Adeleke wins Osun again, but can he fix the state this time?

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has declared Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party the winner of the 2026 Osun State governorship election. The Returning Officer, Prof Joshua Olalekan Ogunwole, who is also the Vice Chancellor of Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, announced the result on Sunday morning. Adeleke polled 511,067 votes to defeat Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who scored 444,815 votes.

Najeem Salaam of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, came a distant third with 17,180 votes. Fifteen political parties contested, but this was always a two-horse race between Adeleke and the APC. The margin of about 66,000 votes is not exactly a landslide, but it is a clear rejection of the APC's campaign in Osun.

Now the real work begins. Adeleke has a second term to deliver on the promises that won him this mandate. The question every Osun resident should be asking is not whether the election was free and fair, but whether the next four years will bring any tangible change to their daily lives. Can he do better this time, or will we be having this same conversation in 2030?