This is the biography of Senator Solomon Adeola, popularly known as Yayi, the concensus candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Ogun State. Yayi is a well-known member of the APC and has long been regarded as a serious candidate for the state’s governorship. Yayi presently serves as the Senate representating the Ogun West senatorial district. His emergence as the party’s flagbearer for the governorship position was declared by Dr. Dapo Abiodun on Monday during a strategic caucus meeting within the party.
Yayi Background
Born on the born 10 August 1969 in Alimosho are of Lagos State. Senator Solomon Adeola Yayi was raised in Lagos by Ogun State parents of Yewa and Egba roots respectively, named Ayinde Adeola Ogunleye and Abeeni Olasunbo Ogunleye(father and mother).
Yayi Education
Yayu began his education at the State Primary School in Alimosho, Lagos, where he was born and raised. He continued his secondary school at Community Grammar School in Akowonjo, Lagos. After that, he continued on to Rufus Giwa Polytechnic in Owo, Ondo State, where he earned a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Accounting.
Yayi Career and Work Experience
As a professional who studied accounting, Yayi is a Chartered Accountant and is a Chartered Accountant-Fellow at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. However, he started his profession in a media firm. He joined the Guardian Newspaper Limited as an accountant. There, he worked for 12 years.
Yayi went on to work for Olatunji Omoyeni & Co., a chartered accounting firm, where he lead the audit team at for a couple of years before being elevated to the rank of Senior Auditor.
After his years at the accounting firm, he founded his own business, SOOTEM Nigeria Limited, where he served as CEO and managing director of the tax consulting firm.
ENigeria Newspaper can report that Yayi joined politics and quickly rose to prominence when he was elected to represent Alimosho State Constituency 2 at the Lagos State House of Assembly from 2003 to 2007 and again from 2007 to 2011 after being nominated and winning the primary of the then-ruling Action Congress of Nigeria (Lagos State). In 2011, he was elected in Alimosho Federal Constituency to represent the constituency federal legislature in the Nigerian House of Representatives. There, he was appointed Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.
In 2015, he was elected into the senate and was appointed the Vice Chairman of Senate Committee on Communications as well as member of the Finance, Marine, Interior and Science and Technology committees of the Senate. In 2019, he was re-elected into the senate.
By 2023, Yayi left Lagos and came back to Ogun. He contested for the senatorial seat representing Ogun West Senatorial district. This time, he was appointed as the Chairman, Senate committee on appropriations.
Age
Senator Solomon Adeola Yayi is currently aged 56.
Marriage
Yayi is married to Temitope Adeola, who was a practicing young journalist at The Guardian where he worked as the accountant. The duo is blessed with “adorable kids”.
Controversies
Yayi has been in a couple of controversies which mostly centred on his ambition to govern Ogun State having spent several political years in Lagos.
Some people have questioned his native status in the Yewaland/Ogun West region, and some reports say he wants to run in Ogun Central because of family ties, saying that his move to Ogun West was “an aberration.”
Also, some people didn’t like that the Olu of Ilaro, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, made him the Aremo of Yewaland in 2021 because they thought the title should only go to a biological son of a king.
in 2025, his “Light Up Ogun State” project, which gave out 102 electricity transformers, caused a lot of arguments. Supporters said it was charity work, but critics said he was using federal projects to make personal gestures, which led to calls for an investigation.
