Adebayo Adelabu on Tuesday declared his intention to contest the 2027 governorship election in Oyo State, telling supporters at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, Liberty, Ibadan, that the state needs “visionary leadership, competent governance, economic transformation, security and stability.” He said his bid was built around the Oyo Rebirth Agenda, a campaign blueprint he said would focus on growth, jobs and cleaner government.
The former Minister of Power said his experience, exposure, administrative capacity and leadership qualities made him fit to lead the state effectively. He promised industrial and agro-processing hubs across Oyo’s geopolitical zones, a one million jobs initiative, grants and low-interest loans for small businesses, and reforms in security, local government administration, the civil service, tourism and cultural heritage.
Adelabu also used the event to press APC leaders and members to close ranks ahead of the 2027 election, saying, “This project is bigger than one man. We must unite, work together and build together. There is no victory without solidarity.” He added, “I offer myself not merely as a politician, but as a servant and committed progressive determined to deliver results.”
His declaration lands in a party already unsettled by open jockeying for the ticket. On May 1, some APC leaders endorsed Sharafadeen Alli as the party’s consensus governorship candidate at a meeting in the Samonda area of Ibadan. On May 3, Adelabu rejected that endorsement and dismissed claims that President Bola Tinubu had backed a governorship candidate in Oyo as “pure lies.”
That fight widened on Tuesday, when six APC governorship aspirants — Rauf Olaniyan, Adewale Kareem, Musbau Asanike, Akeem Agbaje, Oyedele Alao and Ololade Bakare — met in Ibadan and issued a communiqué rejecting the imposition of candidates and demanding a transparent process free of money politics and manipulation. They said, “Let it be known: whoever emerges as our flagbearer for the 2027 governorship election shall receive our full, collective, and heartfelt support,” but warned that “imposition is a betrayal of democracy” and that “when money speaks louder than merit, the party bleeds and the people suffer.”
Adelabu’s pitch now puts him squarely into a primary contest that is as much about control of the APC in Oyo as it is about the state’s next governor. The party lost the last election in Oyo to the Peoples Democratic Party, and his appeal to unity suggests he knows the ticket will not be won by ambition alone. He is betting that the Oyo Rebirth Agenda and the legacy of his grandfather, Adegoke Adelabu, can carry him through a fractured field.
What happens next is clearer than the usual campaign fog: the APC must choose whether it can hold a credible primary that settles the rivalry, or whether the fight over 2027 in Oyo will deepen before the voting even begins.
