Where in the world will a political party mock a rival platform that surpasses it in an election by unassailable 437,635 votes? That happens in Nigeria where opposition politicians gloss over their routing and celebrate the loss by a state chapter of the ruling party they’d campaigned against, and boasted would be taken to the cleaners at the Osun State governorship election on August 15, 2026.

In the bitterly-contentious poll, incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party (AP) scored 511,067 votes, and won 19 of Osun’s 30 local councils, to defeat his main challenger and candidate of All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji (alias AMBO), who polled 444,815 votes, and won in 11 councils.

Candidate of the main oppostion African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dr Najeem Salaam, came third with 17,180 votes, without claiming a single council. But as a boastful bystander than a serious contender, the ADC’s been loudest in commending the AP for winning, and condemning the APC for losing the franchise.

Let’s consider, for a moment, that the Osun election had favoured the APC and its candidate Oyebamiji; what would’ve been the reactions of opposition politicians and their supporters? They would turn the praise for Osun people into condemnation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the entire APC leadership across the country.

In their concocted outrage over alleged “killing” of democracy” in Nigeria, the opposition would invite the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, and other Western countries, and the United Nations, European Union, African Union, ECOWAS, and even the Nigerian Military to take over power in the country.

Having lost all sense of shame, ADC’s “stalwarts,” former Sen. Dino Melaye and media entrepreneur, Chief Dele Momodu, despite the miserly result recorded by their cantakerous platform, mocked the APC leadership for the party’s second placing at the poll!

With Adeleke securing a fresh four-year term, Melaye, famous for spreading politically-motivated allegations – and who claimed on Poll Day that Tinubu’s government was plotting to withdraw security “after realising that Adeleke was winning the election” – laughed at the APC chieftains in an X/Twitter post on August 16, 2026.

Melaye, predicting that the APC would go into extinction, said: “Till we meet again APC. Rest in Peace. 34 Governors, Senate President and Tinubu defeated. Odabo (Yoruba for goodbye or farewell) Tinubu… Ancestral State lost” – a reference to Osun as Tinubu’s state of origin, and not Lagos State, where he’s domiciled since his early life.

Momodu’s reaction to the Osun poll was measured while speaking on Channels Television’s “Politics Today” on August 17, 2026, even as his messaging was praise for Adeleke’s victory, and mockery for Tinubu’s defeat that he says “is a setback for the president” in 2027.

Momodu – who craved Adeleke’s return against the election of ADC’s Salaam backed by former Vice President and the 2027 ADC candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar – said “the contest was largely a battle between Adeleke and the influence of the President.”

Arguing that APC’s candidate Oyebamiji and ex-Osun Governor and Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Chief Gboyega Oyetola, relied heavily on Tinubu’s name during the campaign, Momodu said the Osun result should serve as a warning to the APC ahead of the 2027 election.

His words: “Without any doubt whatsoever, he (Tinubu) lost. Who was Oyebamiji in the scheme of things? Who was Oyetola in the scheme of things? They were all name droppers name-dropping Tinubu everywhere.

“And that is why a man, who said on full camera that they should kill his fellow citizens, could walk in and out of a police station as if all was well. And the reason I would tell you is the fear of January 2027 (when presidential poll will hold); they are afraid that the Osun election will send a wrong signal to the electorate across Nigeria.

“In Osun today, people are saying whether the governor supports Tinubu or not, they would support their own preferred candidate based on merit” – referring to Adeleke’s post-re-election interview on August 16, 2026, reaffirming his support, and to campaign for Tinubu’s re-election.

Momodu is one of the critics that opposed former Rivers Governor and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Chief Nyesom Wike, for supporting Tinubu’s election in 2023, and his restated support for his second term bid in 2027. But ahead of the Osun poll, Momodu went against his ally, Atiku’s support of ADC’s Salaam, and backed Adeleke.

Atiku, along with the ADC National Chairman and former Senate President David Mark, ex-Governor and National Secretary, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, and the party topshots rallied for their candidate, and vowed to win the ballot.

During the closing mega rally at Osogbo, Osun’s capital city, on August 10, 2026, Atiku recalled his relationship with Osun through his senior wife, Titi Abubakar, who hails from Ilesa in Ijesaland, and the several times he’d campaigned in the state and recorded victories for himself, and candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), including Adeleke in 2022.

Atiku appealed to supporters to vote for Dr Salaam at the election, saying the ADC’s different from other political parties, and gave the assurance that the people of Osun wouldn’t regret voting for the party.

“I have come today to appeal to you to vote for the ADC. This is because the ADC, I can assure you, is different from APC, is different from Accord, is different from all other parties because the best of Nigerians is today in ADC. So, I have come and I am appealing to you, the next governorship election, you should vote for ADC,” Atiku said.

“I believe you will not regret voting ADC in the forthcoming election; that is why I have come personally to relate with you, to thank you for your previous support and to appeal to you to vote ADC in the next gubernatorial election,” Atiku added.

When the chips were down on Election Day, and the ADC and Salaam were beaten by the AP, Melaye, Momodu, Atiku and other ADC chieftains chose to eulogise Adeleke and “Osun people” for voting against the APC and its Tinubu-headed leadership.

Though the Osun people proved that the “voter is supreme,” Governor Adeleke and President Tinubu’s voices matter most aftermath of the poll, with Adeleke revealing that Tinubu had called at 2:00 am on August 16, 2026 (before INEC declared the results), to congratulate him, PUNCH reported.

In an interview with Channels Television on August 16, 2026, Adeleke, relating his conversation with Tinubu, said the president called him to ask about the election before congratulating him on his victory.

“He called me, because I see him like a father. He called me, and said, ‘Mr Governor, what’s going on? How is the election going?’ I said, ‘Ah, your son is cruising to victory,'” Adeleke said, adding that the conversation was friendly, and that they joked about his reputation for dancing before Tinubu congratulated him.

While appreciating the president for the call and congratulatory message, and his advice to him to unite the people of Osun State for development during his second term; Adeleke denied any agreement with Tinubu on the 2027 poll.

He said: “No, I never reached an agreement with Mr President. My support is just based on… he’s a Yoruba man, and he’s from the Southwest. And I believe that all the federal roads that he has started, I want to encourage him not to forget Southwest too.

Adeleke stressed that his support for Tinubu’s wasn’t motivated by political bargaining. “A lot of people feel like it’s because of politics, maybe I want him to support me. No, it is my work that people look on for them to support me,” he said, adding, “You see, a lot of people… (don’t know that) I don’t play games. When I say… they don’t call me ‘talk and do’ (a promise keeper) for nothing” (they don’t believe it), he said.

Noting that, “Since a Yoruba man has won the first term, maybe we should give him another chance to develop his reforms,” Adeleke said he’d campaign for Tinubu, “Big time, I will,” adding that he’s willing to work with the APC members, including supporters of Oyetola, to support the president.

“Well, as long as I’m doing it for Mr. President, I won’t mind. I will work with them,” he said. “And, of course, whatever Mr. President… when it’s time for him to campaign and all that, whatever how he wants me to come in, I will do it,” he said.

While opposition politicians digest Adeleke’s renewed support for re-election of President Tinubu, whom he paid a visit at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on August 20, 2026; it’s ironic for the ADC leaders to celebrate their own defeat, to spite alleged failure of the APC to “capture Osun State” with “federal might.” Only in Nigeria can such self-conceit take place!

Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria. Can be reached on X, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp @EhichioyaEzomon. Tel: 08033078357.