“APC polled 197,462 votes that year. PDP’s Prof. Kolapo Olusola Eleka polled 177,927. The margin was just 19,535 votes. That was Ekiti at its most competitive. No ward was safe. No LGA could be taken for granted. APC won because its base showed up and stood firm”
APC’S EKITI STORY: FROM SURVIVAL TO MANAGEMENT TO DOMINANCE
By Segun Dipe
Ekiti politics used to move to one rhythm. Tense. Close. Decided at the last ward, sometimes the last polling unit. For years that was the rule. Every election was a fight for breath. Every LGA was a battlefield. Then June 20, 2026 came and changed the music. It didn’t just produce a winner. It wrote history.
To understand what happened on that Saturday, you only need three numbers spread across eight years. 197,462… 187,057… 319,200. Those are APC’s votes in Ekiti’s 2018, 2022, and 2026 governorship elections. Three numbers. One story. A story Ekiti people will be telling their children for a long time.
The story began in 2018 when Dr. John Kayode Fayemi returned to Ekiti with a simple, direct pitch. “Let me finish what I started.” The people listened. But they listened with caution. APC polled 197,462 votes that year. PDP’s Prof. Kolapo Olusola Eleka polled 177,927. The margin was just 19,535 votes.
That was Ekiti at its most competitive. No ward was safe. No LGA could be taken for granted. APC won because its base showed up and stood firm, not because the opposition stayed home. The message from voters was clear and sharp. Ekiti wanted Fayemi back, yes. But trust had to be earned every single day. Those 197,462 votes were not a coronation. They were a four-year contract with strict terms. Deliver or be shown the way out. And Fayemi delivered.
Four years later, in 2022, the test became harder. The candidate was new but the party was the same. Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji, BAO, stepped forward for APC. The field was crowded and complicated. It was a three-way race: BAO for APC, Segun Oni for SDP, and Bisi Kolawole for PDP.
When the votes were counted, APC had 187,057 votes. That was 10,405 votes fewer than Fayemi’s 2018 total. SDP took 82,211 votes. PDP dropped further to 67,457. On paper, APC’s vote bank had shrunk. But in reality, BAO passed the most important test of his political life.
The opposition had split itself into two strong camps. BAO’s job was to hold the APC core together while others fought each other. He did it. The margin over second-place SDP was 104,846 votes. The story of 2022 was not about growth. It was about management. Ekiti was asking BAO a direct question. “Can you manage the structure Fayemi built without breaking it?” BAO answered yes. Voters rewarded stability over noise, delivery over drama. But with 187,057 votes, APC’s ceiling looked fixed. Many believed that was as high as the party could go in Ekiti.
Then came June 20, 2026. Same candidate. Totally different outcome. BAO polled 319,200 votes. PDP’s Oluyede got 40,543. ADC’s Bejide managed 12,842.
Pause and read those figures again. APC added 132,143 new votes in just four years. That is a 70.6 percent jump from 2022. The winning margin was 278,657 votes. That margin alone was larger than the combined votes of PDP and ADC. For perspective, PDP’s 40,543 votes in 2026 is the kind of total APC used to win entire local governments back in 2018. This was not just about higher turnout. This was conversion. People moved.
What does this story reveal? It reveals that Ekiti voters did not just choose APC. They chose continuity. In 2018 Ekiti was divided. The state was split down the middle. In 2022 Ekiti was cautious. Voters wanted to see if BAO could manage the house. In 2026 Ekiti spoke with one voice. Loud and clear. BAO has lived up to expectation.
It is also important to note that the opposition did not just lose votes. APC won them. PDP’s numbers tell the painful truth. 177,927 votes in 2018. 67,457 in 2022. 40,543 in 2026. That is 137,384 voters gone in eight years. Many of those voters moved to APC. Others stayed home in disappointment. But the 132,143 new votes BAO gained between 2022 and 2026 did not fall from the sky. They came from Ekiti men and women who measured hospitals, checked salary alerts, drove on new roads, read published budgets, and then decided to move their support.
Here is the simple math of a landslide: You do not win all 177 wards with 187,057 votes. You win them with 319,200 votes. The jump from 187K to 319K is the arithmetic of a sweep. From Ado-Ekiti delivering over 38,000 votes to Ikole LGA giving APC over 94 percent, the votes showed up in every corner. The party that won by 19,535 votes in 2018 now wins by more votes than the total votes cast in many states.
The currency of Ekiti politics has also changed. In 2018 the currency was “Fayemi’s return.” In 2022 it was “structure and stability.” In 2026 it became “receipts.” Salaries paid as and when due. Roads delivered and commissioned. Clinics upgraded and functioning. Ekiti voters traded ideology for evidence. The APC vote grew because governance became visible in every ward.
From 197,462 to 187,057 to 319,200. APC’s Ekiti story has moved from survival to management to dominance. But dominance in Ekiti politics is a dangerous place if you forget history. The same voters who lifted APC from 187K to 319K can pull it back down just as fast.
BAO now governs with the widest mandate any governor has ever received in Ekiti. The 319,200 Ekiti people who voted APC did not vote for a party logo. They voted for delivery. The contract is clear and written in ballots. Finish the road projects. Protect salaries and pensions. Push jobs, healthcare, and education deep into every ward.
Ekiti has told its story with ballots three times in eight years. The next chapter will not be written with votes. It will be written with projects, policies, and performance. And the voters are watching. Every ward. Every day.
From 197K… to 319K… The question now is simple. What next for APC in Ekiti?
* Segun Dipe is the Publicity Secretary, APC, Ekiti State Chapter
