Opinion: Is Senator Omisore Now Overrated?

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By Pelumi Olajengbesi Esq.

There was a time when the mere mention of Senator Iyiola Omisore’s name could realign political calculations in Osun State. His presence in any political room was never ornamental. He was not noise, he was strategy. Not just a participant, but a planner of outcomes. For years, Omisore symbolised structure, discipline, and political depth. So, when news broke that he had been “disqualified” by his own party in a manner that can only be described as casual and humiliating, it shocked even his quietest admirers. Impossibility!

To be clear, Senator Omisore cannot confront the mass movement and organic popularity currently enjoyed by Governor Ademola Adeleke. That is political reality. But to reduce Omisore to a political afterthought, to treat him as disposable, is where the real debate begins.

I have known Senator Omisore for years. He is a political chess player, feared by opponents and respected by allies. This is the man people call when situations are too delicate for amateurs, when “crack teams” must be assembled, and quiet strategy must defeat loud chaos. His courage is not theatrical, it is calculated. His sagacity is not assumed, it is tested by time.

It would be disrespectful to say Senator Omisore merely facilitated my admission into the prestigious University of Abuja to study Law, he gave me the admission. The admission process had closed. I was qualified on merit, yet did not make the list. Classes had already resumed, he placed a call to the then Vice Chancellor of University of Abuja, Professor Adelabu and stated, simply, there is a boy here, he wants to study law, he will resume on Monday’. And I did. That was the kind of confidence and authority he wielded effortlessly at the height of his influence. This is what makes the recent episode politically intriguing for me.

Omisore was disqualified by the APC in a manner so undignified that it felt unreal. No proper notice. No dignified process. No respect for pedigree. It was political theatre of the worst kind. One is forced to ask, can this truly be the Omisore we all knew? What APC cannot do does not exist! except, winning the governorship election in Osun State.

History, however glorious, is no longer the battlefield. The present is. A man does not become overrated merely because of his past, but because of how he handles his present. And this is where Omisore’s situation becomes delicate. The question is not whether APC embarrassed him. They did. The real question is whether Omisore will take it lightly.

Will he accept this humiliation quietly? Will he negotiate behind closed doors? Or will he remind the political class that he is not a decorative elder statesman, but a soldier who still understands warfare?

Politics does not forgive weakness. It only respects resistance.

If Omisore chooses silence, then the verdict of being “overrated” may begin to stick, not because he lacks legacy, but because he failed to defend it. But if he rises, reorganises, and confronts this insult with strategy and courage, then this so called disqualification may yet become the spark that reminds everyone who he truly is.

However, one thing is very certain, men are not defined by how they enter rooms, but by how they respond when doors are slammed in their faces.

Pelumi Olajengbesi is a Legal Practitioner and Politician.