Why Talks Are Shifting Away From Teslim Folarin In Oyo

Teslim Kolawole Folarin, the only person to win multiple terms as a Senator in Oyo, is no longer one of the most talked-about politicians in the state with Ibadan as its capital.

Conversations around him in his political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), have also ebbed, according to those in the know.

Insiders attribute this development to circumstances that have thrown up new leaders, edging out the 61-year-old from the list of the most discussed.

Since he lost the 2023 election as the gubernatorial candidate of the APC in Oyo State, Folarin has been sidelined.

His party winning the Presidential election to take charge of the federal government has not helped him fare well.

Federal appointments to Oyo State have favored other political blocs, particularly the rapidly rising Ogbomoso bloc.

Zaccheus Adedeji, the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and Sunday Dare, the former Sports Minister now Special Adviser on Public Communications to President Bola Tinubu, top the list of appointments lifting Ogbomoso to political reckoning in the APC.

Although Folarin is from Ibadan, where he is a ranked chief, he is overshadowed in the area’s political space by fellow native Adebayo Adelabu, the Minister for Power.

Checks revealed that Adelabu and Folarin share an interesting history.

Adelabu, who was the Oyo APC gubernatorial candidate for 2019, left for the Accord Party after he lost the party’s governorship ticket for the 2023 election to Folarin.

Governor Seyi Makinde won the election to secure a second term in office, but Adelabu, who is also a former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, was picked over Folarin to become Minister.

Insiders explain the decision by the President as a result of “pragmatic politicking and competence.”

However, it has not helped Folarin that, aside from not getting a federal appointment, he has not been able to influence any thing major for members of his political family.

“His influence is being eclipsed by the rising power blocs, especially those with late Governors Abiola Ajimobi (Ibadan) and Adebayo Alao-Akala (Ogbomoso),” sources say.

“In politics, you must not only be perceived to be able to but seen as possessing the ability to make things happen in the scheme of things to be constantly talked about in projections and permutations for the present and future. I guess that is what is happening to him,” observers point out.

Unconfirmed sources link Folarin’s current situation largely to happenings ahead of the 2023 gubernatorial election that placed him on different footings with Tinubu, who was the Presidential candidate of the APC at the time