Whispers, Winks, and the Weight of Legacy: Will Omisore Run Again?
In Osun State, where politics often plays out like highlife music—layered, rhythmic, and full of innuendo—the beat is picking up once more. And at the centre of the murmurs is a familiar name with an equally familiar rhythm: Senator IyiolaOmisore.
For decades, Omisore has been the quiet metronome behind Osun’s political tempo. Deputy governor at the dawn of the Fourth Republic. Two-term senator. Former National Secretary of the APC. And, most recently, a figure of intrigue—watching from the wings as defections, alignments, and youth fervour redraw the political map ahead of the 2026 governorship contest.
But if recent events are any indication, the orchestra may be calling him back onstage.
In April, a swelling wave of Omisore loyalists—many from his once-formidable Youth Support Forum—resurfaced in the People’s Democratic Party, pledging allegiance not to Omisore, but to Governor Adeleke. And yet, the symbolism was unmistakable: even in his absence, Omisore remains the gravitational centre of their movement. The Forum may have been renamed, but its political DNA is hard to edit.
To some, this is evidence that the Senator is done—retired, resigned, rebranded. But insiders suggest something more delicate: the kind of quiet recalibration only seasoned players know how to execute.
Because Omisore doesn’t campaign. He consults. He doesn’t announce. He appears. He doesn’t shout. He whispers—and Osun listens.
With a royal lineage, an engineering mind, and an almost clerical mastery of political coalition-building, Omisore is both a technocrat and tactician. His past defeats—most recently in 2018—may have dimmed his star temporarily, but they did not eclipse it. So, will he run?
He hasn’t said. He doesn’t need to. Not yet. But if the 2026 race is a chessboard, then someone, somewhere, is already moving pawns in Ile-Ife. And if Omisore is not yet in the ring, the ring may soon find its way to him.
After all, in Osun politics, some comebacks don’t roar—they hum.
