By Shakirullai Babatunde (Engr. Shakbab)
Every great story in Osun begins with a lamp. Long before the ballot boxes, the rallies and the radio jingles, there was a simple idea: that governance should feel like warmth on the face, not weather over the head. That idea took a name, Imole, and the people carried it from the villages to the Government House.
Today, that same light is travelling further. Governor Ademola Adeleke has stepped forward to back President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s second term, and he told the gathering that the nation’s problems cannot be mended within a single four-year tenure. His supporters hear a farmer’s patience in those words: you do not judge a harvest on the day the seed is planted.
Some will call it a surprise. Others will call it wisdom. Osun’s elders would call it neighbourliness: a household that keeps its own fire burning while still sharing light with the street. The governor’s mandate came from Osun’s people under the Accord banner, 511,067 votes strong, and it remains exactly where the people placed it.
That is the beauty of the moment. Accord has not folded its flag; it has lifted it higher. The party stands tall with its own colours, its own structures and its own sons and daughters, while its leader extends an open hand to Abuja for the sake of federal goodwill, good roads, security and a calm season for the farmers, traders and artisans of the state.
And what is a lamp without its torch-bearers? Osun has three senatorial districts, nine federal constituencies and twenty-six state constituencies. Across them, thirty-eight Accord candidates step into the light, each carrying a piece of the Imole story.
For the Senate, three names stand at the front. In Osun West, Senator Kamorudeen Lere Oyewumi, a seasoned voice in the red chamber, seeks to return. In Osun Central, Alhaji Gani Olaoluwa, known to many as Asejere, “one who does good,” carries the party’s hopes. In Osun East, Hon. Fadipe Ibukun completes a trio that touches every corner of the state.
Then come the voices for the green chamber, nine constituencies and nine stories. Hon. Bamidele Salam speaks for Ede North, Ede South, Egbedore and Ejigbo. Hon. Lukman Kayode Mudashiru carries the banner for Ayedire, Iwo and Ola Oluwa. Hon. Lanre Omoleye Oladebo stands for Ayedaade, Irewole and Isokan.
Hon. Olusoji Abidemi Adetunji brings his name to Odo-Otin, Boluduro and Boripe. Hon. Clement Ademola Akanni walks the roads of Boluwaduro, Ifedayo and Ila. Hon. Adewale Morufu Adebayo steps forward for the busy streets of Osogbo, Olorunda, Irepodun and Orolu.
In the Ijesa and Ife lands, the torch passes on. Barr. Pelumi Olajengbesi is the candidate for Ijesa North. Hon. Alaba Popoola Alabama carries the light for Ijesa South. And in the ancient cradle of Ile-Ife, Dr. Oluwatosin Odunayo Eluwole completes the roll of nine.
Closest to the doorstep stand the twenty-six Accord candidates for the Osun State House of Assembly, led by the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Olumide Egbedun. They are the lawmakers who will know every street, every borehole and every broken culvert by name, the ones who turn a community’s whisper into a law and a promise into a project.
Think of what such a team can mean. A senator who speaks for a whole district. A Reps member who carries the market woman’s petition to Abuja. An Assembly member who answers when a neighbour knocks. Osun’s progress has always been built from doorsteps.
There is gentle logic in what the governor has begun. A state with friends in the Villa and its own voices in the Senate, the House of Representatives and the Assembly speaks in a chorus, not a whisper. That is how projects find their way to Osun’s hospitals, schools and farms.
Notice, too, that nobody is being asked to give up who they are. The Accord supporter keeps their colours. The APC supporter keeps their convictions. The undecided may take their time. Democracy was never a stampede; it is a conversation, and Osun has always been good at conversation.
Now that campaign season has arrived, let the people of Osun listen closely and ask each candidate the questions a good neighbour would ask. What will you do for my street? How will you answer my call? Will you still know my name after the votes are counted? A candidate with a steady answer deserves a second look.
And so, for the love of Governor Ademola Adeleke, who made ordinary people feel seen, let us support the thirty-eight Accord torch-bearers. Let us walk with them to the ward, the market, the mosque and the church, and let us vote them in, from the Senate to the Assembly, come the 2027 general elections.
Let us also stand with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as our governor has asked, so that the work begun may be finished and Osun’s voice is heard from the Villa to the village square.
For the day will come when history asks what this season meant. Let it say that Osun walked into 2027 with its head high and its unity intact, and that the lamp lit in Osogbo, in the spirit of “Imole till 2030,” lit the whole nation’s road.
(Shakirullai Babatunde (Engr. Shakbab) writes from Osogbo.)
