Abeokuta, on Friday, witnessed something that has eluded Ogun State’s political class for years, a single figure commanding the loyalty and reverence of camps that ordinarily trade barbs across party lines.
The occasion was solemn. The burial of Mrs Sabainah Ibironke Opawole, mother of Yeye Olufunke Daniel and mother-in-law of former Governor Otunba Senator Gbenga Daniel, drew a gathering that read like a roll call of Ogun’s political history. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was represented by his wife, Mrs Bola Obasanjo. Former Governor Ibikunle Amosun sent his wife, Chief Mrs Olufunso Amosun, to stand in for him. Governor Dapo Abiodun was present in person, as were the two men jostling to succeed him in 2027, Senator Solomon Adeola, popularly called Yayi, and Hon. Oladipupo Adebutu.
But it was Otunba Senator Gbenga Daniel who held the room, and by extension, the moment.
As tributes gave way to chants from the supporters of both Adeola and Adebutu, the church briefly threatened to turn into a campaign ground. Adebutu’s camp rallied behind “Say Lado for 2027” and “Ogun for Ogun,” only for Adeola’s supporters to respond in kind with songs championing the senator’s own ambition. It took Otunba Senator Daniel’s intervention, reminding the congregation that they had gathered to honour his mother-in-law and not to campaign, to restore the solemnity the day demanded.
What has not been sufficiently remarked upon, however, is a detail that tells its own story. Amid the sharply divided chants for Adeola and for Adebutu, one name drew a chorus from both camps without exception, Otunba Senator Gbenga Daniel’s. Supporters loyal to either governorship hopeful broke into applause and song whenever OGD’s name was mentioned, a unity neither man could independently command from the same crowd. If Ogun State’s politics has a unifying factor left standing above the factional lines of APC and PDP, Friday’s burial made a strong case for who that is.
Otunba Senator Daniel himself set the tone for magnanimity, later inviting Governor Abiodun to walk both Adebutu and Yayi to the dancing floor together, a gesture meant to demonstrate that, whatever the placards say, the two men remain part of one political family in the state. He was characteristically measured in his own remarks, declining to predict a winner. “Something tells me that by the time we come back here, sometime next year, about this time, somebody in this room would have become the governor of Ogun State,” he said. “I don’t know who the person is… but God knows who is going to be the next governor.”
The tributes that followed painted a portrait of Mrs Opawole as a woman whose influence quietly shaped the state’s political families. Chief Obasanjo, through his wife’s remarks, described her as a woman of uncommon grace whose devotion built a lasting legacy across generations. Governor Abiodun called her a disciplined and generous matriarch, noting that “the fruit does not fall far from the tree” in praise of Yeye Olufunke Daniel. Adebutu urged the family to hold on to the values she left behind, while Adeola said her life’s testimony was written plainly in the achievements of the children she raised.
History, in its own quiet way, was made in Abeokuta on Friday, not by any declaration or endorsement, but by the sight of rival camps setting down their placards long enough to sing for one man. Whether that goodwill outlives the burial program is a question, only the countdown to 2027 will answer.
