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Former Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu has hinged the outcome of last Saturday’s governorship election on the political sophistication of Osun voters, arguing that many electorates engaged in strategic voting to prevent the All Progressives Congress (APC) from winning.
Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party was declared winner of the election with 511,067 votes, defeating APC’s Bola Oyebamiji who polled 444,815 votes.
In a Monday Facebook post titled, “Why Osun voters looked beyond party loyalty,” Ojudu said a considerable number of African Democratic Congress (ADC) members chose to vote for the Accord Party because they regarded the APC as “the greater threat.”
“They simply did not want the APC to win. Many appeared determined to bring the political career of former Governor Gboyega Oyetola and his acolytes to an end.
“They therefore suspended their immediate partisan interests and voted for the Accord Party, believing that a vote for the ADC might indirectly improve the APC’s chances. It was strategic voting: they chose the candidate they believed was best positioned to achieve their overriding objective,” Ojudu stated.
Ojudu, a political ally of former Osun Governor Rauf Aregbesola, said although the National Secretary of ADC was not on the ballot, the campaign effectively put him there.
He alleged that the Accord Party foregrounded Aregbesola’s record of paying senior civil servants half salaries while ignoring his achievements, and used the pejorative “Baba Hafusa” tag to “diminish his record and rubbish his legacy.”
He also claimed that at the national level, “an Aregbesola victory in Osun would have sent a powerful signal… about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s political standing. Consequently, considerable effort was made to ensure that Aregbesola and his candidate did not perform well.”
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Ojudu further stated that Aregbesola faced resistance even within the ADC in Osun, noting that the party has two factions in the state: the progressive faction led by the ex-governor and another with roots in the PDP.
According to him, the latter faction “actively worked against Aregbesola and his Omoluabi group during the election” and has “a firm grip of Atiku Abubakar and his wife Titi.”
He added that Aregbesola’s group “received little or no meaningful support from Atiku who is the national of party and its Presidential flag bearer.”
Citing precedent, Ojudu recalled the 2011 presidential election when Osun voters “openly defied” Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) leadership’s instructions and voted overwhelmingly for Nuhu Ribadu.
“Since 1999, Osun voters have demonstrated this independent-mindedness on more than four occasions. They know how to set aside party loyalties when they believe a larger political objective is at stake,” he said.
He described Osun as “one of Nigeria’s most cosmopolitan states” with multiple major towns — Ilesa, Ede, Iwo, Ejigbo, Ile-Ife, Ikire, Ikirun, Ila-Orangun and Oke-Ila — each with “distinct identity and considerable political weight.”
“This diversity has helped to produce an electorate that is politically conscious, difficult to herd and capable of making independent calculations. Osun is therefore not a state to be taken for granted,” Ojudu said.
“So, give it up for the Osun electorate. They understand the strategic value of their votes — and they know precisely when, where and how to deploy them.”
