Governor allegedly reveals private pact with President, says governors traded campaign funding for guaranteed return tickets
—Wale Onifade
Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun has privately told a select group of political leaders and stakeholders in his Iperu hometown that President Bola Tinubu has endorsed him as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the Ogun East Senatorial District in the 2027 general elections — a claim that, if verified, would represent one of the most significant political revelations to emerge from the state ahead of next year’s electoral cycle.
The briefing, which took place on Tuesday at the governor’s Iperu residence in Ikenne Local Government Area, was held off-camera and away from the press. Abiodun, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the meeting, spoke candidly to close loyalists and community stakeholders, informing them that he had secured the President’s nod only days before the gathering and was now formally seeking their backing to consolidate his Senate aspiration.
Sources present at the Tuesday meeting told this reporter that Abiodun was unusually candid about the circumstances surrounding the alleged endorsement. He reportedly told the gathering that the concession “did not come easy and cheap,” signalling protracted negotiations at the highest levels of the ruling party before a resolution was reached.
The timing of the disclosure is significant. It suggests that whatever arrangement Abiodun claims to have secured with the President was struck in the final days before the Iperu meeting, raising immediate questions about what triggered the urgency and what political currency was exchanged to seal it.
The most explosive element of Abiodun’s off-camera remarks, according to sources, was his claim that a broader transactional arrangement underpins his alleged endorsement. He reportedly told loyalists that state governors collectively committed to funding President Tinubu’s presidential election campaigns, and that in exchange, those governors were to be rewarded with guaranteed re-election support and Senatorial tickets upon the expiration of their tenures.
If accurate, this account describes a coordinated political arrangement between the Presidency and a bloc of APC governors that subordinates party democracy to a pre-negotiated reward structure — effectively removing the primary process as a meaningful arbiter of who flies the party’s flag.
The implication is direct: Abiodun is not presenting himself as a candidate who earned his party ticket through grassroots support or legislative merit, but as one whose access to the ballot is the product of a financial quid pro quo with the nation’s highest office.
Having framed his claim within the context of a presidential endorsement, Abiodun proceeded to ask the leaders present to formally adopt him as their candidate for the Ogun East Senatorial race. The move follows a familiar pattern in Nigerian electoral politics, where presidential backing, real or claimed, is deployed as social proof to preempt internal party resistance and accelerate stakeholder alignment.
Ogun East Senatorial District covers Ijebu-Ode, Ikenne, Sagamu, Remo, and surrounding local government areas — a zone with its own established political network and historical power contests. Abiodun, a native of Iperu in Ikenne LGA, would be running on home turf, but the seat is unlikely to be conceded without contest.
As of press time, the Presidency had not issued any statement confirming or denying that President Tinubu endorsed Governor Abiodun for the Ogun East Senate seat.
The APC’s national leadership has not publicly indicated that any such arrangement exists, and no formal party process for senatorial ticket allocation for 2027 has been announced.
It bears noting: most of Governor Abiodun’s claims, as relayed by sources, remain unconfirmed through official channels. No documentary evidence of any presidential endorsement has been made public, and the governor’s account is, at present, entirely self-reported within a closed-door setting.
The alleged move carries significant electoral and ethical dimensions.
On the electoral side, Abiodun’s calculated disclosure to Iperu stakeholders before any public announcement suggests a strategy of controlled information release: build ground-level consensus first, then confront any rival aspirants with a fait accompli backed by both presidential authority and local adoption.
On the ethical side, the governor’s reported claim that governors funded Tinubu’s campaigns in exchange for political rewards, if substantiated, would represent a serious accountability question for Nigeria’s democracy. It implies that public office holders deployed either state resources or personal capital in a private political bargain that bypassed the party’s democratic structures.
Political analysts and opposition voices within Ogun State are likely to scrutinise the claim closely. The Ogun East zone has historically been competitive and is home to several political heavyweights who have not signalled deference to Abiodun’s post-governorship ambitions.
The 2027 general elections are approximately twelve months away. APC’s primary process for National Assembly candidates has not commenced. Whether President Tinubu’s office confirms the alleged endorsement, whether Abiodun formally declares for the Ogun East seat, and whether rival aspirants within the zone accept or contest the claim will determine how this story develops.