The BAT Kingdom: Bola Tinubu’s Top Ten Smartest Loyalists in Power With Him – Let’s Begin With Dapo Abiodun, Ogun State Governor
If you’ve been watching Nigerian politics since 2023, you already know the BAT Kingdom isn’t just a slogan – it’s a tightly knit circle of allies, fixers, and heavyweights who stuck with Bola Ahmed Tinubu through thick and thin. These are the men and women who delivered votes, managed the machine, and now sit in the corridors of real power. Over the next few weeks, we’ll profile the top ten smartest, most strategic loyalists around the President.
We start with the one many insiders quietly call “the silent operator”: Prince Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun, Governor of Ogun State.
Born on May 29, 1960, in Iperu-Remo – the same day Nigeria would later mark Democracy Day – Dapo Abiodun came from a royal family of teachers. He grew up moving between schools in Ado-Ekiti, Ondo, and Ijebu, then headed to the University of Ife for civil engineering before switching to accounting at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, USA. That American stint shaped the boardroom prince who would later build an empire.
Back home in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Abiodun didn’t waste time. He cut his teeth as a cost accountant at Glock Inc. in the US, then returned to Nigeria and dove headfirst into business. He chaired or ran a string of companies: Crestar Hydrocarbons, OMS-Heyden Exploration and Production, First Power Limited, and crucially, Heyden Petroleum Limited, the oil trading outfit he turned into a major downstream, midstream, and upstream player. Heyden dealt in everything from automotive gas oil and premium motor spirit to bitumen and crude. At one point it boasted dozens of retail outlets and its own jetty operations. He also chaired Alarmnet and Innovative Ventures Limited – the “innovation security” angle the user flagged – blending tech and security solutions in a country where both were becoming big business.
That business pedigree is where the Abacha-era whispers begin. Public records and political profiles show Abiodun first dipped his toes into politics during General Sani Abacha’s aborted 1998 transition programme. He contested and actually won the Ogun East senatorial seat on the platform of the United Nigeria Congress Party, only for the entire exercise to collapse when Abacha died. Some older political accounts from the time group him among the so-called “Abacha Boys” – a loose network of young, ambitious operators who navigated the military regime’s patronage system. Whether he was a formal contractor to the Abacha government or simply moved in those circles is debated in Lagos and Abeokuta drawing rooms, but the timing is undeniable: his serious political entry happened under Abacha’s watch.
By the early 2000s, Abiodun had become a familiar face in Abuja’s oil and political salons. He chaired the Depot and Petroleum Product Marketers Association and even served on the board of the Corporate Affairs Commission. The money from Heyden Petroleum gave him the war chest and the networks. But it also brought scrutiny. In 2024, a Federal High Court in Lagos granted the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) an interim takeover of Heyden Petroleum over alleged insolvency and debt issues tied to the company. Critics pounced, calling it a sign of deeper financial troubles. Earlier, the Pandora Papers named him as beneficiary of offshore entities in the British Virgin Islands, including Marlowes Trading Corporation and links back to Heyden – structures he didn’t declare in his code-of-conduct forms, according to the reports.
Then there’s the 1980s US episode that keeps resurfacing every election cycle. Miami-Dade police records from 1986 show a 26-year-old Adedapo Oluseun Abiodun (sometimes listed under an alias in the documents) arrested on charges linked to credit card fraud, forgery, and petty theft. He was reportedly jailed briefly before the matter faded. Abiodun has acknowledged the arrest in interviews, framing it as a youthful mistake from his student days in America. Opponents tried to weaponise it ahead of the 2019 and 2023 governorship races, demanding he be disqualified. It never stuck legally, but it still circulates in WhatsApp groups and opposition pamphlets.
Despite the baggage, Abiodun won the Ogun governorship in 2019 under the All Progressives Congress (APC) banner after a bruising primary against heavyweights. He inherited a state famous for industrial muscle but plagued by godfather politics. Insiders say Tinubu’s quiet backing was decisive – the same “Emilokan” prophecy Tinubu made in Ogun reportedly sealed the deal. Abiodun delivered, got re-elected in 2023, and has spent the last seven years positioning Ogun as an investment magnet. Roads, the new Gateway International Airport in Ilishan-Remo, Chinese partnerships on infrastructure, and claims of GDP growth from N3.5 trillion to N16 trillion – his handlers reel off the numbers like a manifesto.
On security, he’s pushed youth-led strategies, strengthened Amotekun, deployed tech (drones, surveillance), and talked tough on cultism and kidnapping. Ogun under him feels calmer than the Amosun years, though critics say the calm is more about political truce than total transformation.
What truly marks Abiodun as a BAT Kingdom insider is the loyalty. In April 2026, after Tinubu visited Ogun to commission projects and attend the Awujale’s funeral rites, Abiodun flew to Abuja with a ceremonial sword – the “Sword of Jagaban” – and publicly backed the President’s 2027 re-election bid. “Ogun State is solidly behind you,” he declared. Tinubu, in turn, has praised Abiodun’s vision and even bestowed a new traditional title. Ogun APC structures have fallen in line, mobilising early for Tinubu 2027 and leaving the door open for Abiodun’s “next move.”
That next move is the million-naira question. At 66, with two terms as governor done or winding down, Abiodun is eyeing the Senate (Ogun East) or something bigger. In the quiet calculations of the BAT inner circle, his name keeps surfacing as presidential timber for 2031. Why? He’s smooth, business-savvy, controls a key South-West state with industrial and electoral weight, and has shown he can manage godfathers without open warfare. He’s not flashy like some, but he’s strategic – exactly the kind of “smart loyalist” Tinubu values.
Of course, the path to 2031 is long and littered with landmines. The AMCON cloud over Heyden, old US records, and the usual South-West succession battles could resurface. Rivals like former Governor Gbenga Daniel still snipe from the sidelines. But if the BAT Kingdom is about rewarding those who delivered when it mattered, Dapo Abiodun has the receipts.
He entered politics under Abacha’s shadow, built an oil fortune, survived scandals, and delivered Ogun for Tinubu. In a country where loyalty is currency, the Iperu-Remo prince has banked plenty. Whether he becomes the next face of the kingdom after 2031 is still speculation – but in the corridors that matter, they’re already doing the maths.
Time.com.ng will keep digging as this series rolls on. Next up: another name from the inner circle. The BAT Kingdom is bigger than one man, but its strength lies in operators like Dapo Abiodun.