It is a conclusive public knowledge that Governor Ademola Adeleke is the governor to beat in the coming Osun State governorship election
Adeleke vs Oyetola: When Osun Local Government Became A Weapon | By Pelumi Olajengbesi Esq
It is a conclusive public knowledge that Governor Ademola Adeleke is the governor to beat in the coming Osun State governorship election. There is no serious political calculation, no honest street reading, and no credible polling logic that proves otherwise.
This is not by struggle or tension. It is by the cold political facts on the ground. Adeleke has the numbers, the goodwill, and the rare advantage of emotional permission. Yet politics is not a church service. Politics is whatever you have, and whatever you can hold. Adeleke has the people, while some are now looking for what can substitute for the people, and that is where desperation begins.
The coming election in Osun State is not actually about political parties. It is not about Accord, APC, PDP, or ADC. It is a rerun of a rivalry between Adeleke and Oyetola, two individuals coming to the political battlefield with what they have. Adeleke is coming with the people. Oyetola’s camp only boasts of federal might, and the confidence that comes when a man believes illegality can do what voters refused to do.
Adeleke will contest under Accord. Oyetola will not contest directly, but through a proxy, Oyebamiji, a man many of his own party stakeholders have described as a lackey. Oyetola, by all accounts, had to step away from his personal governorship ambition when the blunt truth was fed to him by those who matter in Abuja, that he is not marketable and has no electoral value where it counts, votes. In Osun politics, voters can forgive mistakes, but they rarely forgive being taken for granted. That is the wound Oyetola carries, and wounds in politics do not heal on their own. They either become humility, or they become revenge.
Adeleke is standing on what wins elections in Osun, human connection and social memory. Workers remember who pays. Pensioners remember who listens. Farmers remember who shows up. Drivers unions and market women remember who treats them like citizens, not like disposable crowds. Even people who do not like politics still like the feeling of being considered. That is where Adeleke’s strength lives, not only in his massive projects, but in daily closeness, a legitimacy that is felt, not announced.
What does a man do when he cannot win the argument of performance and public affection. He reaches for what is available. He reaches for levers that are not on the ballot paper, but can still shape the mood of the state. That is why the Osun local government crisis deserves attention, not as a local government dispute, but as a political signal. It is a crisis that tells you who is desperate, and what desperation is willing to touch.
Osun State has been pushed towards lawlessness. Across the state, council secretariats are being occupied by men who claim to be chairmen and councillors, even though they are APC officials removed by the Federal High Court in 2022, with the same judgment validated by the Court of Appeal. Instead of respecting the judgments, these officials claimed reinstatement and proceeded to occupy council secretariats across Osun with the support of the police, while insisting they still had a tenure running till October 26, 2025. That is not administration, that is occupation.
These characters again invaded and occupied council secretariats on January 5, 2026, after the expiration of their illegal tenure, and subjected civil servants who had resumed duties after months of strike action to molestation, all under police protection. This is the kind of thing that only becomes possible when impunity starts to feel normal and when power begins to imagine it is above law. It is illegality being enforced on Osun local governments with the active connivance of the Nigerian Police Force. This can only be in Nigeria. It is basic legal knowledge that a person cannot remain in office once tenure has expired. Once tenure ends, authority ends. Anything after that is not leadership, it is trespass dressed in uniform.
This is where the political question becomes unavoidable. Who benefits from this kind of disorder in Osun. Who gains from a local government environment that looks like conquest rather than service. Who is interested in pushing Osun into a crisis that distracts the state and creates an atmosphere of uncertainty. Oyetola’s shadow enters the room here, not by sentiment, but by logic. Politics is not only about names, it is about incentives.
Oyetola is the most obvious political beneficiary of chaos that stains Osun local governments with the image of instability, because this crisis is valuable to anyone who cannot defeat Adeleke on the ordinary field of popularity. Yet if this is the route being taken, it is a dangerous misreading of Osun. This is not strategy, this is panic. This is not mobilisation, this is coercion. And Osun is not a state that rewards a man because he has access to force. Osun rewards a man because the people can feel him. Council secretariats are public offices, they do not vote. It is the people that vote.
Adeleke defeated Oyetola in 2022, and that defeat was not only electoral. It was emotional. That was the season when Oyetola controlled the local governments, controlled the State House of Assembly, produced the Speaker, held a larger percentage of the House of Representatives members and Senators, enjoyed several federal appointments, and had the full presence of the police, the army, the civil defence, and the intimidating psychology of power. Adeleke had only one thing, the people of Osun State. And Oyetola was defeated massively. That kind of defeat can humble a man, or it can harden him. If it hardens him, he begins to see politics as revenge, and revenge does not care about governance, it only cares about pain.
Osun is too politically awake to miss what is happening. A people who debate politics in markets and motor parks also recognise political sabotage when they see it. If Oyetola’s camp believes it can replace persuasion with pressure, then it has misunderstood the Osun voter. Osun may tolerate noise, but it rarely rewards it. Osun does not like being bullied into a choice.
Oyetola cannot win election for Oyebamiji by using the police to humiliate the will of the people of Osun State. Read More
*Pelumi Olajengbesi is a Legal Practitioner and Senior Partner at Law Corridor
Source: SocietyNow NG
