By Abisayo Busari-Akinnadeju
2027 Presidential Candidate, Democratic Leadership Alliance (DLA)
There is something Ondo people understand about a child who is raised well. They watch her go. They watch where she goes and what she does when she gets there. They watch whether she carries herself in a way that makes the place that raised her stand taller. They watch whether she remembers.
I remember the radio station that gave me a microphone before I was old enough to understand what a platform meant. I remember performing Yoruba poetry on Ondo State Radiovision Corporation and other platforms from the age of six, the warm weight of the microphone, the faces of the people listening, the feeling that words given honestly to an audience are a form of service. I performed there until I was fourteen. Those years shaped everything that came after.
I am writing this piece for the people of Ondo State before the national newspapers carry my story, because home should always hear from you before the world does. That is not strategy. That is respect.
What Ondo Made
Ondo State is not a place that produces timid people. We are a people of deep intelligence, strong will, rich cultural heritage, and a quiet but unshakeable confidence that comes from knowing who we are and where we come from. The land that produced Ondo has always produced people willing to carry a standard further than it has been carried before.
I am the product of that formation. The secondary school that elected me set president because I was already doing the work before anyone gave me a title. The family that made education non-negotiable and public service a moral obligation. The community that watched a small girl stand before a microphone and trusted her to say something worth hearing.
Seventeen years of energy sector law. An LLM from King’s College London. An MBA from the University of Cambridge. Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in the United Kingdom. Senior leadership across multiple energy organisations. International arbitration. Civic institution building that clothed over twelve thousand babies across Nigeria under the Project One movement.
Ondo State made all of that possible. Every qualification, every appointment, every institution built carries the foundation that this state laid in me. I have never forgotten that. I will never forget it.
When an Ondo child rises, it is not only she who rises. The ground that raised her rises
with her.
Why the Presidency and Why Now
People ask me why I want to be President of Nigeria. The honest answer has several layers and Ondo people appreciate honesty above politeness, so I will give all of them.
The first layer is preparation. I have spent seventeen years at the intersection of law, energy, governance, and civic leadership. I have watched from the inside how Nigeria’s institutions fail and I understand with precision why they fail. I have built organisations from nothing and watched them grow beyond what I imagined.
I have negotiated in international arbitration chambers and sat across the table from some of the most powerful interests in the global energy sector. I did not arrive at this candidacy without the preparation it demands.
The second layer is timing. Nigeria in 2027 faces a specific set of challenges that require a specific kind of leadership. The country needs someone who can restore trust between the citizen and the state. Someone who understands fiscal governance, procurement systems, digital economy, and civic institution building simultaneously. Someone who has built things that last rather than simply held positions that passed.
The third layer is the most personal and therefore the most important. I reached a point of honest reckoning with myself. I had spent years doing the work, building the institutions, watching governance fail from close enough proximity to know exactly what needed to change. The question I could no longer answer satisfactorily was: if not someone with this record, who? If not now, when?
Ondo State taught me that when you are given a gift and a platform, you do not hoard them. You use them in service of something larger than yourself. The presidency of Nigeria is the largest platform I can imagine offering that service. That is why I am standing.
What I Will Do
I am not asking Ondo people for support on the basis of sentiment alone. Our people are too sharp for that and I respect them too much to try. I am asking for support on the basis of what I will deliver.
Within 30 days of taking office, every member of my cabinet including the President will publish a full verified asset declaration that every Nigerian can read on their mobile phone. No Nigerian president has done that. It will be the first thing this administration does.
In Year One, I will fix how public money moves from government allocation to actual delivery — through open contracting, public contractor accountability, and a requirement that no government insider can benefit from federal contracts. Nigeria does not have a money problem. It has a delivery problem. That is the problem I will fix first.
In Year One, I will ensure that Nigerians understand their tax obligations before they are penalised for not meeting them. The new tax reform has merit in its architecture. Its implementation has been a failure of governance conscience. Citizens will be educated before they are fined. That is the basic standard of a government that respects its people.
Before any further fiscal policy touches the cost of living of the most vulnerable Nigerians, a verified and publicly audited social protection system will be in place and operational. The sequencing of fiscal reform must always protect the weakest link first.
These are not campaign promises dressed in fine language. They are commitments with timelines, mechanisms, and outcomes that every Nigerian can track.
A Message to Ondo People Specifically
I want to say something to my people that I will not say in the national newspapers, because it belongs here first.
Ondo State has produced extraordinary Nigerians across every field — law, medicine, academia, business, arts, public service. We have contributed to this nation generously and consistently. We have not always received back in proportion to what we have given. That is a conversation for another day and another platform. What I want to say today is simpler.
When I walk into any room in Nigeria or anywhere in the world, I walk in as someone Ondo made. That does not change with a title. It will not change with a presidency. The values I carry — honesty, transparency, accountability, integrity under pressure — were formed here, in this state, by these people, in this culture.
I am asking Ondo State to be proud of what it produced, to stand behind what it raised, and to tell the rest of Nigeria that the state that gave the country a six-year-old poet on the radio is now giving it a presidential candidate who has never stopped believing that a platform is a responsibility.
The national conversation begins on Monday. Ondo knows first. That is how it should be.
Home should always hear from you before the world does. That is not strategy. That is respect.
To the Young People of Ondo State
There is a child somewhere in Ondo State right now who has a gift she does not yet have a name for. A boy who leads without knowing he is leading. A girl who organises her classmates and is told she is bossy when she is actually just early.
I want them to see this candidacy and understand something clearly: the preparation matters, the work matters, the roots matter, and none of it is wasted. Every year spent building something real is a year that compounds. Nigeria needs people who have built things, not people who have only held positions.
Dare to prepare. Dare to build. Dare to stand when it is time to stand.
Ondo State dared to raise me. Nigeria, dare to rise.
I dare to lead. Nigeria, dare to rise.
#DareNigeria www.abisayoaba.com
Abisayo Busari-Akinnadeju is a lawyer, FCIArb (UK), founder of Project One (#IAMANIGERIAN) and the Opalcrystal Women Foundation, and the 2027 presidential candidate of the Democratic Leadership Alliance (DLA). She is from Ibaka quarter, Akungba-Akoko in Ondo State.