With Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State securing a resounding victory against his opponents in the August 15 gubernatorial election after a rancorous, expensive and bloody campaign in the build-up to the exercise, the huge cost and hard lessons learnt before, during and after the contest will remain indelible in the minds of the people for many years to come.
We strongly believe that the unacceptably high death toll of no fewer than 39 persons for a subnational election could have been completely averted if the two dominant political parties, the Accord Party and All Progressives Congress, APC, and their supporters had played by the electoral rules and abide by the spirit and letter of the Peace Accord willingly entered into by their leaders ahead of the contest.
Moreso, if the leaders and their followers were very mindful of the famous remark of former President Goodluck Jonathan that: ‘’My ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian’’ which he made during the tensed build-up to Nigeria’s general election in 2015 before losing his reelection bid and conceded defeat to then challenger, Muhammadu Buhari of the APC of the blessed memory. It marked the country’s first peaceful transfer of power by a sitting president to an opposition candidate since the return to civilian rule in 1999.
Regrettably however, even though the recent Osun gubernatorial election turned out to be relatively peaceful, transparent, free and fair in the eyes of observers and monitors with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declaring Governor Adeleke of the Accord Party as the winner after he polled a total of 511,067 votes to defeat his closest rival, Bola Oyebamiji of the APC, who scored 444,815 votes out of a total number of 1,010,684 accredited voters, 985,079 valid votes cast, major stakeholders in particular and Nigerians in general have many lessons to learn from the exercise.
In our view, the major takeaways from the keenly contested Osun governorship poll include, that unlike what played out in the past, the power of the people remains greater than the power of even state backed ruling party when the citizens are united in defence of their democratic rights, make their votes count and protect their votes as against the perception to the contrary before now; that the INEC could discharge its statutory functions as an unbiased electoral umpire creditably where the ballot and not gun would determine the outcome of an election; the professional and unbiased conduct of security agencies even against the popular phrase that ‘’he who pays the piper dictates the tune’’ and above all the ‘’worrisome increasing negative influence of inducement and vote buying perpetrated by politicians during every election”.
Truly, the Osun people not only demystified the so-called “federal might”, stood firm and resolute to elect their preferred candidate despite the obvious brazen attempt by the ruling APC government to take over the state through the use of state machinery and alleged billions of naira spent to induce the electorate, the outcome also shattered the myth of “big” and “small” parties in the nation’s politics as the relatively unknown Accord Party, classified as a small party, defeated the ruling APC on account of the adjudged numerous achievements, capacity and credibility of the incumbent after he defected from the cries-ridden Peoples Democratic Party, PDP under whose platform he was elected in 2022.
Besides, not even the last-minute endorsement of the APC candidate by PDP chieftains led by former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola and factional Accord Party’s presidential candidate and National Chairman, Professor Christopher Imumolen could swing the pendulum of victory to Oyebamiji thereby further reinforcing the determination of the Osun electorate to return Adeleke to the Government House Osogbo for another four years.
It is also worthy of note that the INEC led by Professor Joash Amupitan, SAN, did not disappoint the Osun people and Nigerians in his major last litmus test ahead of the 2027 general election. According to poll observers, all election materials and personnel arrived before 8;30 am commencement of the process in over 90percent of the election stations while over 80percent of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, electronic devices were fully functional.
However, on the functionality of election technology, there were reports of ‘’technical difficulties involving some BVAS, which were rectified and other aspects of the accreditation process which resulted in prolonged waiting times and congestion at few polling units with large registered voters where only one BVAS device was reportedly available.
Consequently, we challenge the electoral umpire to deepen its digital transparency and ensure that all devices to be deployed in the 2027 elections are fully functional in the next four months since technology remains an important instrument for improving electoral integrity. Any technical failures will undermine peoples’ confidence when accreditation is delayed and create uncertainty about the validity of the process.
Most significantly, unlike the glitch which reared its ugly head in the 2023 presidential election which prevented the uploading of results real time on the INEC Result Viewing portal, IReV, to store, display and allow public viewing of polling unit election results; the Commission achieved tremendous success in the uploading of the governorship results such that its outcome had become known even before a formal announcement by the INEC Returning Officer, Professor Joshua Olalekan Ogunwole, the Vice-Chancellor, Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), after supervising the final aggregation of results from the 30 LGAs.
Specifically, based on the collated local government results, Adeleke secured victories in 19 of the state’s 30 local government areas, while the APC candidate secured 11 councils. While the Accord Party candidate won Boluwaduro, Ede South, Ife North, Ilesa West, Ifedayo, Ife Central, Orolu, Osogbo, Oriade, Odo-Otin, Ife East, Ifelodun, Iwo, Ede North, Ila, Aiyedire, Egbedore, Aiyedaade and Ejigbo local government areas, the APC candidate Oyebamiji emerged victorious in Ilesa East, Boripe, Irepodun, Obokun, Atakunmosa West, Irewole, Atakunmosa East, Isokan, Ola Oluwa, Ife South and Olorunda councils with the African Democratic Congress, ADC, of former Governor Rauf Aregbesola and 11 other parties winning none. .
Furthermore, it was observed that the largely peaceful conduct of voters throughout the electoral process even in polling units where voting queues were still populated at 2:30pm which was the end of voting was manifest as many voters stayed back and cast their votes and were able to exercise their franchise without widespread disruption, while election officials and security agencies discharged their responsibilities in accordance with established procedures.
Again, reports from accredited observers indicated that election officials and materials arrived on time in a majority of polling units between 7:00am and 9:30am and commenced voting in 87% of the polling units. However, delays in the commencement of voting were reported in some few locations due to late deployment of officials and logistical challenges blamed on the late addition of the SDP candidate to the Osun State governorship ballot following a Federal High Court judgment of 22nd July 2026 that forced the Commission subsequently to reproduce ballot papers and result sheets. This resulted in late production which reportedly delayed the arrival and distribution of sensitive materials.
We further note with satisfaction that election officials generally followed established procedures for accreditation and voting, contributing to an orderly process in majority of polling units while eligible voters assembled very early and participated actively and comported themselves throughout the electoral process. Altogether, out of the total of 2,339,233 registered voters in the State, 1,906,390 PVCs, representing 81.50 per cent collected their permanent voter cards, PVCs, while total votes cast stood at 1,005,800 representing a commendable voter turnout of approximately 43.2per cent. According to available statistics, the turnout remains the highest recorded in off cycle elections conducted by the INEC since the return to democratic dispensation over 27 years ago.
The unveiling of N500million Election Violence Victims Endowment Fund by Adeleke to assist victims of the violence that preceded the election is not only heart-warming but commendable as this will go a long way to alleviating their suffering even as the governor paid glowing tribute to those killed including Ezekiel Olapade, Aderogba Ajayi, Remi Abass and Kolade Eluyera among others. This avoidable deaths and destruction of property should serve as a wakeup call to security operatives at the federal and subnational levels to rededicate themselves to their statutory responsibility of safeguarding lives and property ahead of the next general election.
Besides, we welcome the decision of Adeleke family, through its Springtime Development Foundation, to provide full scholarships up to university level for the children of those who paid the supreme price during the electoral violence that rocked parts of the state even the people should put the election behind them and unite solidly for the social and economic development of the state while the state government must continue to accord priority attention to good governance through the provision of infrastructure, healthcare, education, workers’ welfare, youth empowerment and economic development which earned the governor a re-election.
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