Iyiola Omisore @68: A rose in the midst of thorns, an accomplished professional in politics
By Dare Adelekan
At 68, Senator Iyiola Ajani Omisore remains one of Nigeria’s most enigmatic political figures — a man simultaneously celebrated and vilified, courted and condemned, embraced and rejected. To his admirers, he is a rose that continues to bloom despite the suffocating weeds of envy, conspiracy, and betrayal. To his detractors, he is a thorn that cannot be ignored. But one truth is undeniable: Omisore is an accomplished professional in politics, a survivor in the jungle of Nigerian democracy.
The Bola Ige burden
No reflection on Omisore can escape the heavy shadow of Chief Bola Ige’s assassination in 2001. Then Deputy Governor of Osun State, Omisore was arrested, paraded, and prosecuted in connection with the tragic murder of the Attorney General of the Federation. The Obasanjo government, in its vindictiveness, made him the face of Yoruba betrayal. He was humiliated in chains, but at the end, the courts cleared him.
Yet, Yoruba elders such as Pa Ayo Adebanjo, factions of Afenifere, and the Bola Ige family have never forgiven him. They see his acquittal as a loophole in the Nigerian judicial system. But history must be fair: if there was evidence, why did the prosecution fail? Or was Omisore a convenient political scapegoat in Obasanjo’s war of Yoruba dominance?
The PDP betrayal and APC embrace
Omisore’s trajectory is also a lesson in Nigerian political hypocrisy. The PDP, which once used and discarded him, later fielded him as governorship candidate in Osun. But when betrayal came, he stood alone. Yet the same APC leaders, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Bisi Akande, and Rauf Aregbesola who painted him as the villain of Bola Ige’s death, ran to him in 2018.
Let us not forget: Omisore’s support in that Osun governorship rerun handed victory to Gboyega Oyetola. The so-called pariah became kingmaker. Today, the same APC rewarded him with the powerful office of National Secretary. If Omisore were the devil his critics describe, why does the ruling party trust him with such a sensitive role?
68 years of resilience
At 68, Omisore has lived several lives in one:
As an Engineer — He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, a technocrat with international exposure.
As a Politician — Deputy Governor, Senator, Governorship candidate, and APC National Secretary.
As a Survivor — He has outlived Bola Ige’s tragedy, Obasanjo’s vendetta, PDP’s betrayal, and APC’s opportunism.
Few politicians in Nigeria have been so tested yet so unbroken. Like Orji Uzor Kalu, who survived prison and still emerged Senate Chief Whip. Like Nyesom Wike, who destroyed PDP from within yet now sits as Tinubu’s minister. Like Tinubu himself, once hounded into exile but now President. Omisore belongs in that rare class of political survivors who bend but never break.
The rose and the thorns
Omisore at 68 is a rose in the midst of thorns — fragrant to his loyalists, prickly to his foes. The thorns are real: Bola Ige’s ghost, Yoruba intelligentsia’s distrust, and the whispers of opportunism. But the rose is just as real: his brilliance, aristocratic Ife roots, political savvy, and sheer resilience.
His story is not one of sainthood, but of survival, adaptability, and accomplishment. He is proof that in Nigerian politics, there are no permanent enemies or friends — only permanent interests.
Omisore’s lesson at 68
At 68, Omisore embodies the contradictions of Nigerian democracy itself: flawed but enduring, bruised but unbowed, controversial but indispensable. He is not perfect, but who among his critics is? Obasanjo has Odi and the third-term debacle on his record. Tinubu has his own shadows. Atiku has been smeared with corruption without proof. Even Jonathan, the so-called “good man,” destroyed zoning and plunged PDP into its current coma.
In that context, Omisore is not an outlier but a mirror of Nigerian politics. He remains what others pretend not to be: a survivor who knows that politics is not a game for saints but for roses that can grow among thorns.
Happy 68th Birthday, Senator Iyiola Ajani Omisore, the rose that refused to wither.