Governor Ademola Adeleke’s campaign has praised President Bola Tinubu following Adeleke’s victory in the Osun State governorship election, with the result drawing attention to what observers described as warming ties between the two politicians.
Pelumi Olajengbesi, spokesperson for Adeleke’s campaign, publicly thanked Tinubu shortly after the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Adeleke winner of the Saturday election held across Osun State.
Adeleke polled 511,067 votes to defeat his closest rival, All Progressives Congress candidate Bola Oyebamiji, who recorded 444,815 votes in the contest conducted on Saturday.
The margin of victory, 66,252 votes, secured Adeleke a return to office and placed his campaign council in position to make its post-election statement praising the president publicly and directly. The result was declared by INEC officials after votes were counted across the state’s polling units, with Adeleke’s performance cutting across multiple local government areas.
Olajengbesi’s post thanking Tinubu drew wide attention, with many observers reading it as a signal of improved relations between Adeleke and the president whose party had fielded the opposing candidate in the race.
The statement came after Tinubu placed a congratulatory call to Adeleke following the election, a gesture that the campaign council pointed to as evidence of the president’s goodwill toward the governor. The call was notable given that Tinubu’s own party, the APC, had backed Oyebamiji in the contest, making direct presidential outreach to the winning opposition-aligned candidate an uncommon post-election development.
Tinubu had also ordered the unfreezing of an Osun State government account before the election, a move that Adeleke’s camp noted when discussing the relationship between the governor and the federal government. The account had been a source of tension between the state and federal authorities, and its release was seen by Adeleke’s allies as a meaningful gesture ahead of the vote.
Observers offered differing readings of the campaign’s praise for Tinubu. Some described it as strategic positioning by Adeleke’s political team ahead of the 2027 general elections, when Tinubu is expected to seek re-election.
Others viewed it as genuine appreciation from the campaign, given the president’s call to Adeleke and the unfreezing of the state account in the period leading up to the vote.
Adeleke’s camp did not leave the matter of 2027 to interpretation. The campaign council formally endorsed Tinubu for the next presidential race, placing the governor’s political organization openly in the president’s corner for the coming election cycle.
The endorsement, paired with Olajengbesi’s public praise and Tinubu’s personal call to Adeleke, formed the basis for the commentary on what observers described as a notable shift in the relationship between the Osun governor and the presidency.
Adeleke had previously operated within the Peoples Democratic Party, Tinubu’s principal opposition, before switching to the Accord Party to contest the 2026 election, a move that itself altered the political dynamics surrounding his relationship with the federal government. The party switch had raised questions about where Adeleke’s political alliances would settle once the election was concluded.
The combination of Tinubu’s call, the unfreezing of the state account, and the campaign’s subsequent public praise and presidential endorsement produced the commentary, with analysts split between viewing it as political calculation and viewing it as a reflection of a genuine thaw.
Adeleke’s campaign council did not characterize the development as anything other than appreciation, with Olajengbesi’s statement framing the praise as a response to what the council described as a peaceful and properly conducted vote.
The Osun governorship result, the endorsement of Tinubu for 2027, and the public thanksgiving from Adeleke’s camp now stand as the central political facts following the Saturday election in which Adeleke defeated Oyebamiji by 511,067 votes to 444,815.
