I have seen and heard supporters of former Governor Rashidi Ladoja repeatedly say that Ladoja was the person who helped or supported Seyi Makinde to become governor of Oyo State in 2019, particularly because he brought together candidates of other parties and persuaded them to support Makinde.
There is certainly some truth in that argument. Ladoja played an important role in the opposition coalition that eventually rallied behind Makinde.
But there is a significant difference between saying Ladoja helped Makinde and saying Ladoja made Makinde governor.
To understand what really happened, we have to go back into Oyo's political history.
Ladoja became governor in 2003 after defeating the incumbent Lam Adesina. His emergence was significantly aided by the political structure of the late Lamidi Adedibu, then one of the most influential PDP power brokers in Oyo State.
The relationship later collapsed over disagreements concerning political influence, appointments and the management of government affairs. Ladoja was eventually impeached in 2006, although he later returned to office after the courts overturned the impeachment. His political battle with Adedibu, however, continued to shape Oyo politics for years.
Ladoja subsequently developed his own political identity and became a major power broker in the state.
It is also important to correct another point that is sometimes confused in discussions about his political history: Ladoja did contest the 2011 governorship election. He ran on the platform of the Accord Party against Abiola Ajimobi of the ACN and Christopher Alao-Akala of the PDP.
By 2015, Ladoja was again on the ballot, this time challenging incumbent Governor Ajimobi under the Accord Party. He lost.
The 2015 election provided perhaps the clearest lesson for what happened four years later.
The opposition was fragmented. Ladoja contested for Accord, Alao-Akala for Labour Party, Teslim Folarin for PDP and Seyi Makinde for SDP. The opposition votes were therefore divided among several candidates, making it easier for Ajimobi to retain power.
By 2019, the opposition had learnt from that experience.
But contrary to the narrative that Ladoja simply chose Makinde and everyone followed him, the political circumstances of 2019 had already begun to make Makinde the most logical and viable candidate for a united opposition.
The first major signal came from the presidential election.
In Oyo State, the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, narrowly defeated President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC, polling 366,690 votes against Buhari's 365,229.
More importantly, the PDP demonstrated that it had become a serious electoral force in the state. The party's performance was not merely about the presidential contest. PDP's Kola Balogun also defeated incumbent Governor Abiola Ajimobi in the Oyo South senatorial election, polling 105,720 votes against Ajimobi's 92,218.
That was a powerful political signal.
The message was obvious: the PDP had momentum.
And Makinde was the PDP candidate.
He therefore had something the other opposition candidates did not possess to the same extent — the platform of the strongest opposition party in that particular electoral environment, an established party structure, considerable political reach and the resources that came with running under the PDP banner.
This is why the argument that Ladoja alone handed Makinde the governorship does not fully stand up to scrutiny.
The coalition negotiations eventually produced Makinde as the consensus candidate, but the reason Makinde emerged was not simply because Ladoja pointed at him.
Contemporary reports specifically stated that Makinde's PDP had posted the best result among the opposition parties in the presidential election, which became one of the major reasons ADC, ZLP and SDP agreed to adopt him as their consensus candidate.
Ladoja's role was nevertheless significant.
As leader of the ZLP structure and a former governor with considerable political influence, he helped persuade other major opposition candidates — including Femi Lanlehin of ADC and Sharafadeen Alli of ZLP — to abandon their individual governorship ambitions and support Makinde. Reports from the period identified Ladoja as a key figure in the negotiations.
But the sequence matters.
The opposition first needed a candidate with the strongest electoral platform.
The presidential election gave the PDP that advantage.
Makinde was already the PDP candidate.
The PDP had demonstrated strong electoral performance.
Makinde therefore became the most practical vehicle for consolidating the opposition vote.
Ladoja and the other opposition leaders then helped bring their structures behind him.
That is a very different story from saying Ladoja personally created Makinde's victory.
When the governorship election eventually took place, Makinde defeated APC's Adebayo Adelabu with 515,621 votes against 357,982 — a margin of more than 157,000 votes.
That margin was certainly helped by the opposition coalition. But it also reflected a broader political realignment in Oyo State.
The electorate had already demonstrated its appetite for change in the presidential and senatorial elections.
The PDP had the strongest opposition platform.
Makinde had the benefit of that platform.
Ladoja helped consolidate the other opposition structures behind him.
And the voters ultimately made the final decision.
So, yes, Ladoja helped Makinde win.
But to say that Ladoja made Makinde governor is to reduce a complicated political victory involving the PDP's electoral strength, Makinde's own political campaign, opposition unity, anti-incumbency sentiment and the decisions of hundreds of thousands of Oyo voters to one individual.
The more historically defensible conclusion is this:
Ladoja was an important architect of the 2019 opposition coalition, but he was not the sole architect of Makinde's victory.
Makinde became the preferred candidate because, at that particular moment, he was sitting on the strongest opposition platform, backed by a PDP that had demonstrated its electoral strength in the presidential election and possessed the organisational machinery and resources necessary for a serious statewide contest.
Ladoja helped bring the opposition to Makinde.
But the political circumstances of 2019 had already made Makinde the candidate around whom that opposition could realistically unite.
And ultimately, it was not Ladoja who voted Makinde into Agodi Government House.
It was the people of Oyo State.
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