16/08/2026
IF OSUN IS A SIGN, THEN THERE IS HOPE FOR NIGERIA
Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party has now been declared the winner of the Osun State governorship election.
But I think Nigerians should look beyond the politics of who won and who lost.
There is something bigger to consider.
For months, there have been arguments and suspicions about the electoral system, electronic transmission of results, and whether the technology introduced into our elections could be manipulated to favour the ruling party.
But here is the question Osun is putting before us:
If the same electoral system can produce a result in which the ruling party loses a closely contested state election, shouldn't that give us some reason to believe in the possibility of a credible national election?
This doesn't mean Osun has proved that every problem with Nigeria's electoral system has disappeared.
It hasn't.
Neither should one state election be treated as a guarantee of what will happen in 2027.
But it is a test. And perhaps an important one.
The APC is the ruling party at the national level. Its candidate contested seriously in Osun. Yet the results have now given Adeleke a 66,252-vote lead over the APC candidate.
If that result is accepted on the strength of the evidence, Nigerians should take note.
Perhaps the real question is not whether the system favours APC or the opposition.
Perhaps the real question is whether the system can be trusted to reflect the votes, whoever those votes favour.
Because an electoral system cannot be considered credible only when it produces the result we want.
What is good for the goose must also be good for the gander.
If a system is capable of giving victory to the ruling party, it must also be capable of giving victory to the opposition.
And if that principle can survive the Osun test, perhaps there is still hope for Nigeria.
The real test in 2027 may not simply be who wins.
It may be whether we are mature enough to examine the evidence and accept the result when it does not favour our side.
That, to me, is where the real hope for Nigeria lies.