AWC POLITICAL DESK, AUGUST 2026
The dust has barely settled on the 2026 Osun governorship election, and the blame game within the All Progressives Congress (APC) is already gathering momentum.
A viral political post making the rounds on social media has placed former Osun Governor and Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, at the centre of the party’s defeat, accusing him of political arrogance and arguing that he should bear much of the responsibility for APC’s failure to reclaim Osun.
The post makes a particularly provocative argument: that Oyetola could have helped bring Governor Ademola Adeleke into the APC fold, potentially turning the election into an easy victory for the ruling party.
That claim, however, should be treated as political opinion rather than an established fact. There is no credible evidence that Adeleke was on the verge of joining APC or that Oyetola alone prevented such a move.
But the wider argument about APC’s internal divisions and political management in Osun deserves attention.
The 2026 election was never simply a contest between two candidates. It became a test of the APC’s ability to consolidate its political machinery in a state where the opposition incumbent, Ademola Adeleke, had built a formidable grassroots structure.
And the final numbers were decisive.
INEC declared Adeleke the winner with 511,067 votes, while APC candidate Bola Oyebamiji polled 444,815 votes — a winning margin of 66,252 votes. Adeleke also won 19 of the state’s 30 local government areas, while the APC secured 11.
Then came one of the election’s most controversial episodes.
At the polling unit associated with Oyetola at Lado Hill in Boripe Local Government Area, The Cable reported that a man wearing an APC identification tag allegedly demanded that Accord ballot papers be voided, claiming the instruction had come “from above.” The report said the presiding officer initially resisted, but later allowed the ballots to be marked after security personnel moved away from the immediate scene.
The reported result from the unit showed 242 votes for APC, while votes for several other parties were announced. No votes were recorded for Accord after the alleged invalidation of its ballots.
That episode has given fresh ammunition to critics who argue that the APC’s problem in Osun was not merely the strength of Adeleke, but also the conduct and effectiveness of the party’s own political machinery.
Yet it would be simplistic to place the entire defeat on Oyetola.
The APC candidate was Bola Oyebamiji, not Oyetola. The election involved a broader network of party leaders, campaign strategists, local structures, agents and voters. Responsibility for an electoral defeat therefore extends far beyond one individual.
What the result does reveal, however, is that political influence is not automatically transferable from one election to another.
Oyetola himself once defeated Adeleke in the 2018 Osun governorship race after a fiercely contested supplementary election. Adeleke later defeated Oyetola in 2022, and has now secured a second term in 2026. The latest victory shows that Osun remains a highly competitive political environment rather than a permanent stronghold of any individual politician or party.
The social-media post therefore raises a larger question for APC: Was the party defeated by Adeleke, or did internal political calculations help Adeleke defeat the APC?
That question will likely dominate the party’s post-election autopsy.
For Oyetola, the political irony is particularly sharp. The man who once occupied the Osun Government House and remains one of the most influential political figures from the state is now facing renewed scrutiny over whether his political capital is still strong enough to deliver the kind of electoral results expected from a former governor and serving federal minister.
But perhaps the bigger lesson is this:
In Nigerian politics, occupying a powerful office is one thing. Converting that power into votes is another.
Osun voters have now spoken. The APC must decide whether to respond to the defeat with blame, or with an honest examination of its internal structure, candidate selection, grassroots organisation and relationship among its leading figures.
For now, the result belongs to Adeleke. The reckoning belongs to the APC.
#OsunDecides2026 #APC #Adeleke #Oyetola #NigeriaPolitics
