As the 2026 gubernatorial election approaches, I can’t help but reflect on the loud, persistent wailing coming from the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State, particularly the Ilerioluwa faction. It’s been almost three years since they lost the governorship election in 2022, and yet, they haven’t moved on. If anything, their lamentation has intensified their bitterness toward the development of the state, particularly the people’s satisfaction with Governor Ademola Adeleke’s led administration.
They did not see the Osun people’s tsunami coming. And even after the people firmly rejected them at the poll, twice successively, they still hallucinate that their loss was a temporary accident and not a product of their mismanagement of Osun people’s trust.
Let’s be clear, Osun people did not just vote against the APC in 2022 and 2023. They voted against misgovernance, insensitivity, and a government that weaponized poverty against its own people. The APC didn’t lose only because of Senator Ademola Adeleke’s dance moves, they lost because of their arrogance, their disregard for civil servants, and their mockery of pensioners. Governor Adeleke’s victory was a good riddance to the bad governance of APC in the state.
Governor Ademola Adeleke continues to deliver good governance across sectors: from digital economy and road infrastructure to health care and youth empowerment, and education. The APC in Osun has only one toxic political strategy: throwing insults at every lover of current development in the state regardless of affiliation. The members of the Osun APC have added President Bola Ahmed Tinubu himself to the list of people they are to insult. Their public statements are stuck in the past, constantly trying to relitigate an election they lost fair and square.
In a fresh low, the rejected and embittered opposition members turned their venom toward President Bola Ahmed Tinubu because Governor Ademola Adeleke paid him a courtesy visit in Lagos. Governor Adeleke’s visit to Mr. President was a display of political maturity, national unity, and visionary leadership. That some political scavengers would twist this act of diplomacy into an attack on the President is dangerous and disrespectful.
One would have thought that having lost their moral and electoral credibility, would embrace silence and self-reflection. Instead, they are now indirectly insulting the very man they once claimed to worship politically, President Tinubu simply because he chose to welcome a sitting governor who is actually delivering results.
An action rooted in delusion. They believe that the President should continue to endorse their failure even after they made him lose Osun in the 2023 presidential election. That kind of entitlement is why the people rejected them in the first place.
Governor Adeleke has shown repeatedly that he places Osun above partisan bitterness. His engagement with the federal government is not about politics, it’s about the people. Only a leader who is mentally shackled by defeat would see that as a betrayal.
Instead of commending Adeleke for building bridges and attracting federal attention to Osun, have chosen to foam in the mouth. Their pain is understandable, but still unjustifiable. They cannot stand to see the man they mocked succeeding where they failed.
The most disgraceful part of their tantrum is that those spearheading the attack on both Adeleke and Tinubu are failed men. One, a former Speaker of the House of Assembly, whose Assembly has the moral stain of a corruption scandal tied to the Ilesa water project. That someone like that would speak on integrity or leadership is laughable.
Another voice in this cacophony is a former Special Adviser on Education, yes, the same one whose advice saw Osun plummet to 33rd out of 36 states and FCT in WAEC performance. Yet today, he dares to criticize a governor who is revamping the educational sector in the state.
These men, intoxicated by power in the past, have now turned to political blackmail. They insult Adeleke because they can’t match his governance. They insult Tinubu because he refuses to dance to their tired tunes. It is pitiful.
Every progressive leader must embrace intergovernmental collaboration. Osun does not exist in isolation. It is part of the Nigerian federation, and any governor who refuses to engage the presidency is simply punishing his people. Adeleke understands this, and for that, he deserves praise.
His visit to President Tinubu was in the interest of Osun State, nothing more, nothing less. But the Osun APC, in their obsession with power and control, sees every gesture through the lens of politics. That’s the small-mindedness that cost them the people’s trust.
Ironically, those screaming betrayal today are the same people who could not bring themselves to protect Tinubu’s electoral interest in 2023. What this failed political association is really angry about is that Adeleke is thriving, and Tinubu, a master political realist, is not willing to bet on a bad horse again. That hurts them more than they can admit. So instead of regrouping and re-strategizing, they’ve chosen the path of public disgrace.
But Osun people are watching. They know the difference between a man who governs with results and a group of political loafers still reminiscing about a lost era. These attacks only deepen the public’s disdain for the APC.
Governor Adeleke’s diplomacy, humility, and political sense continue to put Osun on the national radar. The performing Governor has chosen engagement. That is leadership. That is maturity. If the APC had shown this level of political understanding in the past, perhaps they wouldn’t be in this state of permanent lamentation.
Their attempt to drag President Tinubu into their cesspool of frustration is suicidal. Osun people may tolerate criticism, but they do not forgive political sabotage against their leader. The people of Osun are not swayed by propaganda. They are watching the roads being rebuilt, the hospitals being refurbished, and the state being repositioned. No amount of noise from failed men can change that.
If Adeleke’s success threatens their fragile egos so much that they must insult the President, then they have not only lost the coming August 8, 2026 election, but they have lost their sense of decency. And that, more than anything else, is why Osun APC remains in ruins. In the end, it is not Adeleke who keeps them up at night. It is the memory of their own failure. And that is the loudest lamentation of all.
Osun is friend with the Presidency.
- James Bamgbose writes from Igbajo, Boluwaduro Local Government, Osun State. He can be reached via bamgbosejames9@gmail.com
