Segun Sowunmi, convener of The Alternative, has reacted to the emergence of a consensus candidate for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2027 governorship race in Ogun State
On Monday, Senator Solomon Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, was announced on Monday by Governor Dapo Abiodun during a strategic caucus meeting of party leaders and stakeholders, where succession plans ahead of the 2027 governorship election were discussed.
Reacting in a statement posted on X on Tuesday, Sowunmi raised concerns about the political arrangement that produced the lawmaker as the party’s guber candidate.
In the statement titled “From Magbon to Now: We Will Not Be Conquered. Ogun’s Line in the Sand,” he suggested that the process was more of an imposition than a genuine consensus.
“Yes, a political party has the right to choose its internal mechanisms, even if that means adopting ‘consensus’ as its preferred pathway. But across every serious political system where consensus has credibility, it rests on one indispensable foundation: integrity. Without that, consensus degenerates into imposition,” he said.
He further stated, “That is precisely the issue before us. Those now attempting to foist this arrangement on Ogun State bring with them no demonstrable record of integrity… In such circumstances, what is being presented as consensus is, in reality, a crude instrument of control.”
He warned that the development signals a broader threat to democratic values in the state.
“This is how state capture begins. And it must be resisted,” he said, adding that the situation presents “a defining test… of the resolve or complicity of a people once known for their independence.”
Drawing historical parallels, Showunmi referenced past resistance movements to underscore his argument.
“The decline of the Oyo Empire reminds us that no system, however entrenched, is beyond challenge. The legacy of the Egba United Government affirms that our people built institutions of governance strong enough to command respect even from external powers. And the Ijebus themselves demonstrated this fiercely guarded independence in the Anglo-Ijebu War the so-called Magbon War where they chose resistance over submission in the face of imperial pressure.,” he noted.
He concluded by urging citizens to reject what he described as political imposition, saying “We cannot, in this generation especially within the framework of a democracy accept the status of a conquered people.
What is unfolding may be presented as process, but it is experienced as humiliation,” he said.
