There is a political saying that power is not always held by the person occupying the biggest office. Sometimes, it belongs to the person who understands where the levers are, who controls the machinery and when to pull them.
In Kosofe politics, Princess Samiat Abolanle Bada, Chairman of Ikosi-Isheri LCDA and popularly known as the Mayoress, is increasingly fitting that description.
Her political footprint now stretches well beyond Ikosi-Isheri.
From the emergence of Kafilat Ogbara as the All Progressives Congress candidate for Kosofe Federal Constituency in 2022 to the extraordinary reversal that saw Mayoress throw her political machinery behind Mayor Dele Oshinowo against the same Ogbara in 2026, a pattern has become difficult to ignore.
Add the emergence of Dr Muritala Seriki over the incumbent lawmaker in Kosofe Constituency II, and the picture becomes more interesting.
The Mayoress has developed a reputation not simply for supporting candidates, but for committing herself and her political structure decisively when she chooses a side.
In Kosofe's political circles, that is increasingly earning her another description: the Kingmaker.
The 2022 Ogbara Operation
To understand what happened in 2026, it helps to return to 2022.
Kafilat Ogbara's emergence as APC candidate for Kosofe Federal Constituency was emphatic.
At the primary held at the Ikosi-Isheri LCDA Secretariat, 45 delegates were accredited. Ogbara received 44 votes. Remi Odunsi received one. Rotimi Agunsoye, Dayo Bush and Abiodun Owokoya received none.
The result was almost absolute: 44-1.
What the numbers alone do not explain is the political work that preceded them.
Political accounts from within Kosofe have consistently placed Mayoress Bada among the central forces behind Ogbara's emergence. Her role went beyond appearing at campaign events. The mobilisation around Ogbara bore hallmarks that have since become associated with Bada's politics: early positioning, aggressive grassroots mobilisation and an ability to move party structures behind a preferred candidate.
After winning the primary, Ogbara specifically thanked Bada alongside Kosofe Chairman Moyosore Ogunlewe and then Agboyi-Ketu Chairman Dele Oshinowo.
More revealingly, a 2026 retrospective by Kosofe Post drew parallels between Bada's mobilisation for Ogbara and the political machinery she later deployed for Oshinowo. The publication recalled a Bada-organised rally whose atmosphere was so heavily tilted towards Ogbara that a reporter covering it questioned whether it was really the advertised Sanwo-Olu/Tinubu campaign event or effectively an Ogbara rally.
That does not allow anyone to mathematically assign Bada a percentage of Ogbara's 44 votes. Politically, however, it tells a much bigger story than the final tally.
Ogbara's 2022 emergence was one of the clearest early demonstrations of Mayoress Bada's capacity to build political momentum around a candidate.
Four years later, that same machinery would be pointed in the opposite direction.
From Making Ogbara to Backing Her Challenger
Politics rarely rewards permanent friendships.
By 2026, the alliance that helped carry Ogbara into the House of Representatives had fractured.
Mayor Dele Oshinowo, the former two-term Chairman of Agboyi-Ketu LCDA, entered the contest for the Kosofe Federal Constituency ticket.
This time, Mayoress was not behind Ogbara. She was on the frontline for Oshinowo, and there was little ambiguity about where she stood.
Bada campaigned openly for Oshinowo during the primary battle and now serves as Director-General of the Mayor Dele Oshinowo Campaign Organisation. She has defended her support for him, arguing that Agboyi-Ketu deserved the opportunity for federal representation.
It was a striking reversal.
One of the politicians who had helped create the political environment around Ogbara's overwhelming emergence in 2022 was now helping organise the political movement seeking to replace her.
The May 2026 primary delivered the result.
Oshinowo polled 18,614 votes, followed by Yetunde Arobieke with 7,389 and Oluremi Odunsi with 5,726. The incumbent, Kafilat Ogbara, finished fourth with 5,450 votes.
The Lagos APC leadership subsequently validated the result, confirming Oshinowo as the party's candidate.
For Mayoress, it represented more than another political victory.
It demonstrated something potentially more consequential: her political machinery was not permanently attached to the candidate it had previously helped. It followed her political decision.
Then Came Muritala Seriki
The House of Representatives contest was not the only major upset in Kosofe.
In Kosofe Constituency II, Lagos State APC Youth Leader Dr Muritala Ishola Seriki challenged incumbent Lagos State House of Assembly member Femi Saheed.
Mayoress again aligned herself with the challenger, with reports ahead of the primary identifying political mobilisation from her camp in support of Seriki.
Seriki emerged with the APC nomination, removing an incumbent and adding another victory to the political camp with which Bada had aligned herself.
The primary itself was contentious.
Violence was reported during the exercise, with allegations and counter-allegations between the political camps. Saheed's supporters alleged attacks and intimidation, while Seriki denied involvement and said he had instructed his supporters to remain peaceful.
Those allegations should not be confused with the political result.
Another incumbent had fallen, and another candidate associated with the political alignment around Mayoress had emerged.
Two major contests. Two challengers. Two incumbents defeated.
That inevitably strengthened the conversation about Bada's growing influence within Kosofe APC.
The Playbook Predates 2022
There are indications that this political instinct predates both Ogbara and the 2026 contests.
Political insiders trace it back at least to the turbulent 2017 Somolu council-election period, when Bowale Sosimi's expected candidacy gave way to Abdul Hamed Salawu, popularly known as Dullar. Somolu political stakeholders later attributed Sosimi's removal to the influence of the late Senator Bayo Osinowo, "Pepper", one of the most powerful figures around the Lagos State House of Assembly at the time.
Bada had previously served as Vice Chairman of Ikosi-Isheri LCDA and would return to that office following the 2017 political cycle. She belonged to the political network around Osinowo, although her precise role in the private negotiations surrounding the Somolu contest is not established in the public record.
The episode matters here only as an early glimpse of the political environment in which Mayoress developed, one where relationships, timing, institutional influence and grassroots structures mattered enormously.
The Modern Mayoress Playbook
The method today is far more visible: choose a candidate, move early, mobilise openly, build the grassroots narrative, commit the political machinery, then defend the choice.
Kosofe Post's comparison of her 2022 and 2026 political operations reached a similar conclusion, noting the similarities between the mobilisation around Ogbara and the later mobilisation around Oshinowo.
The difference is that by 2026, there was little ambiguity about the preference.
Mayoress stood firmly behind her candidate.
The Irony of Ogbara
In 2022, Mayoress was instrumental in the political operation that helped Ogbara secure an extraordinary 44 of 45 delegate votes.
In 2026, she became one of the most visible forces behind the man who ended Ogbara's bid for another term.
That is more than changing political allegiance. It demonstrates how power works inside local party structures.
Candidates can change. Alliances can change. Interests can change. But the political operator who understands the structure can remain relevant through each cycle.
That may explain why the description "Kingmaker" increasingly follows Princess Samiat Bada around Kosofe politics.
It is not an official title, nor does it mean that every victory associated with her belongs to her alone. Oshinowo brought his own political structure, record and popularity. Seriki brought his own network. Ogbara had her own political relationships in 2022.
Politics is rarely the work of one person.
But patterns matter.
The 2017 episode offers a glimpse of the political environment in which Bada developed. The 2022 contest demonstrated her capacity to mobilise heavily behind a preferred aspirant. And 2026 showed that the same political force could be redirected against a former beneficiary.
That is the evolution worth watching.
The Mayoress is no longer simply playing politics inside Ikosi-Isheri.
She is playing across Kosofe. And these are increasingly looking like presidential moves at grassroots level.