Action Alliance (AA) governorship candidate in Oyo State, Comrade Bayo Titilola-Sodo, has explained why he broke ranks with Governor Seyi Makinde, saying his disagreement with the governor is rooted in the manner in which a successor has been chosen for the 2027 governorship race.
Titilola-Sodo, a former labour leader and former Special Adviser to Makinde on Labour Matters, said he would not withdraw his ambition or surrender his political structure to support the governor’s preferred successor, Bimbo Adekanmbi.
He spoke on Monday, September 28, 2026, at a political forum organised by the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo State Council, in Ibadan.
The AA candidate said his decision to challenge the political direction of the administration was not based on personal disagreement but on what he described as the failure to recognise people who, according to him, contributed significantly to the achievements for which the Makinde administration is being credited.
Titilola-Sodo said he was particularly concerned that members of the team that worked with the governor from the beginning were not given an opportunity to participate meaningfully in determining who should succeed him.
He declared that he could not be expected to serve as a political placeholder for anybody.
“Comrade Sodo is not the kind of person to hold forth for anybody. In fact, that is one of my major reasons for dissent with Governor Seyi Makinde,” he said.
According to him, he would probably have taken a different political decision had he been considered part of the succession arrangement.
“I was with the team when I was appointed for a specific purpose. I did not join the party. Maybe I would have joined the party if I had been anointed to be the successor. Because I know that we built this decent reputation together,” he said.
The former labour leader also challenged the perception that the administration’s achievements in workers’ welfare could be attributed to a single individual or section of government.
He argued that the policies and interventions that improved relations between the government and organised labour were products of collective efforts by members of the administration and labour stakeholders.
Titilola-Sodo described workers’ and pensioners’ welfare as one of the areas where the administration had recorded its most significant achievements, adding that he was part of the process.
He stated, “That area, which is our area that nobody can challenge- the area of the welfare of workers and pensioners- we did it together. We did that area together; that area is the most successful sector that this government cannot say a sentence without referring to it.”
He questioned why, having contributed to the administration’s early successes, none of the members of what he described as the original team was considered suitable to provide continuity.
Instead, he described Adekanmbi as an outsider to the group that worked with the governor from the beginning and linked his entry into the administration’s political circle to the Ibadan airport project.
Titilola-Sodo’s comments come against the background of growing political manoeuvring in Oyo State ahead of the 2027 elections. Former Oyo State Commissioner for Justice, Adebayo Mutalubi Ojo, had earlier identified Titilola-Sodo among politicians who had openly expressed grievances with the political situation surrounding Makinde and Adekanmbi.
Titilola-Sodo also recounted his involvement in the early days of the Makinde administration, particularly the dispute over the national minimum wage.
He recalled that Makinde’s position during his inauguration speech at Liberty Stadium triggered concern among labour leaders because, according to him, the governor had questioned the idea of a uniform minimum wage imposed by the Federal Government.
“The day our boss was sworn in at the Liberty Stadium, during his declaration on the podium, he said he was not going to pay minimum wage,” he recalled.
He said the statement immediately generated tension among organised labour leaders who were present at the ceremony.
According to him, he subsequently intervened before the governor’s first official engagement at the state secretariat, advising him on how to manage the relationship with labour and avoid an early confrontation.
Titilola-Sodo said the intervention eventually paved the way for discussions between the government and labour representatives.
The AA candidate also returned to his criticism of the manner in which resources meant for local governments are managed.
He explained that his use of the word “evacuation” was not a reference to the physical removal of money from local governments but to a situation where contracts meant for communities are awarded to contractors based outside those communities.
According to him, such contractors ultimately take the profits generated from the contracts back to their places of residence or operation.
He explained, “When we say something is being evacuated, I’m using it in the parlance of the contractor handing in a job not being a resident of that place in which he is discharging the services.”
He argued that local government autonomy should involve allowing councils to exercise the responsibilities assigned to them rather than transferring those responsibilities to other authorities or centralised structures.
He said, “Section 7 does not say that the functions of local government should be taken away from them and handled by somebody else. It only recommended an oversight function for them and not to take away their responsibility.”
Despite his criticisms, Titilola-Sodo acknowledged that the Makinde administration had recorded achievements in some areas.
He, however, argued that the administration could have achieved more, considering the resources available to the state from both federal allocations and internally generated revenue.
His criticism, therefore, was not that nothing had been achieved but that he believed the available resources provided room for greater development outcomes.
Beyond his criticism of the incumbent administration, Titilola-Sodo used the forum to outline aspects of his economic agenda, particularly for rural communities in Oke-Ogun, Ibarapa and Ogbomoso.
He proposed the establishment of cottage industries across the state’s agricultural zones to process farm produce locally instead of allowing raw agricultural products to leave producing communities without significant value addition.
Under the proposal, each local government would have at least one cottage industry based on the dominant agricultural produce of the area.
He cited mango-producing communities as an example, saying processing facilities should be established where mangoes are produced so that the fruit could be processed before being transported elsewhere.
“It will not be a full government outfit, but we will not leave it to the private operators alone,” he said.
He proposed a partnership model under which farmers would contribute part of the capital required to establish the industries while the government provides matching support.
“If they put themselves together, like maybe we have 10 farmers, the cottage industry will cost like N20 million—just for example—if they are able to raise N10 million among them, the government will add N10 million to it to ensure that that industry comes alive,” he explained.
He said the model would enable farmers to move from primary production into processing and value addition while retaining more economic benefits within their communities.
Earlier, Chairman of the Oyo NUJ Correspondents’ Chapel, Comrade Yinka Adeniran, said the forum was designed to provide political aspirants with an opportunity to explain their programmes directly to the public.
Adeniran said members of the chapel were professional journalists who did not belong to political parties and therefore intended to provide a platform where candidates could present their positions without partisan alignment.
He added that the chapel would make the platform available to candidates from different political parties who were willing to participate.
According to him, the initiative was part of the journalists’ contribution to strengthening democratic participation and enabling voters to hear directly from political actors ahead of the 2027 elections.
