The dust from the Osun 2026 governorship election is yet to settle; and the pain too. It sits heavily in the Oyetola camp like an unpaid debt, and in that pain they have chosen a new pastime: name-calling. The label they have coined and thrown at Otunba Iyiola Omisore is “Atiku of Osun” — Nigerian political shorthand for a serial loser, borrowed from former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who has contested the presidency multiple times and kept coming up short.
The irony is that , to those that coined it , it is an accusation born not of facts, but of frustration. For a group that ran with federal might, presidential endorsement, and the machinery of state behind it and still suffered a humiliating defeat, it is easier to find a villain than to face the mirror. But by every empirical measure, the cap does not fit Omisore. It fits Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola. He, not Omisore, is the de facto Atiku of Osun — an accelerated version who earned the title in one decade of surrogate politics.
To call Omisore a serial loser is to be economical with the truth. Omisore has contested for governor only twice — in 2014 and 2018. In 2014, he faced incumbent Rauf Aregbesola with the full weight of state and federal power behind the APC and still pulled 292,747 votes. That remains the highest any PDP candidate has ever recorded in Osun. In 2018, running on the SDP platform, he came third with 128,049 votes and became the kingmaker whose defection forced the rerun that eventually handed APC victory. More remarkably, he had earlier won a Senate seat from Agodi Prison in 2003, an unprecedented feat in Nigeria’s political history. For 35 years he built political, humanitarian and professional investments across Osun without ever needing to occupy the governor’s office to remain relevant.
Even on administrative record the contrast is damning. As National Secretary, Omisore was publicly commended by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu after the 2023 election: “You have navigated the ship at all costs… The ship did not sink or waver. You anchored well for the President-Elect.” The same cannot be said of Oyetola’s stewardship as governor and now as minister, which critics describe as miserable non-performance. One man built his name from the streets up. The other was lifted into office on the wings of Abuja.
Oyetola, by contrast, has in just 10 years achieved a hat-trick of political failure. In 2018, he ran with the APC firmly in control at the centre, as Chief of Staff to a sitting governor, and still nearly lost outright, polling 255,505 to Ademola Adeleke’s 255,023. He was only “rescued” days later by an alliance with Omisore’s SDP. Without that rescue, there would have been no Oyetola government. In 2022, he ran as a sitting governor with all the instruments of state at his disposal and lost fatally, 403,371 to 375,027 — a margin of 28,344 votes. In 2026, he did not even contest. He anointed Bola Oyebamiji, AMBO, deployed federal might, presidential endorsement, and Abuja heavyweights, and watched the defeat triple to 66,252 votes. Adeleke swept 511,067 to AMBO’s 444,815. Three contests, three different kinds of defeat: rescued, defeated as incumbent, and defeated by proxy. That is not misfortune. That is a pattern. By the very definition his camp is using — a serial loser — the title belongs to him.
Since the defeat was announced, Oyetola’s foot soldiers have chosen abuse over introspection. Their allegations against Omisore are many, but they collapse under scrutiny.
On “sabotage in Ife”: They point to APC losing 19 of 22 polling units in Moore Ward 1. But elections are not won or lost in one ward. The hemorrhage was statewide. Adeleke won Osun West by 45,000 votes, completely wiping out AMBO’s supposed home advantage of 17,000. In Oyetola’s own Osun Central, Adeleke took 7 out of 10 local governments. If one man in Ife was the problem, how do you explain the collapse in Osogbo, Iwo, and Ilesa? The Omisore camp’s answer is simple: foundation members were alienated. National tickets were handed to newcomers and strange bedfellows like Senator Fadahunsi and Hon. Wole Oke, to the chagrin of those who built the party. When you chase away your base and then blame the man you chased away, you are not doing politics. You are doing scapegoating.
On “logistics money and working for Adeleke”: This is the classic refuge of losers who cannot explain failure. Before the APC primary, Omisore’s camp warned explicitly that Adeleke was too formidable for a political neophyte, that the deficit would come from Osun West and Ede, and that picking another Osun West candidate to fight an Osun West incumbent was political suicide. Those warnings were dismissed with boasts that “one million Omisores cannot stop AMBO” and that “victory is sine qua non whether Ife votes or not.” When the prophecy came true, the messengers were blamed instead of the message. Omisore left the APC in 2022 and had no role in the 2026 campaign. Blaming him for a loss he did not supervise is both illogical and dishonest.
On “consensus”: The JALLO team insists picking AMBO was the right call and that “nothing evidences that any other candidate would have done better.” But that ignores the basic arithmetic of Osun politics. The Omisore camp argued that APC needed a candidate from a zone with huge electoral advantage to offset Ede and Osun West. Instead, the party picked AMBO from Osun West to contest against an incumbent from Osun West. The result was predictable. AMBO could only muster 17,000 votes from his base while Adeleke pulled 45,000 from the same zone. Consensus was not about party unity. It was about micro-managing internal crisis and imposing a preferred candidate. It backfired spectacularly.
On “Aregbesola’s half-salary”: Perhaps the most laughable excuse. Eight years after Aregbesola left office, and after four years of Oyetola plus four years of APC at the centre, that is still the best explanation they can offer. Worse, they now admit in the same breath that Adeleke won because he used “increased FACC allocations from an APC President” to pay salaries. So the argument is that an APC government at the centre funded a PDP governor to defeat APC in Osun. That is not an excuse. That is a confession of failure.
On the “record 444,815 votes”: Yes, it is the highest APC has ever polled in Osun. But it is also the widest margin by which APC has ever lost. Polling your highest votes and losing by your biggest margin tells you one thing: the people rejected not just the candidate, but the entire disposition of the party. The arrogance, the talk of playing God, the viral videos of Abuja emissaries telling Adeleke he would be removed “no matter how many times he endorsed PBAT” — the electorate punished all of it.
The most damaging indictment, however, comes not from the opposition but from within. Ex-commissioners and former associates like Jamiu Olawumi, Aleem Bakare, Taiwo Akeju and Yemi Lawal have defected, painting Oyetola as the architect of APC’s implosion through alleged greed, selfishness and despotic control. Critics allege that of about 29 federal positions linked to him as Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, 26 went to “his cousins, his town people, and the Oba of his town.” From NIWA to NIMASA, NPA to FCC, the corridor of power is said to run through one address — not the Osun Secretariat, but Oyetola’s country home. The listing of AMBO as NIWA MD and “Governorship Candidate,” and Kayode Adereti as “Deputy Governorship Candidate” on a federal document, is cited as proof that public appointments were warehoused for electoral machinery.
The charge of despotism is tied to the expulsion of 84 members and suspension of 26, including Adeoti, Salami and Baderinwa, after 2022. Rather than rebuild, critics say Oyetola chose decree. Famurewa describes his government as a “three-man show” and party process as “2am calls cancelling primaries, tickets reassigned without contest.” To defectors, this is administrative autocracy: the quiet power to exclude until only echoes remain. Defenders call it “strategic generosity” and “discipline,” but to critics, greed explains why the base is hungry, selfishness explains why the ticket is narrow, and despotism explains why the room is empty.
At the heart of it all is a simple truth that Oyetola’s handlers do not want to admit. Omisore had no incumbency in 2014. No federal might in 2018. He still pulled numbers PDP had never seen and decided who became governor. Oyetola had incumbency in 2022 and lost. He had the Presidency in 2018 and nearly lost. He had the Presidency again in 2026 through his proxy and lost by 66,000.
The Yoruba say, “Ori to ma su opo ko ni je ki Olokunrun ye.” A head that refuses advice will not understand wisdom. The warnings were given. They were ignored. Now the bill has come due, and instead of paying it, the Oyetola camp wants to launder its image by throwing mud at Omisore.
Osun people have seen through it. 2026 will not be recorded as the year APC lost an election. It will be recorded as the year the de facto Atiku of Osun completed his hat-trick — and tried to blame everyone else for it.
