The off-cycle gubernatorial election in Osun State has come and gone, and its most important lesson may have little to do with the politicians who contested it. It has everything to do with the people.
Senator Ademola Adeleke emerged victorious, winning 19 of the state’s 30 Local Government Areas. But beyond the numbers, the election offered a remarkable demonstration of what citizens can achieve when they become determined to protect their votes.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) threw enormous political weight behind the contest. More than 20 governors, senators, members of the National Working Committee and other senior party officials reportedly descended on the state in the final stretch of the campaign. The election was also preceded by disturbing reports of violence, including claims that more than 20 people had lost their lives in pre-election violence.
There were even more troubling moments. A serving senator and head of the APC campaign committee was reported to have called on supporters to ”kill” opponents and prevent those perceived not to be supporting the APC from accessing polling units. Such rhetoric, if allowed to go unchecked, represents a frightening departure from the basic principles of democratic competition.
Then there was the controversy surrounding the state’s finances. Osun State’s local government allocations had reportedly been withheld for more than a year. Days before the election, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) announced the freezing of state government accounts, an order that was subsequently lifted following the intervention of President Bola Tinubu.
Taken together, these developments make it difficult to sustain the argument advanced by some APC supporters and government apologists that the President was somehow ”not interested” in the Osun election. Whatever the private calculations within the ruling party, the enormous political attention devoted to the contest—and the events surrounding it—hardly suggest indifference.
But the most consequential story from Osun was not the presence of political heavyweights. It was the response of ORDINARY CITIZENS.
Perhaps drawing from the experience of previous election cycles, the people of Osun approached the election with a different level of vigilance. Allegations of vote buying were widespread, yet in many instances, citizens reportedly collected the money offered to them and still voted according to their conscience.
More importantly, voters did not simply cast their ballots and go home.
Across the state, citizens waited for results to be announced at their polling units. They followed the movement of election materials to ward and local government collation centres. Many remained vigilant around collation points and gathered around the INEC office, determined to ensure that the results announced at the end reflected the votes cast at the beginning.
That vigilance changed the equation.
When citizens refuse to surrender their votes after casting them, the opportunity for manipulation becomes considerably narrower.
When thousands of people are watching, documenting and demanding accountability at every stage of the process, any attempt to alter the outcome carries consequences that become increasingly difficult to contain.
The lesson is simple: when a people become sufficiently determined to defend their democratic choice, intimidation, money and political influence can only go so far.
This is the significance of Osun.
It is a lesson that should resonate far beyond the state, particularly at a time when Nigerians are increasingly concerned about the direction of the country.
The constriction of political space, the perceived weaponisation of state institutions, the pressure placed on opposition figures and the increasingly personalised nature of political power have created a growing sense that the political system is being organised primarily around the preservation of incumbency.
The enormous investment in propaganda only reinforces that perception.
If the alleged combination of money, intimidation and institutional pressure had succeeded in determining the outcome in Osun, Nigeria’s democracy would have sunk to another troubling low. But the people of Osun stood up for something bigger than any individual politician or political party.
They demonstrated that democracy does not survive merely because politicians participate in elections. It survives when citizens insist that their votes matter.
And perhaps that is the message Nigerians should take away from Osun: no politician, no elite and no political party is coming to save us. Ultimately, it is the people who must decide the direction of the country.
The responsibility, therefore, falls on citizens to translate their frustrations into political action. To organise, to participate, to protect their votes and, ultimately, to vote for the kind of government they want.
For the African Democratic Congress (ADC), this presents both an opportunity and a responsibility.
As an opposition platform with structures across the country’s political units and a presidential ticket built around experience and competence, the ADC has the opportunity to transform the growing dissatisfaction among Nigerians into an organised democratic movement.
Atiku Abubakar’s more than three decades of experience at the highest levels of Nigerian politics provide a depth of political knowledge and institutional understanding that will be critical in navigating the difficult road ahead
Likewise, Rotimi Amaechi’s experience as a two-term Director-General of a presidential campaign, and particularly his experience in a campaign that successfully unseated an incumbent, offers valuable lessons in political organisation, mobilisation and electoral strategy.
The Atiku/Amaechi ticket, therefore, is not simply a combination of two experienced politicians. It is a proposition built around political experience, national reach and the capacity to organise for victory.
Our argument is that their records demonstrate experience in managing the economy, developing critical infrastructure, strengthening national security and building bridges across Nigeria’s ethnic and religious divides.
These claims will ultimately be tested not by rhetoric, but by the credibility of our programme and our ability to convince Nigerians that this ticket can offer a fundamentally different direction.
But Osun has already shown us something important.
The power to change Nigeria will not come from the political class alone. It will come from citizens who decide that their votes, their voices and their future are worth defending.
The people of Osun have shown what that determination can look like.
Now, the rest of Nigeria must decide what to do with the lesson.
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