..How Oluyede’s post-election strategy is creating a new cross-party alliance ahead of 2027
There was more to the gathering at Fajuyi Park, Ado-Ekiti, on Tuesday than the thousands of supporters who marched through the streets under the banner of the Oluyede Progressive Alliance for Renewed Hope Agenda.
At the centre of the political spectacle was a development that would have been difficult to predict only a few months ago.
Dr Oluwole Oluyede, who contested the June 20, 2026 governorship election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, stood alongside Governor Biodun Oyebanji, his opponent in that election, to rally support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ahead of the 2027 presidential election.
It was a striking political turnaround.
In June, the two men were asking Ekiti voters for the same mandate. In September, their political paths began moving in a different direction. On Tuesday, they appeared together before a large crowd, speaking about peace, development, political cooperation and support for the President.
The development has brought a new dimension to Ekiti politics.
The question is no longer simply what happened during the governorship election.
It is what Oluyede has done since the election and what that could mean for the political equation in the state.
Oluyede's decision to establish the OPARHA platform and mobilise his supporters for Tinubu represents a significant repositioning after the governorship contest.
Rather than allowing the election to become the end of his immediate political engagement, he has chosen to build another political conversation around the 2027 presidential election.
That strategy became clearer when he withdrew his petition challenging Oyebanji's victory at the Ekiti State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal.
The petition was subsequently struck out following the withdrawal.
The development removed one of the major points of political confrontation between the two camps and created room for a different relationship.
Oluyede subsequently moved into the public space with a message of cooperation, particularly around the development of Ekiti and support for Tinubu.
It was against this background that the OPARHA Renewed Hope Mega Walk took place.
The event, which started from Ajilosun and terminated at Fajuyi Park, was presented as a 20,000-step mobilisation under the theme, “20,000 Steps. One Hope. One Nigeria.”
But beyond the size of the crowd, the political significance of the event was in the people who stood together at the end of the walk.
For Oluyede, it was an opportunity to demonstrate that his political influence did not end with the governorship election.
He has now set himself another political test, mobilising the people who supported him in the PDP governorship contest for a presidential candidate outside his party.
And he has not hidden the scale of his ambition.
Oluyede has pledged to work towards delivering 90 per cent of Ekiti's votes to Tinubu in 2027.
“We are going to win this election with 90 per cent. We are going to work hard to make sure that we deliver 90 per cent for him,” he told supporters.
The pledge has transformed the OPARHA project from a general political declaration into a measurable undertaking.
The former PDP candidate says the mobilisation will extend across the state's 16 local government areas and 177 wards, with supporters expected to engage voters directly.
That is where the real test of the new political strategy lies.
A crowd at a rally is visible.
Grassroots mobilisation is different.
It requires structures, ward-level relationships, sustained engagement and the ability to keep political supporters together long after the excitement of a major event has disappeared.
This is where Oluyede's political experiment becomes particularly interesting.
He is attempting to create a bridge between political constituencies that were on opposite sides during the governorship election.
Governor Oyebanji appears to recognise the importance of that bridge.
Speaking at Fajuyi Park, the governor thanked Oluyede for putting aside political differences and mobilising support for Tinubu.
Oyebanji described the development as consistent with the aspiration of the founding fathers of Ekiti State, who, according to him, desired a state where the people could remain united despite their political differences.
“What is happening today speaks to the aspirations of the founding fathers of Ekiti,” the governor said.
The governor also praised Oluyede's willingness to make what he described as a sacrifice in the interest of Ekiti.
“Any leader that loves his people will not mind to sacrifice, he will not mind to go through pains, and that is what is happening today,” Oyebanji added.
The significance of those remarks lies in the fact that they came from the man who defeated Oluyede at the governorship election.
Rather than maintaining the conventional post-election hostility often associated with Nigerian politics, both men are now publicly projecting cooperation.
That cooperation is also important to Oyebanji's own political calculations.
The governor has been mobilising support for Tinubu and has repeatedly called for greater cooperation among APC and PDP supporters who back the President.
At Fajuyi Park, he described Tinubu's re-election as “existential” for Ekiti, arguing that the President's administration had supported the state through federal projects and interventions.
He cited the Ado-Ekiti–Ifaki road and other federal infrastructure interventions as examples of what he considers the benefits of the relationship between Ekiti and the Federal Government.
But while Oyebanji brings the institutional strength of a sitting governor and the APC structure, Oluyede brings something different to the emerging alliance.
He brings a constituency that was mobilised under an opposition platform only months ago.
That is what makes his role politically significant.
A former opposition candidate publicly campaigning for a sitting President is one thing.
Attempting to mobilise his former supporters across 16 local government areas and 177 wards is another.
The success or otherwise of that undertaking will determine whether OPARHA becomes a serious grassroots political network or remains principally a campaign platform for the 2027 presidential election.
For now, however, Oluyede has succeeded in changing the conversation around himself.
The narrative following the governorship election could have remained centred on his defeat and the legal challenge that followed.
Instead, the conversation has shifted towards what he intends to do next.
That shift did not happen by accident.
It followed a series of political decisions — from withdrawing the legal challenge to building a new platform and openly supporting Tinubu.
Whether those decisions ultimately produce the political dividends Oluyede expects is a question for time.
But politically, they have created space for him to remain relevant beyond the election in which he contested.
That may be the most interesting aspect of the emerging Oluyede-Oyebanji relationship.
Nigerian politics is often defined by permanent rivalry, with politicians who contest against one another finding it difficult to cooperate after the votes have been counted.
Ekiti is now presenting a different picture.
Two men who faced each other at the ballot box are attempting to build a common political project around a presidential election.
The challenge is whether that cooperation can move beyond the political leadership and reach the grassroots.
The 90 per cent target has therefore become more than a slogan.
It is a political promise that OPARHA will eventually have to measure against its performance across the state's polling units.
Oluyede has set the target.
Oyebanji has endorsed the broader direction of the mobilisation.
The next phase will determine whether the structures being discussed at rallies can be translated into sustained political organisation.
For Oluyede, that is also where his political strategy will face its biggest test.
The OPARHA walk may have demonstrated his ability to bring thousands of people together in Ado-Ekiti.
The more difficult task will be taking that mobilisation to the communities, wards and polling units where presidential elections are ultimately decided.
For now, the political picture in Ekiti has changed.
The men who stood on opposite sides of the ballot are now standing on the same platform.
And in the middle of that new equation is Oluyede, attempting to turn a post-election political transition into a broader grassroots movement ahead of 2027.
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