By James Bamgbose
Beyond the obvious fact that no one who contests against Senator Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke in 2026 stands a realistic chance, the reality is even harsher for the Osun State chapter of the All-Progressives Congress (APC). The six men currently jostling for their party’s ticket are not just weak contenders, they are collectively the most uninspiring set of aspirants the party has ever presented.
In politics, perception is often as important as performance, and in this case, neither is on their side. Their antecedents, track records, and public perception form a long, unflattering list that paints a grim picture for the opposition.
Take Senator Iyiola Omisore, for example. He is the most experienced in the race. Sadly, that experience has translated into political fatigue rather than electoral advantage. His name once carried weight in Osun politics; his network once sprawling; his confidence unshakable. But politics has a way of rewarding relevance, not history. The 2014 gubernatorial election was his golden chance; the moment when the stars aligned and the party structure stood solidly behind him with the highest political margin in state history. That moment passed, and with it, his political prime.
His later foray into national party leadership as APC’s National Secretary could have been a reinvention. Instead, it ended in humiliation as he was unceremoniously shoved aside in what political watchers describe as an “internal impeachment”. Omisore today is not the political gladiator of old, but a man desperately trying to outrun the shadow of his own decline.
Then there is Mr Adegoke Rasheed (K-Rad), a man whose governorship ambitions have been an annual political festival without a winning ticket. It’s one thing to lose because of bad luck or a hostile political environment; it’s another to lose because your own people will not touch your ambition with a ten-foot pole. His kinsmen in his own party have never rallied behind him, year after year, sending him back into political oblivion before the real contest even begins.
If the people who know your character and competence best, your own hometown brothers and sisters, see no reason to trust you with leadership, how can you possibly inspire confidence in a state of over four million people? He remains an aspirant on paper, with no tangible history of governance, no constituency breakthroughs, and no proven capacity to mobilize mass support. He is a familiar name, but not a serious contender.
Senator Surajudeen Basiru’s case is a classic example of how political opportunity can be squandered. If there is any politician with inspiring progress in the state, Senator Basiru is one. From Commissioner for Regional Integration and Special Duties to Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General to Osun Central Senator. As a Senator representing Osun Central and the Spokesperson of the 8th Senate, he had both the platform and the visibility to bring significant development to his constituency and raise his own standing for higher office.
Instead, his tenure is remembered for one thing: the distribution of solar streetlight. In an era when constituents expect roads, hospitals, schools, and economic empowerment, Basiru’s most celebrated achievement was a handful of solar lights,which eventually earned him the nickname “Senator Solar.” The position he holds today has not altered that perception, and if history is any guide, he will leave it as he did the Senate; with a record that inspires no one. This is not the CV of a man capable of unseating an incumbent with Governor Adeleke’s current approval ratings.
Asiwaju Bola Oyebamiji’s name in the race is even more bewildering. As Commissioner for Finance under the previous administration, he presided over a period of fiscal turbulence that left Osun State Civil Servants with no sympathy drowning them in debt and struggling with unpaid obligations. The state’s financial status was with no innovative policies. His subsequent tenure at the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) was just as uninspiring.
Rather than using the position to push for major infrastructural investments or operational reforms, the leadership of NIWA has never left the news on matter relating to bad leadership and in recent time, the record for death toll in the waterways is quite alarming. NIWA is exactly as he met it, slow, uncoordinated, and irrelevant in national development discussions. There was no bold project to his name, no policy shake-up, no creative legacy. If his time as Finance Commissioner and at NIWA is the preview of what he would offer as governor, Osun would be voting for an administrative stagnation at best and financial indiscipline at worst.
Dotun Babayemi is another name that surfaces with every political season but never with a convincing argument for why he should lead. His record is not defined by achievements in governance but by factional battles within his party. Instead of building a statewide coalition, he has been content to play the role of spoiler in internal disputes, often alienating allies and eroding his own base.
His inability to unite even small party factions raises the question: how can he unify a state as politically diverse as Osun? A gubernatorial campaign requires more than ambition; it demands the ability to build trust across divides, something Babayemi has consistently failed to demonstrate.
And then there is Mudashiru Hussein, a man whose political relevance belongs to the history books rather than the present. Once a notable figure, his electoral bids have repeatedly failed to connect with the electorate, and his time in public office left behind no defining achievement. In today’s Osun political climate, where energy, visibility, and a track record of delivery are crucial, Hussein’s profile reads like a relic from an era that voters have moved beyond. He is a familiar name, yes, but one that sparks little excitement and commands even less trust.
What binds these six men together is not shared ideology or party loyalty, but a shared absence of momentum. None of them carries the energy of renewal, the record of transformative leadership, or the capacity to match Adeleke’s current popularity and performance. When your most recognisable aspirant’s political peak was over a decade ago; when your so-called fresh face cannot win the confidence of his own hometown, when your most prominent senator is remembered for distributing solar lights, and when your former finance commissioner’s record is one of debt and stagnation, you are not building a winning ticket, you are assembling a line-up for yet another electoral defeat.
Governor’s Spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed rightly said, “From A-Z, Osun APC guber aspirants are politically deficient politicians who cannot by any stretch of imagination match the sterling records of Governor Ademola Adeleke in less than three years in office or pose any electoral threat to the re-election of the Governor in 2026.”
Governor Adeleke’s incumbency is not merely about holding office; it is about the visible changes across Osun– from infrastructure expansion to health sector revitalisation, from workers’ welfare to grassroots engagement. He is not running on abstract promises; he is running on tangible delivery, and in politics, delivery is the strongest campaign message.
The APC in Osun is not just going into the 2026 election with a weak team; it is going into battle with a team that voters have already dismissed in their hearts. The real contest for the party will not be against Adeleke, but against the growing realisation within its own ranks that field it is presenting is not only unelectable but politically obsolete. The tragedy is that they don’t need Adeleke to tell them this, the people of Osun have been telling them for years.
- James Bamgbose writes from Igbajo, Boluwaduro Local Government, Osun State. He can be reached via bamgbosejames9@gmail.com
