Tinubu Makes Adeleke His Osun Campaign Coordinator: The Man Who Beat the APC Now Carries Its Campaign

On 15 August, Ademola Adeleke won the Osun governorship election again. He polled 511,067 votes. The APC’s Bola Oyebamiji got 444,815. So the APC went to Osun, spent money, shared rice, held rallies, and still came back with “Next time.”

Now Tinubu has made the same Adeleke his Osun State campaign coordinator for the 2027 re-election. In Osun. The state the APC just lost.

Think of it like this. A boy beats you in a football match in front of your entire street. The next week, you hire him to organise your team for the next match. And he accepts! The man did not even need to apply. He just won, and they gave him a job.

Oyebamiji must be having a very interesting week. The man campaigned for months. Now he has to attend meetings where the person in charge is the one who beat him. Somebody will say, “Let us welcome our coordinator,” and he will clap with one hand and sip water with the other.

Meanwhile, Adeleke keeps saying, “I never reached any agreement with Mr President.” Keyamo says, “Agreement is agreement.” Adeleke says he supports Tinubu because he is Yoruba and he wants federal roads. My friend, that is an agreement. It just has no signature. The paper is on the road.

Look at the APC chieftains who have been there since the AC days, carrying bags, defending policies on TV and sitting through every long meeting. They have just learnt that loyalty is not the qualification. The qualification is beating your party in an election first, then supporting it. It is a very short route to the top. A lot of people are now thinking, “Maybe I should have contested against them.”

And the Osun APC members? They must now mobilise votes for Tinubu under the man they were campaigning against two months ago. Imagine telling people on the street, “Vote Tinubu!” and someone answers, “Did you not tell me last time to vote against this man’s coordinator?” Then you smile and hand over a flyer.

But let me be fair: it is clever. If you cannot defeat a man, put him in charge of your campaign. Now if the votes in Osun go badly, it will be his fault. The man gets the big job, but he also gets the blame.

For the average Nigerian, nothing changes. Prices will still be prices. The only difference is that in Osun, everybody now owns two T-shirts, just in case.

As for Oyebamiji, we are praying for him. He needs a very large cup of tea and a very short meeting.