…Adeleke defender challenges Edo Governor to produce his own scorecard after ‘dancing governor’ jibes

Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo’s campaign-season attack on Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke has triggered a data-driven counterattack, with a supporter of the Osun governor challenging him to produce his own scorecard instead of mocking Adeleke’s dancing.

Okpebholo, while campaigning for the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Osun State, Bola Oyebamiji, described Adeleke as a “dancing governor” and accused him of neglecting governance.

But Paul Nosa Ogiehor, who said he was not holding brief for Ademola Adeleke, dismissed the attack as political rhetoric unsupported by adequate scrutiny of Osun’s reported performance indicators.

In a statement on his Facebook wall, Ogiehor said he was presenting the figures “for the sake of public sanity” and to prevent what he described as “half-cooked and lazy commentaries” from dominating the political debate.

He challenged Okpebholo to look beyond Adeleke’s public dancing and examine the state’s economic, fiscal, education and infrastructure indicators.

According to figures cited by Ogiehor from publicly available NBS, World Bank, Debt Management Office and BudgIT data, Osun’s internally generated revenue rose from ₦27.7bn to ₦54.7bn in 2024, representing a reported 97.3 per cent increase.

He attributed the growth to tax harmonisation, digitalisation and efforts to block revenue leakages, rather than an increase in the tax burden.

Ogiehor also claimed that Osun reduced its debt by more than 45 per cent and ranked third among Nigeria’s 36 states in debt reduction, while maintaining that the state had avoided new borrowing for current projects.

On fiscal transparency, he cited BudgIT’s Q3 2025 State Fiscal Transparency League, where Osun reportedly scored 100 per cent and ranked first.

The Adeleke administration, he further claimed, had cleared salary and pension arrears dating back to January 2016 and paid ₦4.3bn in pensioners’ gratuities between December 2022 and the present period.

He also cited the enrolment of about 29,000 pensioners in the Osun Health Insurance Scheme.

The education sector formed another major part of his defence.

Ogiehor said Osun had moved from 33rd position nationally in examination performance in 2022 to seventh position, while 99 secondary schools had reportedly been rehabilitated and six technical colleges restarted.

He also pointed to the state’s domestication of the Nigeria Startup Act, completion of Google mapping across the state and the development of an e-procurement portal that BudgIT had reportedly cited as a model for transparency.

On poverty, Ogiehor cited National Bureau of Statistics data putting Osun’s poverty rate at 8.52 per cent, which he described as the third-lowest in Nigeria.

He further claimed that World Bank data indicated a substantial reduction in the state’s infrastructure deficit under Adeleke, while other socioeconomic indicators, including unemployment, life expectancy and mortality rates, placed Osun among the better-performing states.

The claims, however, were presented by Ogiehor as a challenge to the political narrative surrounding Adeleke’s administration and not as an independent assessment of the governor’s overall performance.

The controversy follows Okpebholo’s appearance at an APC campaign rally in Osun, where he repeatedly mocked Adeleke’s dancing and urged voters to reject the incumbent administration.

Okpebholo also told voters to collect money allegedly offered by rival political parties but vote for the APC candidate.

“If they bring money, chop that money from them but don’t vote for them,” the Edo governor said.

He further accused Adeleke of failing to attend governors’ meetings regularly because of alleged late arrival and linked him politically with former Edo Governor Godwin Obaseki.

Okpebholo urged Osun voters to support Oyebamiji, whom he described as the candidate capable of delivering better roads, schools and economic development.

He also questioned how resources made available to states by the Federal Government had been utilised in Osun.

The competing narratives have now shifted the political contest from personality attacks to a broader question of performance.

While Okpebholo has sought to make Adeleke’s public image and governance record the central issue of the campaign, Ogiehor’s response has attempted to move the debate towards revenue generation, debt management, fiscal transparency, education, healthcare, poverty and infrastructure.

The emerging challenge is therefore straightforward:

If Adeleke’s administration is to be judged by its record, should the election debate be about how the governor dances—or what the available data say about what his government has delivered?

And for Okpebholo, the counter-question is equally pointed:

If Osun’s performance figures are being challenged, what is the Edo governor’s own measurable scorecard?