“Osun Needs a CEO, Not an Entertainer” — Tinubu’s Aide Enters the Ring, and Osun Politics Just Got Louder
Days before Osun State decides its next governor, the Presidency has weighed in and not gently. Temitope Ajayi, Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, has publicly declared his backing for APC candidate Bola Oyebamiji, framing the entire election around one sharp line: Osun doesn’t need an entertainer, it needs a CEO.
What Ajayi Actually Said
The comments came in a series of posts on X following a town hall meeting organized by Arise TV for candidates ahead of Saturday’s poll. Ajayi didn’t hold back: “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.”
He went further, framing his assessment as one based purely on substance: “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.” According to Ajayi, Oyebamiji “appeared to understand government as a management responsibility rather than merely a platform for political performance.”
Why He’s Backing Oyebamiji’s Résumé Specifically
Ajayi’s argument leaned heavily on Oyebamiji’s financial background. The APC candidate previously served as Commissioner for Finance under former governors Rauf Aregbesola and Gboyega Oyetola, and Ajayi argued that experience shows describing him as someone who has “actually managed public finances rather than just speaking about them.” He also pointed to Oyebamiji’s stewardship of Osun State Investment Holdings as evidence of hands-on financial management experience.
The sharpest line of the whole thread may have been this one: “In a state with a history of fiscal constraints, promising everything without convincingly explaining the financing is not social policy, but fiscal romanticism.” It’s a clear jab, even without naming names directly.
And Yes, He Did Name Names on Adeleke
Ajayi wasn’t just praising Oyebamiji from a distance he directly critiqued incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke’s town hall performance, describing it as “forceful and combative” and accusing him of spending considerable time attacking former governors Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Gboyega Oyetola instead of laying out his own administration’s achievements.
Interestingly, this isn’t a one-off critique. A recent opinion piece circulating separately made a nearly identical argument, accusing the current administration of “prioritizing public spectacle, camera-ready performances, and hollow theatrics over the grueling, unglamorous, and absolutely necessary work of actual governance” suggesting the “entertainer vs CEO” framing has been building in APC-aligned circles for a while before Ajayi put it this directly.
The Bigger Picture
This is Osun’s third major candidate in the frame: Oyebamiji for APC, Najeem Salam for ADC, and Adeleke defending his seat for the Accord Party after his earlier PDP-to-Accord political journey. With INEC’s August 15 election date now just days away, having a senior presidential aide publicly grade the town hall performances and back one candidate this explicitly is a significant show of federal-level political weight behind the APC’s Osun campaign.
Wahala Network Take
“CEO, not entertainer” is the kind of line built to be repeated, and it’s already doing exactly that across political timelines. Whether Osun voters agree with the framing or see it as exactly the kind of outside political pressure that shouldn’t be steering a state election is something we’ll find out Saturday.
Three days to go. Buckle up.
