Yayi: Born In Lagos, Made By Hard Work, Crowned By Consensus

Olanrewaju Fatunmbi

Some are born great. Some earn it by hard work. Others have it thrust upon them. However it happens, staying at the top demands doing it the hard way. For Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (aka Yayi), the height he has attained in his professional and political careers is not by sudden flight or accident. While his peers were gyrating and enjoying life, he was busy burning the midnight oil, toiling day and night to become a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).
Adeola’s background is deeply rooted in the Alimosho area of Lagos, despite his ancestral connection to Ogun State. Born on August 10, 1969, to Mr Ayinde Abdul-gafar Adeola Ogunleye and Madam Abeni Olasunbo Ogunleye (née Akinola), he began his early education at State Primary School in Alimosho, Lagos. He proceeded to Community Grammar School, Akowonjo, Lagos. After secondary school, he attended the then Ondo State Polytechnic, Owo, now Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, where he obtained a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Accounting. Upon completing his formal education, he qualified as a chartered accountant and became a Fellow of ICAN.
This background in accounting and tax consultancy, honed during his time at The Guardian Newspapers and his own firm, SOOTEM Nigeria Limited, has been a cornerstone of his political career, particularly in roles managing public accounts and budgets.
Though born and raised in Lagos, he is an Ishaga descendant of the Pahayi quarters in Ilaro, Yewa South LGA, Ogun State. This ancestral tie became central to his political transition from representing Lagos West to Ogun West, a move often referred to in political circles as his West-to-West journey.
Since entering active politics, Senator Adeola has built a sustained legislative career spanning over two decades, transitioning from state-level governance to high-ranking federal positions. While representing Alimosho State Constituency 2 in the Lagos State House of Assembly from 2003 to 2011, he was credited with playing a crucial role in legislative reforms that strengthened the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS), significantly increasing the state’s internally generated revenue.
During his tenure in the House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015, he served as Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, where he focused on fiscal discipline and institutional accountability.
Following his elevation to the Senate, he represented Lagos West Senatorial District from 2015 to 2023, where he chaired the Senate Committee on Finance. In 2023, he transitioned to Ogun West Senatorial District and currently chairs the Senate Committee on Appropriations, overseeing the federal budget process.
As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Adeola, occupies one of the most influential positions in the National Assembly. His role is central to the federal government’s fiscal policy, budget formulation, and national resource allocation.
Leveraging his professional background as a chartered accountant, his tenure has been characterised by fiscal discipline and structured legislative oversight. Drawing from his experience in the Lagos State House of Assembly, where he was instrumental in strengthening the state’s Internal Revenue Service, he applies similar principles of rigorous financial scrutiny at the federal level. This ensures appropriations align with national economic priorities and that capital expenditures are tracked for accountability.
His committee works closely with the Senate Committees on Finance and Local and Foreign Debts to ensure the government’s borrowing plans in the budget are sustainable and revenue targets are realistic.
Beyond budget procedure, Senator Adeola’s tenure has focused on state-building and infrastructure integration, particularly within Ogun West and the broader South-West. He has been credited for his ability to navigate complex financial issues, using his technical expertise to ensure the national budget balances recurrent and capital expenditures.
With these roles, Senator Adeola serves as a key bridge between the executive’s fiscal proposals and the legislature’s mandate to ensure federal proposals translate into tangible national development. His chairmanship extends his long-standing reputation for revenue optimisation and disciplined financial management.
The trajectory of Adeola’s tenure as representative for Ogun West Senatorial District is defined by the rapid scale and visibility of his interventions. In less than three years, his strategy has moved beyond conventional legislative representation, focusing on a multi-pronged approach to local development.
Other than standard constituency projects, his approach has prioritised high-impact physical infrastructure. This includes installing motorised boreholes, solar-powered street lighting across rural and semi-urban hubs, and the strategic construction or rehabilitation of road networks to move farm produce to urban markets.
His empowerment initiatives are noted for their volume and focus on micro-entrepreneurship. These programmes frequently involve distributing grinding machines, sewing machines, generators, and motorcycles, alongside significant cash grants to market women and small-scale farmers, to inject cash into the grassroots economy.
Recognising the need for sustainable growth, he has hosted multiple vocational training workshops and skill-acquisition programmes. These equip Yewa-Awori youth with technical competencies in digital marketing, electrical installation, and agricultural value-chain processing, reducing reliance on white-collar employment.
A core component of his constituency outreach has been facilitating free medical outreaches and upgrading Primary Health Centres (PHCs). These interventions often include essential medical equipment, drugs, and ambulance services for underserved communities, directly addressing gaps in accessible healthcare.
Senator Adeola has maintained a consistent profile in personal and institutional philanthropy, including scholarships, bursaries for tertiary students, and humanitarian assistance during environmental or economic crises within the district.
By delivering tangible, visible results, he has built a robust support base, reinforcing his frontline agitation for a power shift to the Yewa-Awori region. By acting as an intermediary between his constituents and federal resources, he has positioned himself as an effective bridge for regional development.
His supporters point to this period as a departure from the politics of promise, asserting that his finance background and current position as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations have allowed him to unlock resources previously inaccessible to the district.
The adoption of Adeola as the consensus governorship candidate for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ogun State has solidified his position as the party’s standard-bearer for the 2027 election. This decision, formalised during the party’s strategic caucus meeting on April 13, 2026, reflects a deliberate effort by stakeholders to ensure political cohesion and leverage his established grassroots support and track record.
His work in Ogun West Senatorial District is being marketed as a scalable model for the state. Following in the footsteps of his mentor, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Adeola’s transition from the Lagos State House of Assembly to the National Assembly — first in the House of Representatives, then two terms as Senator for Lagos West before his election to represent Ogun West-is marked by a consistent string of electoral victories spanning over two decades. Most commentators analyse his political path as a masterclass in grassroots mobilisation and party alignment.
As a product of a political school that emphasises institutional building, revenue optimisation, and long-term strategic planning, his governance model is consistently validated by the electorate. This connects his personal history to the broader legacy of the progressive political movement in Nigeria.

*Fatunmbi writes from Okeagbede, in Imeko-Afon LGA of Ogun state