Osun poll: Tinubu’s restraint helped Adeleke win, says Accord Party chieftain
August 23, 2026 7:38 pm
A former Accord Party presidential candidate, Prof Chris Imumolen.
A former Accord Party presidential candidate, Prof Chris Imumolen, has faulted the claim that President Bola Tinubu played no role in Governor Ademola Adeleke’s victory in the August 15 Osun governorship election, describing the position as “ungrateful and pretentious.”
Imumolen, in a statement on Sunday, said reducing Tinubu’s role to whether he campaigned for Adeleke or provided financial and political support was an attempt to overlook what he described as the President’s democratic restraint before and during the election.
The former presidential candidate was reacting to an interview published in PUNCH Online wherein the spokesperson of the Imole Campaign Organisation, Mr Pelumi Olajengbesi, said Tinubu offered no support to the governor’s re-election and attributed the victory to the votes of Osun residents and Adeleke’s performance in office.
Imumolen said the argument failed to recognise that political support could also take the form of deliberately refusing to deploy state power against an opponent. “President Tinubu demonstrated an extraordinary level of democratic restraint in Osun. He remained neutral even when the candidate of his own party was contesting the election and, by virtue of the family relationship involved, the contest had an additional political sensitivity.
“He did not turn the election into a personal battle. He did not deploy the power of his office to intimidate the opposition. Instead, he allowed the people of Osun to make their choice. That, in itself, is a significant contribution to the credibility of the electoral process,” he said.
The APC candidate in the election, Bola Oyebamiji, contested against the incumbent governor, who was seeking a second term on the platform of the Accord Party. Adeleke eventually secured 511,067 votes to defeat Oyebamiji, who polled 444,815 votes, while the African Democratic Congress candidate, Najeem Salaam, recorded 17,180 votes.
Imumolen argued that Tinubu’s conduct was particularly noteworthy because the election involved the President’s own party. “It is rare in contemporary African politics to see a sitting president demonstrate such restraint when his own party is involved in a fiercely contested state election,” he added
The Accord Party chieftain noted that the president’s decision not to turn the contest into a battle between the Federal Government and the Osun governor created an atmosphere in which political actors and voters could make their choices without what he described as federal intimidation.
He also referred to what he described as Tinubu’s intervention concerning the Osun State Government’s account and the president’s reported communication with Adeleke before the declaration of the result as evidence of a statesmanlike approach to the election.
“Imagine what would have happened if the president had decided to use every available instrument at his disposal against Adeleke simply because the governor was contesting against the president’s party. Instead, the president maintained his democratic disposition. He allowed traditional rulers, political actors, stakeholders and ordinary citizens to exercise their judgment without the atmosphere of federal intimidation that could have accompanied such a contest,” he said.
Imumolen, however, clarified that he was not claiming that Tinubu campaigned for Adeleke or financed his re-election bid. “Nobody is saying President Tinubu campaigned for Adeleke. That is not the argument. The point is that the president’s conduct, restraint and democratic disposition contributed to an environment in which Adeleke was able to contest and secure support without the Federal Government turning the election into a presidential power contest,” he said.
He maintained that there was a distinction between partisan support and democratic statesmanship, urging Adeleke and his supporters not to dismiss the importance of the president’s conduct simply because the APC candidate lost the election.
“The president may not have offered Adeleke the conventional campaign support being referred to by the campaign spokesperson, but his actions and restraint helped preserve the political space within which the election took place. To therefore come out after the election and declare that the president offered ‘no support’ is, in my view, an attempt to erase the value of his democratic conduct,” he added.
Imumolen said the governor’s victory should not become a basis for what he described as historical revisionism, stressing that the outcome should also be viewed within the broader circumstances surrounding the election.
“Adeleke may have won because of the votes he received from Osun people, but nobody should rewrite the circumstances under which those votes were allowed to freely determine the outcome. President Tinubu could have chosen confrontation. He chose restraint. He could have chosen partisan warfare. He chose democracy. That should be acknowledged, not denied,” he stressed.
The controversy comes against the backdrop of heightened political realignment ahead of the 2027 general election, with the outcome of the Osun election already attracting competing interpretations from the major political parties. While Adeleke’s supporters have presented the victory as an endorsement of his administration and the preference of Osun voters, political actors across the divide have sought to draw wider lessons from the contest.
“Victory should make a leader magnanimous, not revisionist. The president respected the democratic process in Osun. That fact should not be diminished simply because Adeleke emerged victorious,” he said.
He added that political leaders needed to appreciate that leadership was not measured only by what was done for allies but also by the restraint exercised towards opponents. “Leadership is not only about what you do for your friends. Sometimes, it is about what you refuse to do to your opponents,” Imumolen argued.
Dirisu Yakubu is a journalist at Punch Newspapers with over a decade of experience covering parliament, politics, and development issues. He specializes in reporting that provides context and insight into legislative and governance matters. Dirisu’s work reflects extensive newsroom experience and a commitment to accurate and impactful journalism.
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