Osun 2026: Adeleke Defends Record As Oyebamiji, Salaam Unveil Rival Plans At ARISE Town Hall

OSOGBO: Four days before Osun voters decide who will occupy the Government House, Governor Ademola Adeleke, APC candidate Bola Oyebamiji and ADC candidate Najeem Salaam faced the electorate from the same platform.

The ARISE News Osun Governorship Town Hall on Tuesday became a contest of competing records, promises and political narratives.

Adeleke defended his nearly four-year administration.

Oyebamiji challenged the incumbent’s economic record and presented agriculture, private investment and industrialisation as the route out of Osun’s dependence on government and federal allocations.

Salaam offered an alternative built around mass employment, electricity and what he described as a peaceful departure from the Adeleke-APC rivalry.

The three candidates did not merely disagree about what Osun needs. They offered fundamentally different explanations for why the state has struggled and what should happen next.

ValidViewNetwork reports that the town hall came four days before the August 15 governorship election and provided one of the clearest opportunities for voters to compare the three leading candidates on the same platform.

Adeleke: I inherited problems and fixed them

The incumbent made his strongest argument around what he described as inherited financial obligations. Adeleke said his administration had cleared pension and other inherited liabilities running into about ₦80 billion.

“Today, I have cleared pensioners’ backlog to the tune of N80 billion,” Adeleke said. The claim is consistent with previous statements from the governor’s administration, which has said more than ₦80 billion in inherited salary and pension obligations had been cleared.

But the figure has been politically contested. The APC has previously disputed Adeleke’s claims concerning pension payments under the Oyetola administration.

That means the ₦80 billion figure should not simply be presented as an uncontested fact. The relevant question is how much was inherited, how much has actually been paid, to whom and under which categories of obligation.

Those are figures that can be independently audited. For Adeleke, however, the political message is straightforward. He wants pensioners and workers to remember the arrears he says his government inherited and the payments he says it has made.

Adeleke takes aim at Oyetola

The governor also returned to his long-running political rivalry with former governor Adegboyega Oyetola. Adeleke claimed that Oyetola considered returning to the governorship race but was discouraged by people within the APC who believed he could not defeat Adeleke.

He alleged that Oyetola instead backed Oyebamiji as a “proxy” through whom he could retain influence over the Government House.

That claim is politically significant. But it remains an allegation. There is no independent evidence establishing that Oyebamiji is controlled by Oyetola.

Oyebamiji’s own record, however, provides part of the reason Adeleke is making the argument. The APC candidate served as Commissioner for Finance under Oyetola and has remained associated with the administration’s political structure.

Oyebamiji is therefore not a political stranger to Oyetola’s camp. But association is not proof of control. That distinction matters.

Oyebamiji turns the argument to money

Oyebamiji did not allow the town hall to remain a referendum on Oyetola. He moved the discussion towards Osun’s finances and economic structure. The APC candidate argued that the state should stop depending heavily on government employment and federal allocations.

He said Osun’s monthly inflow from Abuja had risen dramatically from the period when he served in government. Oyebamiji recalled that the state’s monthly federal revenue was about ₦3.5 billion when he left government, compared with a wage bill of between ₦3.7 billion and ₦3.8 billion.

He said the state now receives roughly ₦17 billion to ₦20 billion monthly. His argument was blunt. Higher revenues should not simply finance recurrent expenditure. They should be used to build productive capacity.

ValidViewNetwork reports that Oyebamiji’s economic proposition rests on three major pillars: private investment, agriculture and industrial processing.

He argued that Osun must attract private capital and develop industries around agricultural production. The idea is important because agriculture without processing can leave farmers producing raw materials while value and employment are created elsewhere.

Oyebamiji therefore wants the state to move beyond simply producing crops. His proposal is to develop industries that process what Osun farmers produce.

That would create another layer of economic activity. According to Oyebamiji, Farmers produce. Processors buy. Factories employ. Markets expand. Government earns more revenue. That is the economic chain behind his argument.

Oyebamiji’s food argument

The APC candidate has also made hunger and poverty central to his campaign. His broader campaign programme promises major investment in agriculture, education and healthcare.

He has described agriculture as a cornerstone of his administration and argued that Osun has the land, youthful population and market necessary to build a stronger agricultural economy.

He has also spoken of creating the next generation of millionaires through agriculture. At the town hall, however, his argument was more economic than rhetorical.

Rather than presenting food simply as something government should distribute, Oyebamiji linked food security to agricultural production, processing and investment.

That distinction is important. A government can distribute food. A stronger economic strategy attempts to make people capable of producing and buying food sustainably.

The question for Oyebamiji is whether his administration can provide the financing, infrastructure, security, electricity and markets required to make that model work.

A campaign promise is not an implementation plan.

Salaam chooses jobs and electricity

Dr Najeem Salaam of the ADC presented perhaps the most aggressive intervention programme of the three. The ADC candidate promised to recruit 20,000 people within his first 100 days in office if elected.

He defended the figure by saying he had experience in government and had researched the feasibility of the proposal. He said the recruitment would not be restricted to one profession.

Teachers and other categories of workers could be included. “But 20,000 is doable. I’ve been in government, and we know the way we do. We did it then,” Salaam said.

The promise is politically attractive. It is also one of the claims that deserves the most scrutiny. Twenty thousand new workers means salaries. Salaries mean recurring expenditure. Recurring expenditure must have a sustainable revenue source.

Dr Salaam therefore has to answer the harder question of what the annual wage bill would be and how Osun would finance it without recreating the financial pressure that successive administrations have struggled with.

His second major promise was electricity .Salaam said the 2023 Electricity Act now gives states greater room to develop their electricity sectors. He promised uninterrupted electricity across Osun if elected.

“I want to reassure the people of Osun that if I’m elected to be the governor of the state, we will be enjoying 24 hours of electricity without interruption.”

Again, the ambition is enormous. But electricity generation, transmission, distribution, financing, regulation and fuel supply require a detailed structure.

The voters therefore deserve to know where the power will come from, how much it will cost and who will finance it.

Salaam’s other message: peace

Salaam also attempted to distinguish himself from the two major political camps. He argued that ADC had conducted itself peacefully and presented his candidacy as an alternative to what he described as continuing political tension.

His argument was essentially that choosing either of the two major camps could perpetuate the conflict. That gives the ADC candidate a third narrative.

Adeleke says he has performed. Oyebamiji says Osun needs a new economic direction. Salaam says Osun needs both a new direction and an escape from the political war between the dominant camps.

Three candidates, three diagnoses

The town hall therefore exposed three different theories of Osun. For Adeleke, the principal problem is inherited financial burdens and the legacy of previous administrations. His solution is continuity.

For Oyebamiji, the central problem is economic dependence. His solution is investment, agriculture, industrial processing and a stronger private sector.

For Salaam, the problem includes unemployment, electricity shortages and political division. His solution is mass recruitment, state-led electricity development and a new political alternative.

None of those theories should be accepted merely because they sound attractive. Each has to survive the numbers.

The questions voters should ask

Adeleke should be asked how much of the ₦80 billion was inherited pension debt, how much has been paid and what remains.

Oyebamiji should explain precisely how he will attract investors, finance agricultural industries and prevent higher federal allocations from disappearing into recurrent expenditure.

Salaam should explain how Osun will fund 20,000 new workers and generate uninterrupted electricity without creating another fiscal crisis.

These are not hostile questions. They are the questions a serious electorate should ask.

What the town hall revealed

ValidViewNetwork reports that the most useful aspect of the ARISE town hall was not the candidates’ attacks on one another.

It was the contrast between their proposed models of government. Adeleke offered voters continuity backed by his record. Oyebamiji offered economic restructuring through investment and agriculture. Salaam offered mass employment, electricity and political change.

The election therefore presents Osun voters with more than three personalities. It presents three competing approaches to governance. And there is one final problem that none of the candidates can escape.

Promises are cheap during campaigns. Implementation is expensive after victory. The candidate who wins on August 15 will inherit the same workers, the same roads, the same electricity challenges, the same farmers, the same young unemployed population and the same limited state resources.

The campaign ends with the ballot. The real test begins the morning after. ValidViewNetwork reports that Osun voters now have the opportunity to judge not merely who speaks most convincingly, but whose numbers, plans and record can survive scrutiny.

Because the Government House does not need the best campaign speech. It needs the most workable government.