Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has said President Bola Tinubu could have secured victory for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Osun governorship election if he had chosen to deploy the power and influence of the Federal Government.
Wike, a member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said the outcome of the August 15 election showed that Tinubu allowed the poll to proceed without federal interference.
The Minister spoke on Tuesday while inspecting flood-prone areas in Maitama, Abuja.
“If the President had wanted to win the Osun state election at all costs, I would have been there and we would have won it, and there’s nothing the governor can do,” Wike said.
Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party was declared the winner of the election after polling 19 of Osun’s 30 local government areas, while the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, won in 11 LGAs.
Wike said the result demonstrated that the Federal Government did not deploy what he described as “federal might” to influence the election.
“There was no federal might used in Osun. When you see the force and might of the federal government, you will know,” he said.
The Minister also suggested that Adeleke’s political journey could have taken a different direction if internal political circumstances had aligned differently.
“Ordinarily, Adeleke would have been with APC if things had worked out well,” he said.
Adeleke, who was elected governor on the PDP platform in 2022, left the party in November 2025 amid its prolonged leadership crisis and joined the Accord Party to seek re-election. He subsequently secured Accord’s governorship ticket for the 2026 election.
The 2026 election was also significant because it came amid heightened political tension between the Accord Party and the APC. Ahead of the poll, both camps traded allegations of intimidation, vote buying and attempts to manipulate the electoral process. Civil society groups also identified misinformation, voter inducement and election-related violence as concerns.
The contest pitted Adeleke against Oyebamiji, who had repeatedly expressed confidence that the APC would reclaim the state. In June, Oyebamiji described himself as Tinubu’s “only anointed candidate” for the election and dismissed reports that the president had backed Adeleke.
Wike, who has remained aligned with the Tinubu administration despite retaining his membership of the PDP, also predicted an easy presidential election for Tinubu in 2027.
“The 2027 elections will be the easiest one for the President compared to 2023,” he said.
He attributed the prediction to what he described as the opposition’s weakened state.
“This time around, the opposition has been crippled, homeless, no feather,” Wike added.
The Minister has been one of Tinubu’s most prominent political allies outside the APC. His continued support for the president has put him at odds with sections of the PDP, to which he remains a member despite his role in the Federal Government.
Wike was one of the five PDP governors known as the G5 during the 2023 presidential election who opposed the party’s decision to field Atiku Abubakar without first resolving its internal power-sharing dispute.
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