Osun 2026: Momodu Backs Adeleke Over ADC Candidate
A prominent African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain, Dele Momodu, has thrown his weight behind Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party for the August 15, 2026 governorship election, a cross-party endorsement that lays bare how far Nigeria’s opposition coalition project has drifted from the unity it once promised ahead of 2027.
Momodu, a former presidential aspirant, disclosed his position in a statement issued on Tuesday, explaining that he joined the ADC on the understanding that leading opposition figures were building a broad front against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which he blamed for weakening the economy, social cohesion and democratic institutions. He said the coalition he envisaged never fully materialised, yet he had “not given up hope” that Nigerians, beyond party structures, would eventually rise against the APC.
Momodu’s reference to the ADC once parading the “second, third and fourth-placed candidates” from the 2023 presidential election rests on verifiable numbers. According to results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), APC’s Bola Tinubu won the February 2023 poll with 8,794,726 votes, ahead of the Peoples Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar with 6,984,520, Labour Party’s Peter Obi with 6,101,533, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party’s Rabiu Kwankwaso with 1,496,687. Turnout was roughly 24.9 million votes cast out of 93.5 million registered voters, translating to about 26.7 percent, the lowest since Nigeria’s return to civil rule in 1999. That fragmented outcome, in which no single opposition figure could match the ruling party’s combined northern and south western support base, has repeatedly been cited as the rationale for merging opposition strength under one platform ahead of 2027. Atiku has since emerged as ADC’s presidential candidate for that contest, alongside broader, still unsettled talks among opposition parties about fielding a single candidate against the APC.
The immediate trigger for Momodu’s statement is the Osun governorship race, where the political landscape has changed dramatically since Adeleke first won power. Adeleke, a former senator for Osun West and businessman, lost the governorship as the PDP candidate in 2018 to Adegboyega Oyetola of the APC, then defeated the same Oyetola in 2022 to become governor, taking office on November 27 of that year. Ahead of this year’s contest, Adeleke left the PDP for the Accord Party, officially decamping on December 9, 2025, and clinched the Accord ticket unopposed at a primary in Osogbo, where he polled 145 votes with five voided. INEC’s final list of cleared candidates confirms Adeleke is running with Adenusi Kola Adegboyega as his deputy.
INEC data shows 14 candidates from 14 political parties are on the August 15 ballot, though three names dominate the contest: Adeleke of Accord; Bola Oyebamiji of the APC; and Najeem Salaam, a former Osun State House of Assembly Speaker, flying the ADC flag. Notably, both the PDP and the Labour Party, which contested the last governorship cycle, are absent from this year’s race, with reports indicating the PDP structure in the state has instead adopted Adeleke’s Accord candidacy rather than field its own contender. The Accord Party itself has been dogged by an internal leadership dispute, with a rival faction staging a parallel primary that produced a different candidate days after Adeleke’s emergence, though the governor’s candidacy has remained the one recognised for the ballot.
Seventeen days before the election, Adeleke, Oyebamiji and twelve other candidates signed a peace accord convened by the National Peace Committee under Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, with INEC Chairman Prof Ojo Amupitan warning that vote buying, whether in cash or by digital transfer, would be prosecuted under the Electoral Act 2026.
By publicly backing an Accord candidate while remaining a card carrying ADC member, Momodu has effectively acknowledged that the anti APC coalition he joined ADC to build has not held together as a single, disciplined front, even as Atiku, Obi and other opposition figures continue separate, sometimes overlapping conversations about a unified 2027 ticket. His argument, that opposition parties should not hand the APC “an easy alibi to rig” the Osun election through disunity, reflects a pragmatic calculation common in Nigerian state level politics, where local incumbency and personal political capital often outweigh strict party loyalty.
Whether this cross party appeal shifts votes on August 15 remains uncertain, and whether it foreshadows how a fragile opposition coalition might, or might not, coalesce nationally ahead of 2027 is a question that only the coming election cycles will answer.