Governor Ademola Adeleke has just won re-election in Osun. As ADC, what is your honest assessment of why the Accord prevailed and what lessons has the ADC drawn from the outcome?
I think the Osun election, more than anything else, is a demonstration of rejection of the All Progressives Congress (APC), that mobilised all the wholesome apparatus of the state, and descended on a small state like Osun as if it were a military invasion. So, the people showed them that you can control government, but you can’t control the minds of the people. And you can’t control what people do in the polling units. So, like we said earlier, the Osun election is a victory for democracy, and it is a victory for all the people who believe that tyranny, whether it is in a democratic form or otherwise, can be defeated by the resolve of the people.
ADC fielded candidates in Osun. What factors do you think limited ADC’s showing in the state?
Well, because everybody’s focus is on defeating APC more than anything else. So, that’s one factor that I believe played the most important role in the outcome of the election for everyone.
Everyone is more interested in making sure that APC lost more than anything else. So, that was the most important consideration.
With Accord winning Osun and APC in opposition there, how does ADC position itself as a credible third force ahead of 2027?
We are not a credible third force because we are the de facto ruling opposition party in Nigeria. Because when you say third force, I don’t know in what context. Whether you are talking about third force in Osun or third force in Nigeria. The Osun election is over. So, you can’t be talking about third force anymore.
You will be talking about the presidential election or the national election now. And we believe that as a leading opposition political party in Nigeria, we stand a better chance of defeating President Tinubu in 2027.
If the 2027 election is conducted exactly like Osun 2026, can ADC win the presidency?
When you say exactly like Osun, I don’t know what you mean. Because there are a lot of things that happened in Osun that shouldn’t have happened. Regardless of the victory and regardless of what happened in Osun, we have to look at all those things that happened that shouldn’t have happened. For example, the excessive militarisation of the political environment. That shouldn’t have happened. And we are also aware that there was a time that INEC stopped transmitting results to the IReV. So, that shouldn’t have happened, especially when they have not given any explanation why that happened. So, it shouldn’t have happened.
The invasion of Osun by all the APC governors shouldn’t have happened. So, what the meaning of your question is, if there is a free and fair election, whether ADC will prevail, the answer will be yes. Because we know that today, Nigerian people are fed up with the APC. They have seen the last of the APC. And they have seen what APC can do. And they have seen what APC has done to Nigerian people in the last three years going to four. You know, the kind of difficulties that the people have faced economically. Nigerians are poorer today, they are hungrier today, they are more insecure today than ever before. So, in a free and fair election, nobody will vote for this APC government because no Nigerian will want this suffering to continue.
Maybe if I can put it in another way. Now, with Adeleke winning that election, is that a signal of what will happen in 2027?
The signal is that Nigerians now realise that with their resolve, that the true electoral power belongs to the people. That true democratic power belongs to the people. That is if there is any lesson from Osun, that is the lesson. So, Nigerians have now realised, if they had any doubts before, they have been reminded that APC can be defeated. That APC is beatable. So, already, people were tired of them, people wanted them to go. But people were telling themselves, oh, maybe we can’t beat them no matter what we do. The lesson from Osun is that they can actually be beaten if people are determined to do what is necessary.
There were allegations of abuse of state institutions and intimidation in Osun. Does ADC believe a level playing field currently exists for opposition parties?
Of course, there is no level playing field. As long as the government can still deploy the institutions of state for its electoral purpose, we can’t call that a level playing field. But what I can assure you is that the ADC will only accept the outcome of an election that is free, fair and credible. We are going to go to this election, we will contest it and we will bring our message to Nigerians. We will tell Nigerians to vote for our party and we will work for it. But if the election is stolen, we will not accept the result.
The ADC National Chairman, Senator David Mark, on Wednesday told the delegation from the International Republican Institute (IRI) that credibility of 2027 must be non-negotiable. After Osun, what specific red flags is ADC taking to INEC and to international observers ahead of 2027?
Well, INEC has to rise above its own limitations and one of which is technology. We must not hear of glitches. We must not hear of any interruptions in transmission of results. You know, that is the most important thing. And all the loopholes that can be exploited to manipulate the election, INEC has to realise that they need to rise above it. Yes, Osun has happened, but we are only cautiously optimistic. INEC conducted itself largely appropriately in the Osun election. You know, it is not perfect, but we are cautiously optimistic because we don’t want to give the impression…we don’t want anybody to tell us that, oh, when INEC conducted Osun, you were celebrating them, why are you complaining now? No, they are not the same thing. And that is why we are insisting that INEC has to continue to do the right. They need to review their systems, their technology, their processes to ensure that it is above board and it can meet all international standards of scrutiny.
IRI noted issues from Osun and Ekiti off-cycle polls. What are the three key lessons ADC believes must be fixed before 2027 presidential and National Assembly elections?
I told you the most important thing is technology, especially in transmission and the collation of results. Because that is where the problem is. It is not actually in the voting itself. It is in the collation of results and in the transmission of results. Everything has to be done in the open. It has to be done seamlessly and transparently. The second one is the issue of vote buying. You know, what happened in Osun shouldn’t be happening in any civilized society where people are actually putting price tags at the number of votes allocated, the kind of money that we heard that APC allocated to that election – 10 million Naira per polling unit. It is only people who have stolen the country blind that can do that kind of thing. So, the issue of vote buying is a crime under Nigerian law. So, why is this thing happening so widely and why is it happening so openly that nobody is able to take any action?
Osun was seen as a test run for 2027. Has the outcome changed ADC’s coalition talks going into the general elections?
No, it’s the APC chairman himself that said that Osun will be a rehearsal and Osun will be a litmus test to them. And we have seen that they have failed the test. So, if anything, the opposition is emboldened. We are confident that with a determined people and a fair election, we are going to defeat them. Because there is no reason any Nigerian will vote for this APC government. I mean, who can claim confidently that his life has been better since President Bola Tinubu came to power? Everybody, if anything, people have been left miserable and poorer. So, no one will want to, is it the people that cannot feed their children or the people whose money can no longer pay rent or school fees or people who are living under constant fear that will say they want this to continue.
What is ADC’s message to Osun voters who chose continuity with Adeleke, and to Nigerians who are looking to ADC as an alternative in 2027?
It is not just Osun voters, I mean we are done with Osun election. So, that is behind us. We are not going to continue to talk about Osun election. What we are interested in is what Nigerians will do. And I am glad that even people in Osun are saying that Governor Adeleke is not in a position to tell them who to vote for in 2027. He may be saying that he is declaring support for Bola Tinubu, but that he is speaking for himself, he is not speaking for them. I am sure you would have heard it. So, we are telling Nigerians that if there is any lesson from Osun, it’s for us to come out and vote and protect our votes. That is the only way our wish can prevail.