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By Pelumi Olajengbesi Esq.
It has been that time again in Osun, the season when ordinary conversations begin to sound like campaigns even before the campaigns fully arrive. The governorship election has been fixed for 8 August 2026, and the state is already being pulled into its familiar rhythm of calculation, emotion, and quiet alignments.
Osun voters are not the easiest audience to hypnotise. Politics here is not treated as a distant sport for elites alone. It is debated in compounds, markets, motor parks, union meetings, and WhatsApp groups with a seriousness that can surprise outsiders. There is political memory in the state, and there is political pride. People watch, compare, argue, and often resist being spoken to like they do not understand what is at stake.
Three men are now standing at the threshold of history, with different strengths, different burdens, and different ideas of how power is won in Osun. His Excellency, Senator Ademola Adeleke has emerged as the Accord candidate contesting for a second term. Dr Najeem Folasayo Salaam has emerged as the ADC candidate. Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji has emerged as the APC candidate.
Adeleke enters this contest as the incumbent, and as the dominant political character in Osun today. His advantage is not only the power of office, it is the rare gift of emotional permission. Many politicians have structure, very few have warmth. Many have elite backing, very few have that everyday closeness that makes people defend a leader even in his absence. That is the quiet strength Adeleke has built in Osun, a familiarity that feels personal, a presence that feels local, and a kind of popularity that refuses to be reduced to party symbols. Even the way his candidacy has travelled across platforms tells its own story.
There is no doubt Adeleke is my candidate, and more interesting is that it is easy and sweet to campaign for him. Governor Adeleke has performed excellently well beyond the expectations of many. From infrastructure to the welfare of the people, he has given all of himself to the service of the people. The people are in love with him. He has catered for the welfare of workers and pensioners, and positively affected every facet of human endeavour in the state.
Najeem Salaam enters differently, and his challenge begins with scale. He is experienced within the political class, and his name is not unfamiliar to insiders. He was a two term Speaker during the Aregbesola years, and he emerged as the ADC candidate after a primary in Osogbo where he was reported as the sole contestant. He will try to sell competence and experience, and he will likely lean on the Aregbesola political tendency that still has pockets of loyalty across parts of Osun.
Najeem Salaam is a brilliant politician, though small in political size when compared to Adeleke, and smaller in platform. He must do extra work to become loud enough in a state where the contest is already dominated by an incumbent’s atmosphere. Salaam’s burden is that he must first convince voters that he is not simply a serious man on a small stage. He must convert familiarity among political actors into acceptance among ordinary voters, and that is always a difficult journey in Osun. If the election were to be conducted in Najeem Salaam’s hometown alone, his records would speak loudly for him, but sadly, it is the almighty Osun governorship election.
Oyebamiji is completely unknown politically in Osun State in the true sense of Osun politics. He is a candidate that cannot be discussed as an individual in Osun except when described as Oyetola’s candidate. His emergence as the APC candidate was an imposed affirmation, in which other notable contestants were relegated, disqualified, and humiliated. It was not the kind of primary that produced a wave, it was the kind that produced a lackey.
Oyebamiji is not seen anywhere in Osun State as a formidable candidate. He must work thrice as hard to appear like a person the people can consider for an elective position. Oyebamiji’s biggest obstacle is that he is entering the race with a public image that is still being introduced. He is known within a faction of his party circles, where some see him as their leader’s candidate, while a larger percentage of his party members see him as a lackey. It is not enough to have a party. A candidate must also have a story that the people can repeat without being prompted.
One thing a lot of people know about him is that he is the candidate imposed by the former governor, Adegboyega Oyetola, who was voted out by the people of Osun. The Adegboyega Oyetola defeat was not merely electoral, it was psychological, and emotionally painful. Oyetola was defeated despite the power structure, federal might, and state might. The election told him something uncomfortable, that Osun people do not know him and they do not want him.
Oyebamiji is now running against the shadow of a person Osun has already rejected once in recent time. He must prove that this is not a recycled project with a new face. He must prove that the ticket is not an imposition. He must prove that he is not a lackey, a perception held by a larger percentage of the members of the APC in Osun State. He must prove that the state is not being asked to return to a chapter it deliberately closed in 2022.
This is why the struggle for the soul of Osun is not shaping up as a neat three man contest of equal weight. It looks like a contest built around one dominant political character, and two challengers trying to build enough force to redraw the centre of gravity. Adeleke enters with the strongest emotional advantage, and the cultural closeness that makes voters defend a man as their own. Adeleke, by my humble estimation, has 75 percent of the entire possible votes in Osun State today, leaving the two other candidates to scrabble for the remaining 25 percent.
May God see Osun through!
Pelumi Olajengbesi is a Legal Practitioner
