A coalition of prominent citizens from 22 local government areas outside Ibadan, under the platform Oyo G22 Renewed, has called for an end to what it described as decades of exclusion from the state’s top political office.
In an open letter sent to President Bola Tinubu; Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde; and the national and state leadership of the All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, and African Democratic Congress, the group criticised what it termed a long-standing imbalance in the selection of governors in Oyo State.
Signatories to the letter include Prof. Wande Abimbola, Bishop Ayo Ladigbolu, Prof. Sulaiman Gbadegesin, Dr. Adesokan Ojebode, Prof. Nurain Tanimowo, Mr. Dokun Alagbe, Dr. Akin Onigbinde, and retired General Kunle Togun.
According to the group, Ibadan has produced nearly every governor since 1983 — Omololu Olunloyo, Kolapo Ishola, Lamidi Adesina, Rashidi Ladoja, Abiola Ajimobi, and the incumbent Seyi Makinde. Only the late Adebayo Alao-Akala from Ogbomoso, who served from 2007 to 2011, came from outside Ibadan.
The coalition urged political parties to field their 2027 governorship candidates from the non-Ibadan zones of Ogbomoso, Oyo, Ibarapa, and Oke-Ogun.
“In other South-West states, no single zone dominates the governorship slot as has happened in Oyo. For example, no indigene of Akure, Osogbo, or Ado-Ekiti has become governor in Ondo, Osun, or Ekiti. In Ogun, the governorship oscillates between the Egbas and the Ijebus,” the group stated.
It also pointed out that voting patterns in Oyo favour non-Ibadan residents: only about 30 per cent of voters in Ibadan are indigenes, while 70 per cent are from other zones or non-indigenes of the state.
The letter appealed to Ibadan leaders to support a fairer arrangement “in the interest of justice, equity, peaceful coexistence, and fairness” by allowing candidates from the 22 local governments outside Ibadan to produce the next governor.
The group maintained that it would support any political platform that embraces its demand for power rotation in 2027 and expressed confidence that party leaders’ intervention could shift Ibadan’s long-standing dominance.
At the federal level, the group added, the North has never monopolised the presidency despite its large voting population — a model, it argued, that Oyo State could emulate.
