Like I predicted over a year ago, Governor Ademola Adeleke will emerge the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the 2026 Osun governorship election. With barely a month to the primaries, it is becoming increasingly clear that he is the man to beat for the party’s ticket. Adeleke is from Osun West Senatorial District.
Interestingly, the Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola–led African Democratic Congress (ADC) has also zoned its governorship ticket to Osun West.
With these two major parties taking the decisive step of zoning their tickets to Osun West, it would be politically suicidal for the All Progressives Congress (APC) to do otherwise if it is serious about winning the contest. This was exactly what the Edo APC did to win the last governorship election in the state.
Before Governor Monday Okpebholo’s emergence, Edo Central, where he hails from, had only ruled the State for about eight months through Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor. Whereas, Edo South had ruled for 16 years, while Edo North had produced governors for 8 years. This imbalance was precisely why both major parties in Edo, PDP and APC, fielded candidates from Edo Central. Without zoning, it would have been almost impossible for a candidate from the Central to win, given that the district has the least local governments and the smallest voting population compared to the North and South senatorial districts.
Coming to Osun, agitations within the APC to offer the governorship ticket to Osun West senatorial district began in the build-up to the 2018 election. When party leaders later decided to go Central, stakeholders from Osun West argued that, after Chief Adegboyega Oyetola’s eight-year tenure, which was expected to end by 2026, it should be the turn of Osun West. But as Allah will have it, Oyetola ended his tenure in 2022.
By next year it will be eight years since 2018, so the most natural and fair thing for the APC to do is return the ticket to Osun West in the interest of equity, fairness and justice.
For me, a governorship candidate on the platform of APC from Osun West would be a balance of contest, as we will have the three major candidates from the same district. Besides, Osun Central, where Rasheed Adegoke K-RAD, SAN comes from, produced the governor in 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2018. Cumulatively, the district has ruled the state for 15 years, while Osun East, where Otunba Iyiola Omisore hails from had ruled for eight years, leaving Osun West with just five years by the end of the current tenure of the incumbent, Ademola Adeleke.
However, in settling for Osun West, Otunba Iyiola Omisore must not be ignored. The party should engage him, make genuine overtures to him and let him see reason Osun West remains the most potent strategy to win back the state for the APC, especially given the growing consensus that the incumbent has underperformed. If APC goes outside Osun West to pick its candidate, the outcome will be disastrous. This is my candid submission. Ire o!
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