Shehu Sani defends Adeleke’s post-election alignment with Tinubu

Human rights activist and former Senator, Shehu Sani, has strongly defended Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, against heavy backlash from the political opposition for appreciating President Bola Tinubu following his victory in the governorship election.

Adeleke, the incumbent governor, won the August 15, 2026 Osun governorship election and was declared winner by INEC on Sunday, August 16.

He contested on the Accord Party platform and polled 511,067 votes.

His closest challenger, Bola Oyebamiji of the APC, scored 444,815 votes, giving Adeleke a winning margin of 66,252 votes.

Najeem Salaam of the ADC came third with 17,180 votes.

Adeleke reportedly won 19 of the state’s 30 LGAs, while Oyebamiji won 11.

He subsequently thanked President Tinubu for a fair process and reaffirmed his backing for Tinubu’s bid for a second term in 2027, drawing criticism from the opposition.

Reacting to the development on Monday in a statement on X, Sani said some opposition figures expected Adeleke to adopt a more confrontational posture towards the President.

“Most members of the opposition are not happy with Governor Adeleke for ‘thanking’ President Tinubu for his electoral victory. They want the Governor to be confrontational,” he said.

According to Sani, Adeleke’s appreciation was understandable if the President played a role in ensuring that the governor’s electoral mandate was protected.

“If the President had not been helpful in securing his mandate and preventing any attempt to tamper with it, the Governor wouldn’t have been so appreciative,” he said.

Sani argued that winning an election involves more than securing votes at polling units, stressing that the subsequent collation and declaration stages are equally crucial.

“Electoral victory is a product of two components; winning the votes and securing the collation and victory of the vote,” he said.

The former lawmaker noted that some politicians had lost elections despite winning or performing strongly at the voting stage because they were unable to secure the outcome during the collation process.