“Prepare To Sign Him As Dancer”: Uzodimma Fires Back At Davido
Nine days before Osun State votes, a five word post from one of Africa’s biggest music exports has pulled the celebrity dimension of the August 15 governorship contest firmly into the centre of the campaign conversation.
Afrobeats star Davido, on Thursday shared photographs of himself embracing his uncle, Governor Ademola Adeleke, on his verified X handle, writing simply, “We got this #aadeleke_01 God got us.” The post landed in the middle of an already tense final stretch and drew immediate responses from two serving governors of the All Progressives Congress.
The singer had, a day earlier, addressed a youth mobilisation gathering in Osogbo, where he appealed to residents to shun violence and intimidation and urged political leaders to allow voters choose freely. He said he had heard reports that Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma planned to interfere in the election and urged that Osun residents be allowed to vote without intimidation.
Uzodimma, who chairs the APC National Campaign Council for the Osun election, replied through a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Electronic and Creative Media, Ambrose Nwaogwugwu. The statement described the singer’s appeal as “rather pedestrian,” arguing that it should have been directed at Osun voters, and added that “Davido should also begin making preparations to officially sign his uncle as a dancer in his musical band, because judging by the mood of the electorate, he may well be out of a political job after the August 15, 2026, governorship election.”
Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo struck a similar note at an APC rally on Thursday for the party’s candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, popularly called “Ambo,” with Kogi State Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo in attendance. Okpebholo mocked the governor’s dancing, saying, “Before somebody signs paper, he will dance. Are you not tired? For four years, this man has been dancing,” and told supporters, “If they bring money, ‘chop’ that money from them, but don’t vote for them.”
Adeleke, seeking a second term on the platform of the Accord Party after leaving the Peoples Democratic Party in December 2025, has framed the poll in broader terms. In a statement on his X handle on Thursday, he accused Oyebamiji and former governor Gboyega Oyetola of using influence at the federal level “to punish the people of Osun State simply because they chose to vote for us in 2022,” and said the outcome would be about more than winning.
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan, SAN, told stakeholders in Osogbo that the certified register contains 2,339,233 voters across 30 local government areas, 332 registration areas and 3,763 polling units, with 14 political parties on the ballot. That register has grown from 1,954,800 in 2023, an increase of 384,433 voters. The commission deployed 4,427 BVAS machines and extended PVC collection to July 31 after 322,822 newly registered voters, put at about 62 per cent, had picked up their cards.
Turnout, not registration, is the historical weak point. Observer group FIDA Nigeria noted from official results that 804,450 people voted in 2022 out of roughly 1.95 million registered, a participation rate of about 42 per cent, down from 45.74 per cent in 2018, 53.14 per cent in 2014 and 58.63 per cent in 2003. Analysis records the 2022 figure as the lowest turnout in the state’s governorship history, with participation exceeding 50 per cent only twice since 1991.
The 2022 result itself was narrow. Adeleke polled 403,371 votes to Oyetola’s 375,027, a margin of 28,344, winning 17 of the 30 local government areas to Oyetola’s 13. That mandate survived a tribunal reversal in January 2023 before appellate courts restored it. Adeleke had earlier lost the 2018 rerun to Oyetola, a result later upheld by the Supreme Court.
The campaign banter has unfolded against a sharper institutional dispute. The EFCC directed First Bank to place a post no debit restriction on the “Osun State Government Statutory Allocation” account, number 2017170947, through a letter dated August 5, 2026, signed by Assistant Commander Adenike Babalola for the Director of Investigation. In a statement by its spokesman, Dele Oyewale, the commission said the account “was frozen to save public funds from being looted,” citing an investigation opened in March 2026 into alleged fraudulent handling of about N11bn in Ecology Funds, Intervention Funds and FAAC allocations, and pointing to what it called unwarranted movement of funds since August 2, 2026. EFCC Director of Public Affairs, Wilson Uwujaren, speaking on Arise Television, said the commission may freeze accounts for 72 hours without a court order. Nigerian Bar Association President Afam Osigwe, SAN, disputed that position, saying no agency “has the right or the power to restrict withdrawals from the account of any state,” and that a blanket freeze would amount to an abuse of power.
The Osun government rejected the allegation outright, describing the action as “a hatchet job for the Osun APC” and insisting, “We don’t loot public funds in Osun State; we deliver on public goods and services.”
President Bola Tinubu then intervened. In a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the President said he was “deeply embarrassed not by the EFCC’s exercise of its mandate backed by a court order, but by the timing of the agency’s action,” and directed the commission “to immediately proceed to the court to vacate the order and discontinue whatever action it has instituted against the Osun State Government in this regard.” He added that “nothing ought to be done to give an impression that the EFCC or any other federal agency is being used to interfere with the election.” Onanuga also disclosed a phone call between the President and Adeleke, prompting Davido to post, “I was there live! I witnessed history.”
Commissioner of Police in charge of election security, Samuel Erale Etaifo, said about 15,000 personnel, including AIGs, Police Mobile Force operatives and specialist units, would be deployed, and that anyone arrested for serious electoral offences would be moved to Force Headquarters in Abuja. Adeleke, Oyebamiji and 12 other candidates signed a peace accord convened by the National Peace Committee and witnessed by Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah. While 14 candidates are on the ballot, the contest has narrowed to Adeleke, Oyebamiji and the African Democratic Congress candidate, Dr Najeem Salaam.
With roughly 2.3 million voters registered and turnout historically hovering near 40 per cent, the decisive variable may not be endorsement or banter, but how many of those cardholders actually show up on Saturday, August 15.