How Ademola Adeleke Humbled Gboyega Oyetola Again

Osun State has delivered its verdict twice now, and both times the answer has favoured Ademola Adeleke over Gboyega Oyetola. In the August 2026 governorship election, Adeleke secured a second term, polling 511,067 votes under the Accord Party platform.

His closest challenger, Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress, scored 444,815 votes despite carrying the full weight of federal backing and Oyetola’s political machinery behind his campaign.

The rivalry between the two men stretches back to 2018, when Oyetola first defeated Adeleke in a controversial rerun election, a result the Supreme Court later upheld after Adeleke’s legal challenge failed.

That defeat did not end Adeleke’s ambitions. In 2022, he unseated the incumbent Oyetola outright, polling 403,371 votes against Oyetola’s 375,027, a result the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court both affirmed after Oyetola contested it.

The 2026 result confirms that the 2022 victory was no accident. Adeleke has now built what looks like a durable political constituency, one capable of withstanding a well-resourced federal campaign built specifically to reclaim the state.

Part of that durability rests on governance choices Adeleke made in office. His administration cleared large volumes of inherited half-salary arrears and pension debts left behind by previous APC administrations, a move that strengthened his standing with civil servants.

Oyetola, now Nigeria’s Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, brought institutional credibility and corporate finance experience to the contest, but that profile could not overcome Adeleke’s grassroots connection with Osun’s electorate a second time.

The two men are not without common ground.

Adeleke has voiced support for Southwestern solidarity behind President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid, suggesting cooperation with APC figures like Oyetola remains possible on federal matters.

For now, though, the Osun ballot has spoken twice, and the lesson is the same each time: political structure and federal backing count for little against a candidate voters have decided to trust.

Pics: Oyetola.jpg