By Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Nyesom Wike has confirmed he personally instructed Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke to publicly thank President Bola Tinubu following his August 15 governorship election victory. Wike made the disclosure Wednesday during a media parley aired on Channels Television, using the moment to explain both his relationship with Adeleke and the role he played behind the scenes during the Osun contest.
By his own account, Wike’s involvement started with a single question of loyalty. Even while abroad in Croatia, he says he placed a call to Adeleke to confirm the governor would stand by his earlier pledge of support for Tinubu if he won. “My concern: if Adeleke wins, will he still support Mr. President? And I called him because that’s my own interest. I called him, I said ‘Listen, you have told me you support Mr. President. Are you going to keep to it?’ He said he was going to keep to it. I said, ‘Okay.’ I wished him good luck. I don’t need to go to Osun,” Wike said.
Once Adeleke had won, that same phone call became a directive. Wike says he told the governor not just to reaffirm his loyalty privately but to make it public, framing it as a statement of gratitude for how the election was conducted. “After that election, go and ask Adeleke. I told Adeleke, I called him when I was in Croatia. I said, ‘You told me you support Mr. President?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Now you have won, issue a statement. Issue a statement that you still will support Mr. President, and thanking him for a free and fair election,'” Wike recounted.
The instructions didn’t stop at a statement. Wike said he also advised Adeleke to personally present his Certificate of Return to Tinubu once he received it, treating the gesture as a natural extension of the same message rather than a separate request. “I don’t need to go and tell anybody. I don’t need to go and tell Mr. President. I don’t need to. He issued a statement. I also told him, ‘Adeleke, when you receive your Certificate of Return, go and present it to Mr. President,'” he said.
Wike framed the entire sequence as calculated political strategy rather than favour-seeking, aimed squarely at undercutting an opposition alliance he referred to simply as “the coalition” as it jockeys for position ahead of 2027. “I don’t need to call Mr. President ‘I want to…’ No, I don’t do that. It is my job. What was that strategy? To knock off these people you call coalition coming to the… to come and curry favor, when Adeleke issued that statement, ADC withdrew,” he said.
Adeleke, who ran on the Accord Party platform, defeated APC candidate Bola Oyebamiji in the election, according to results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission. He polled 511,067 votes to Oyebamiji’s 444,815, carrying 19 of the state’s 30 local government areas to Oyebamiji’s 11. It was earlier reported that shortly after his victory was announced, Adeleke did in fact thank Tinubu publicly, saying the President had personally called to congratulate him. “And of course, I want to seize this opportunity to thank Mr. President. Mr. President has called me and he has congratulated me. And I thank you, Mr. President, for making sure democracy lives on, because you fought for it, Mr. President,” Adeleke said at the time, a statement that, per Wike’s account, followed the script laid out for him almost to the letter.
