Osun Needs CEO, Not Entertainer, Says Tinubu’s Aide, Backs Oyebamiji

Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, has thrown his weight behind the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the August 15, 2026, Osun State governorship election, Bola Oyebamiji.

Ajayi said Osun State needs a chief executive officer capable of managing its finances and resources, rather than “an entertainer, a professional campaigner or a permanent opposition politician.”

The presidential aide stated this in a series of posts on his X handle on Wednesday while assessing the performances of candidates at a town hall meeting organised by Arise TV ahead of the election.

Oyebamiji is contesting against the African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salam, and incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke, who is seeking re-election on the platform of the Accord Party.

Assessing the candidates’ performances, Ajayi said Oyebamiji “made the stronger case that he understands that job.”

He said, “That is a useful way to look at the Osun election. The state is not recruiting an entertainer, a professional campaigner or a permanent opposition politician. It is recruiting a chief executive to manage a financially constrained public enterprise called Osun State. On the evidence of what I saw at the town hall, Oyebamiji made the stronger case that he understands that job.”

Ajayi added that if the candidates were assessed strictly on policy articulation, knowledge of facts, fiscal realism and managerial competence, Oyebamiji emerged ahead.

He tweeted, “If the exercise is judged strictly on policy articulation, command of facts, fiscal realism and evidence of managerial competence, I will candidly say Oyebamiji came out ahead. He appeared to understand government as a management responsibility rather than merely a platform for political performance.

“His emphasis was on how public resources should be managed to lift people out of social and economic difficulty, rather than become instruments of personal or familial aggrandisement.”

According to him, Oyebamiji’s experience as a former Commissioner for Finance under the administrations of former governors Rauf Aregbesola and Gboyega Oyetola gave him an advantage in discussing the state’s finances.

Ajayi stated, “In a state with a history of fiscal constraints, promising everything without convincingly explaining the financing is not social policy, but fiscal romanticism. Oyebamiji, by contrast, played to his professional strength. A former banker and finance commissioner, he demonstrated a firmer grasp of the numbers and the mechanics of government.”

He also noted that Oyebamiji spoke about his stewardship of Osun State Investment Holdings, where the APC candidate claimed to have helped turn around the organisation and build a substantial real estate portfolio in Lagos and Abuja.

Ajayi further referenced Oyebamiji’s account of his tenure as Commissioner of Finance under Oyetola, particularly his claim that the administration met its obligations without fresh borrowing and left about N16 billion in the state treasury for the incoming administration.

He said, “But that, in itself, is the point. A governorship election should be an audit of competing records, plans and managerial capacity, not a popularity contest between personalities. Oyebamiji made the most interesting argument of the townhall sessions when he essentially asked voters to imagine the three candidates sitting before a recruiter who had to choose one of them to manage a business. Looking at their qualifications, experience, temperament and understanding of finance, whom would the recruiter hire?”

Ajayi, however, criticised Adeleke’s performance at the town hall, accusing the governor of spending considerable time attacking former governors Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Gboyega Oyetola instead of highlighting his administration’s achievements.

He described Adeleke’s outing as “forceful and combative.”

“Political attacks may excite loyalists, but they are not substitutes for a convincing account of stewardship. This is particularly important because Adeleke is seeking a second term. A candidate asking voters for another four years should be able to make the election principally about his record, not the shortcomings of predecessors,” he added.

On the ADC candidate, Najeem Salam, Ajayi said his promises were “perhaps the most ambitious,” but argued that they lacked sufficient explanation on how the proposed programmes would be funded.

He said, “Najeem Salam was perhaps the most ambitious in his promises, but that was also his problem. His offer of free services and expansive government intervention sounded attractive, but there was insufficient attention to the harder question of how Osun would pay for them.”

Ajayi further argued that if Salam became governor, “he would become another Aregbesola in office with bogus programmes and unsustainable projects and throw Osun State into a fiscal cul-de-sac.”

The Osun governorship election is scheduled for August 15, 2026, with the three major contenders seeking to convince voters ahead of the poll.