In a political landscape perpetually in flux, Senator Iyiola Omisore has found himself back in fashion. The former deputy governor, senator, and national secretary of the All Progressives Congress, once painted as a relic of old-school politicking, is now being courted again, whispered about in corridors of power and invoked in the calculus of Osun’s political future.
He has been here before. And then, he vanished. But now, in a moment that feels both familiar and strange, the state’s political orbit is tilting back toward him.
This resurgence didn’t come with fanfare. It crept in. One of his former critics, Kamorudeen Adabanija, a vocal loyalist of Rauf Aregbesola, recently emerged from police custody with a surprising confession: admiration for the man he once called a murderer. Adabanija’s U-turn lit up Osun’s political grapevine, casting Omisore as a man of remarkable restraint and long memory, the type who absorbs insults without returning fire, then rises—clean, composed, still relevant.
But Omisore’s allure today is not rooted in sentiment. It is arithmetic. As Governor Ademola Adeleke toys with defection to the APC and reshapes Osun’s political order, the party finds itself split between caution and ambition. Many old loyalists grumble at the thought of Adeleke’s arrival, worried he’ll crowd out those who’ve stayed since their 2022 defeat.
In this uncertainty, Omisore glows. Not as a loud contender, but as a bridge between factions, between histories, between old loyalties and new opportunities. With deep roots in Ife, technocratic credentials that still impress, and a résumé stretching from electrical engineering to national politics, he offers what many lack: structure, steadiness, and the ability to stay relevant without shouting.And so, once again, Osun’s political dance begins. But this time, the chorus is softer, and eyes, both young and old, are turning toward the man whom many once dismissed.
He is no longer a sideline story. He is the story.
