He spent some years gathering valuable civil service experience in the UK, including management roles at the Department of Trade[citation needed] in London before returning to Nigeria in 2002.

Folarin also served on the Senate Committee on Business & Rules, Marines and Transport although his particular interests were in education, power supply and water resources.

[6] He lost the election to the incumbent Governor Senator Abiola Ajimobi of the All Progressives Congress.

[7] Folarin was elected as the All Progressives Congress (APC) Oyo Central senatorial candidate in September 2018.

He also sits on several other committees including National Intelligence, INEC, Interparliamentary, Constitutional Review, Finance, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and Airforce.

Folarin contested in the 2023 Oyo State gubernatorial election on the platform of All Progressives Congress but lost to the incumbent Governor Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).