Osun Governorship Election: 7 Key Reasons Why PDP's Adeleke Defeated APC's Oyetola
- On Saturday, July 16, the people of Osun state headed to the poll to vote for a new leader, one that would succeed Governor Adegboyega Oyetola
- Interestingly, on Sunday, July 17, the Independent National Electoral Commission,(INEC) declared Sen. Ademola Adeleke of the opposition PDP, as the winner of the Osun poll
- Adeleke polled a total of 403,371 votes to defeat his closest rival and the incumbent Governor, Oyetola of the APC, who polled 375,027 votes
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The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ademola Adeleke on Sunday, July 17, emerged as the winner of the Osun state governorship election.
Legit.ng reported that Adeleke emerged victorious after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared him as the winner of the Osun poll after pulling 403,371 votes to defeat his closest rival and the incumbent governor of Osun state, Adegboyega Isiaka Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who polled 375,027 votes.
Source: Facebook
The victory came for Adeleke nearly four years after failing by a small margin in his bid to govern Osun State.
How then did Adeleke emerged victorious? - Legit.ng compiles factors that caused major victory for PDP's candidate in the just concluded governorship election;
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1. The will of the people
Osun election explains better what democracy is all about: respect for the will of the people.
The successful conduct of the Osun governorship election is a demonstration of the development and the commitment of all stakeholders, who are keen on strengthening the integrity of the electoral process in Nigeria, and the people made their choice which is evident in the votes cast.
The people wanted a change in the leadership style of the state and wanted to vote APC outhence Adeleke defeated the incumbent Governor Oyetola in 17 local governments out of 30 LGAs in the state.
Source: Twitter
2. Ademola Adeleke's popularity in Osun state
Ademola Adeleke hails from a popular and influential family from Ede in Ede Local Government Area of Osun state.
His mother is an Igbo-Christian named Nnena Esther Adeleke, while his father is a Muslim named Raji Ayoola Adeleke.
Adedeji Adeleke is a Nigerian billionaire, business magnate and president of Adeleke University and the late Mr Isiaka Adeleke are Ademola’s elder brothers. He is the third and final child of his parents.
He became popular in politics after the demise of his brother, Isiaka Adeleke, who served as a senator for Osun-West.
After the death of his elder brother on April 23, 2017, Ademola filled Isiaka’s vacancy in the Senate, popularly called the “dancing senator”, Ademola Adeleke served as a senator for the Osun West Senatorial District between 2017 and 2019.
The dancing senator is an uncle to Davido, a well-known Nigerian singer.
3. Influence of the Adeleke family in Osun politics
The Adeleke Family is the most influential and arguably the weathliest in the state; with a sterling record of commitment to multiple charity projects across the four cardinal points of Nigeria.
People who barely know the family often attribute its influence to David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, the popular afropop singer, who is just one of the many grand children of the second republic senator, late Chief Raji Ayoola Adeleke.
However, it's not completely wrong to say Davido added some flames to the name, the name Adeleke has stood out long before Davido's father, Deji Adeleke got married to Veronica Adeleke, his mother.
Adeleke is not just a name you hear and not look back to wonder if it is your time to be fortunate, even the rich want to be associated with them for reasons known to thousands of their beneficiaries and people who have witnessed the family kind gesture.
The family is one of the few families Osun prides herself with.
Unlike Dr. Deji Adeleke who has for the past four decades been known across Africa to be a business mogul, little or nothing was known about Ademola Nurudeen Adeleke until the death of his eldest brother, Sen. Isiaka Adeleke who was a former governor of Osun State in 2017.
The death of Sen. Isiaka Adeleke brought the entire state to a standstill, for some moments. He was more than just an ex-governor, he was the heir of the late Chief Ayoola Raji Adeleke. And before our lips could mutter ABC, the America returnee, Ademola Nurudeen Adeleke converted the sympathy that trailed the death of their brother to electoral value.
He contested and came out victorious, he was voted in, to the red chamber.
The Adeleke Family earlier denied entering into any kind of negotiation with the All Progressives Congress (APC), presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu over the election in the state.
In fact, Dr Deji Adeleke disclosed he is solidly behind his brother Ademola in the bid to wrestle power from the APC and enthroned good governance in Osun state.
The video below speaks well of how well the family is standing behind Adeleke's governorship ambition.
Moment Ademola Adeleke was declared winner of the Osun Gubernatorial Election.
4. Adeleke's Christian-Christian ticket
Against criticisms and confrontations mounted before him for picking Christian deputy governorship candidate, Kola Adewusi, the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ademola Adeleke won the Osun State election on a Christian-Christian ticket.
Adeleke, when he made the choice of Adewusi as his deputy was perceived as a candidate who would lose to the incumbent governor, Adegboyega Oyetola at the polls.
Adewusi was Ife-born former local government chairman of Ife East during the reign of Olagunsoye Oyinlola as the governor of the state.
While some PDP stalwarts allegedly accused him of his unwillingness to help party members during his time, others said his same faith with Adeleke would demarket PDP.
But on Saturday, July 16, the PDP won and Adeleke emerged victorious as announced by INEC on Sunday, July 17.
Source: Twitter
5. PDP leadership's active involvement in the election
The national leaders of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) played an active involvement in the election and rallied support for the election of the party’s candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke.
This is unlike Ekiti election, the national chairman, Dr Iyocha Ayu, presidential candidate of the party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, his running mate, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, former Senate President, Bukola Saraki and four PDP governors, other PDP bigwigs among the chieftains of the party attended the mega rally held at the state secretariat of the party in Osogbo actively campaigned for their candidate.
Source: Facebook
6. Internal crisis in the APC
The crisis rocking the ruling party APC in the state of Osun might not have festered till date if fairness, unity and collective purpose wasn’t jettisoned by the current administration in the State.
According to reports, with the events surrounding the emergence and eventual assumption of office of Governor Oyetola, efforts were not spared to unite members of the APC political family in Osun.
Findings revealed that rather than the Governor and his loyalists strengthening and rejuvenating the party for the consolidation of progressive legacies in the state, it began an unprecedented politics of segregation and exclusivity against members of the party that brought him to power in 2018.
Rauf Aregbesola and Oyetola, his successor as governor of Osun state, have not been on good terms since 2018 and rather than the relationship being repaired, it was getting further damaged with time. Oyetola was Aregbesola’s chief of staff but Aregbesola did not really support his governorship ambition, eventually leading to a clash and a falling out with Bola Tinubu, reputed as the godfather of south-west politics.
Tinubu, who is now the APC presidential candidate, is understood to be related to Oyetola by blood and did not take kindly to Aregbesola’s frosty relationship with Oyetola, who himself did not help matters by alienating Aregbesola in the political affairs of the state.
Although Aregbesola unsuccessfully backed Moshood Adeoti, who served as the secretary to the state government under him, for the APC ticket this time around, there were no efforts to reconcile with him when the campaign council was constituted for Oyetola. Aregbesola was excluded. It would appear he decided to pull his weight in Saturday’s election. The Osun Progressives (TOP), of which he is a member, did not work for Oyetola and this further harmed his re-election chances.
Source: Facebook
7. INEC's role
The election was held across the 30 local government areas of the state amid tight security with political parties adopting new methods of vote-buying.
It also witnessed huge turnout of voters as the electorate trooped out enmass to cast their votes.
Interestingly, as of press time, there was no record of violence.
Elections organised by INEC with the use of the bimodal voter accreditation system (BVAS) have been generally hailed as credible, starting with the Anambra governorship in November 2021.
BVAS is an electronic device designed to read permanent voter cards (PVCs) and authenticate voters. All accredited voters are captured on the voter, thereby making overvoting easily detectable.
Also, signed results sheets are captured and uploaded to the INEC servers immediately. This makes ballot snatching and ballot stuffing less attractive and also prevents the alteration of result sheets before collation. Quietly, INEC is using technology to improve the efficiency and credibility of elections. Politicians will now be left with resorting to technical and legal tussles to upturn the outcome.
Meanwhile, they were 15 candidates in the race and the people of Osun looked beyond Adeleke as a substitute for Oyetola, one of the greatest doing of the Osun people.
His Excellency Isiaka Oyetola may have failed in the election, but facts have it that Oyetola performed well to an extent compared to his predecessor.
Adeleke makes first statement after defeating Oyetola in Osun governorship election
Senator Ademola Adeleke, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has reacted to his victory in the 2022 governorship election in Osun state.
Shortly after he was announced as the winner of the poll by INEC, Adeleke took to his verified Twitter page to send a message to his followers and other Nigerians on the social media platform.
"I have brought light to Osun State," he tweeted.
Source: Legit.ng
