 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 West was created in 1976.

 So, the part 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 – are 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 favorable 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 flag bearers of their parties so that the people of Ogun West Senatorial District can eventually determine whom they wanted.

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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 – are 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 world what he has on the table to ensure that Ogun West can win the governorship election in 2027. Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, representing Ekiti Central Senatorial District, is slated to be our guest speaker at the media chat.