‘Adeleke Needs Sharper Industrialisation Direction, Osun Electricity Law to Stand Out’

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The Executive Director and Convener of PowerUp Nigeria, a consumer rights and power sector policy advocacy organisation, Adetayo Adegbemle, yesterday emphasised that Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke’s second term needs a sharper economic spine, and two other priorities that must stand out.

It would be recalled that Adeleke’s first term leaned on infrastructure, education and grassroots welfare.

The other two priorities he said are industrialization, operationalizing the Osun Electricity Law, as well as the passage.

Appraising Adeleke’s victory and the reform agenda Osun cannot afford to miss, Adegbemle said Osun State has long punched below its weight industrially, despite a strategic South-west location, a large youth population, and proximity to Lagos-Ibadan trade corridors.

He said a credible industrialisation push should mean “fast-tracking agro-processing clusters around the state’s cocoa, cassava and cashew belts rather than exporting raw produce; converting existing but underused industrial layouts in Osogbo, Ede, and Ikirun into functioning industrial parks with reliable power and access roads; and building a genuine ease-of-doing-business framework-one-stop investment facilitation, transparent land allocation, and tax incentives targeted at manufacturers rather than traders.”

He stressed that industrialisation without power is a slogan, not a strategy, which is precisely why the second priority matters.

While speaking on operationalising the Osun Electricity Law, he noted that the passage of the Osun State Electricity Market Regulatory Law in 2025 was a genuine structural achievement, giving the state, under the Electricity Act 2023’s devolution framework, the legal basis to establish its own regulatory agency, license generation, and open the market to independent power producers and renewable investors.

According to him, “A law on paper is not a market. The urgent second-term task is operationalisation: appointing and properly funding the State Electricity Regulatory Commission with competent and insulated leadership; issuing the implementing regulations and licensing framework the law promises; and using the commission’s mandate to genuinely hold the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company accountable on metering, billing and service delivery, the ‘exploitation’ the governor himself has repeatedly denounced on the campaign trail.

“Equally important is signalling to embedded generation and mini-grid investors that Osun State is open for business, with clear tariff and licensing certainty, so that industrial clusters are not left waiting on a national grid that has failed the state for years.”

He emphasized that “Adeleke fought off a determined, well-funded opposition to win a second mandate. The 66,000-vote margin is not a mandate for complacency; it is a mandate to convert legislative wins into industrial jobs and electrons actually reaching homes and factories. Osun’s voters gave him four more years to prove that governance can outlast gimmicks.”

Adegbemle, however, stressed that “the Accord Party’s first-ever governorship win in Osun State is historic, and yet a race this close, contested by 15 candidates across all 30 local government areas is also a warning that Osun’s electorate is not settled, and a second term will be judged on delivery, not sentiment.”