Àsìá BAO l’ójúde: Governance over politics and the road to 2030.

Àsìá BAO l’ójúde: Governance over politics and the road to 2030.

By Olufemi Owolabi

For those who have followed Ekiti politics since 2022, the song “Àsìá BAO l’ójúde, Àsìá BAO kẹ́lẹ́lẹ́” would sound familiar. Rendered in the rich and delicious Ekiti dialect, it became the signature tune that ushered Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji (BAO) into public events, especially during that early period in office. Loosely translated, “Àsìá BAO l’ójúde, Àsìá BAO kẹ́lẹ́lẹ́” means “BAO’s banner stands, fluttering everywhere.” It was almost a symbolic declaration of presence, acceptance and growing political dominance. You would see both the old and the young dancing and singing along. At the time, it sounded merely like a catchy campaign chorus. But in hindsight, it may also have captured something about the political direction Ekiti was about to take—the emergence of a governor whose political strength would increasingly be tied to his approach to governance.

Drive through Ekiti today, from Efon-Alaaye to Ado and to the ends of Omuo, and you will find BAO’s banners in one ójúde or another.

But the more interesting thing is how that banner got there in the first place.

I was in my Lagos office in December 2021 when a new headline popped up on my computer announcing that Biodun Oyebanji, then Secretary to the Ekiti State Government (SSG), had resigned to contest for the governorship election. Outside Ekiti, the name was barely known. There were those who were quick to dismiss his aspiration as a waste of time. I mean, this was an election that would have famous names like Segun Oni, Opeyemi Bamidele and Dayo Adeyeye. Of course, with the support of the incumbent, Dr Kayode Fayemi, BAO would go on to win the APC primaries.

We were at a church event when Prof. Olayemi Oyebanji, the governor’s wife, shared a story of how she had teased her husband that he was going to become the next governor when he was still the SSG. She said she had seen it in her dreams.

She said BAO was very quick to dismiss it. “You are anxious to become the First Lady, just continue dreaming,” he would laugh.

There was another experience where Sheikh Jamiu Kewulere Bello, the Chief Imam of Ekiti and President-General of the League of Imams and Alfas in the Southwest, Edo and Delta States, reportedly told BAO, then SSG, that he saw him becoming governor. He told BAO that he had a vision in which he saw him holding a Bible and being sworn in.

There were hundreds of stories of how BAO, the SSG, had carried on his philanthropic nature. Each time he took walks around Government House, workers would hail him as the “incoming.” As with his nature, he was also very quick to ask them to drop that. “Don’t put me into trouble,” he would say. 

Looking back, perhaps these stories were less about prophecy and more about the relationships he had built over time.

During the 2022 electioneering, BAO did not go the more traditional way of hosting campaign rallies alone. Rather, he was meeting with different groups, almost like focused group discussions, asking and checking what each group needed in terms of governance. There was an evening I was at his GRA campaign office when he was meeting a group of sawmillers. That was after he had met with the teachers’ union. The interaction with the sawmillers was less formal, and it appeared as if BAO himself was a member of the union as they exchanged different experiences dating back to when BAO was younger. It was a fascinating thing to watch. Here was a man seeking to become governor, yet the conversation did not feel like the usual politician speaking to a group of voters. It felt more like a conversation between people who had known each other for years.

As the 2022 election drew nearer, BAO was then being branded as the first homegrown, home-based governor. He had his education up to university in Ekiti. He had worked and lived here. He understood the state in a way that came not simply from briefing documents but from having lived its reality. Previous governors had either come from Ibadan, Lagos or London. BAO was different. He was home. He won that election convincingly and, in his omoluabi manner, extended a hand to his co-contestants, including Segun Oni, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate who challenged BAO’s victory all the way to the Supreme Court.

Then he became governor. And, interestingly, BAO did not change.

He continued to interact directly with the people, a thing his security aides must deal with daily. If he walks through the streets in Ikole, Ilawe or Iyin, he would likely wave at the roadside mechanic, calling him by his first name. The same characteristic follows him into high-level meetings with heads of agencies, executive and corporate groups. There is something about BAO’s politics that has always been difficult to separate from his personality. He is accessible. He remembers people. He listens. And he appears to genuinely enjoy the interaction that comes with public service.

Nothing better would have informed the song:“Àsìá BAO l’ójúde, Àsìá BAO kẹ́lẹ́lẹ́.” The banner was not just about political presence. It was becoming a reflection of how widely the governor was seen, heard and felt. Then, just about the third year in office, everybody seemed to have started campaigning for BAO to return for a second term. Then came the torrents of endorsements here and there. My friends in civil society called my attention and asked if what we all do in Ekiti now is politics.

That call immediately informed my article, “Before we get carried away by loud endorsements for BAO’s re-election.” The point of that article was not to diminish the endorsements. Far from it! In a political environment where leaders are often kept at arm’s length by sulking predecessors and disappointed constituents, the political excitement surrounding BAO’s re-election was both understandable and, in many respects, remarkable. But there was something I felt was more important. We should not allow the politics around BAO to become bigger than the governance under BAO. That distinction matters. Because endorsements are a reflection of what people think about a government. Governance is what gives them something to think about. That was also why I published another article, “In 2022, Biodun Oyebanji made 11 major promises. How has he fared?” Here, I tracked the major promises made in his manifesto, matching them with what had been achieved. The idea was simple: to make people, especially those watching Ekiti from outside, see that governance was being prioritised over politics in the BAO administration.

The irony was that, even as people were increasingly talking politics, the government was busy doing governance. That, perhaps, is one of the most interesting things about BAO-era politics.

The political excitement has been visible. But beneath it has been a fairly deliberate effort to improve the machinery and outcomes of government. There have been roads and bridges, investments in education and healthcare, improvements in public finance, agricultural interventions, efforts around youth and jobs, infrastructure development, digital governance and the strengthening of transparency.

And then came 2026. The people spoke again.

BAO won re-election in a landslide, adding another chapter to his many firsts: the first homegrown, home-based governor, the first Ekiti governor to win back-to-back terms, and the first Ekiti governor to record more than 300,000 votes in an election. The scale of the victory was itself a political statement. But I think there is an even more important way to read it. The people have given BAO something every government needs in order to pursue an ambitious second term: sweeping political capital. And that capital will be invested in governance.

This is why the road to 2030 is particularly important.

As BAO prepares to be sworn in for a second term in October 2026, the administration has already begun work on how to consolidate the things it has done, and take them further.

I had the opportunity to serve in the Policy and Strategy Directorate of the 2026 BAO campaign, where we reviewed the 2022 manifesto and developed a framework for the journey to 2030. Anchored on the six-pillar agenda of the BAO administration, the framework seeks to consolidate ongoing reforms, accelerate economic transformation and ensure that development reaches every community and every citizen. And there is a lot to do.

We are talking about establishing at least one fully digitised Smart Model School in every Local Government Area. We are talking about expanding and deepening the implementation of Ulerawa, the state healthcare insurance system. We are talking about completing the 34-kilometre Ring Road Phase II. We are talking about completing and operationalising the Cargo Airport ecosystem, including the Cargo Terminal and Cargo Shed. We are talking about activating the Special Agro-Processing Zone (SAPZ), improving access to local and international markets and unlocking greater value from agriculture. We are talking about completing Phase I of the Ekiti Knowledge Zone (EKZ), while expanding innovation hubs and strengthening technology ecosystems. We are talking about completing the Ekiti Arts and Culture Village and establishing the Village as an international hub for arts, creativity and cultural exchange. We are talking about expanding digital government services, improving public-sector efficiency and deepening fiscal transparency.

This is what the next four years would be about.

Indeed, politics matters. But because BAO has already secured the political mandate to govern, the more important task now is what he does with the mandate. In the second term, the opportunity is to let the work become even more visible. The objective is moving from projects to lasting systems; from individual interventions to institutional reforms; from what government has started to what government can complete; and from the foundations laid in the first term to a more ambitious development trajectory in the second. 

The governor has earned a political moment worth celebrating. But the greatest opportunity now is to turn that political goodwill into an even stronger governance record. The first term established the direction. The 2026 election provided the validation. The second term provides the opportunity for consolidation.

And by 2030, we would look back and say that the promise of the BAO years was not merely about a popular governor, but about a state that became stronger, more prosperous, more transparent, more connected and more confident in its future.

This Àsìá BAO is not simply everywhere because BAO is politically popular. It is everywhere because the man and the administration have become part of the everyday conversation of Ekiti. From Efon-Alaaye to Ado, from Ikole to Ilawe, from Iyin to Omuo, the banner flies. But beneath the banner is the real work: the roads, the schools, the hospitals, the farms, the technology, the infrastructure, the institutions, the transparency and the opportunities.

The road to 2030 has begun. And if the first term was about establishing the BAO model of governance, the second would be taking that model further, deeper and wider.

The banner will continue to stand and flutter, and the people will continue to sing and dance to the song, but most importantly, the work continues. 

Owolabi, a policy and research aide to Oyebanji, writes from Oke Bareke, Ado Ekiti