As Osun State voters prepare to elect their next governor, claims made by leading candidates during a pre-election town hall have come under scrutiny, with available records challenging some of the figures and assertions presented by the contenders.
The town hall, organised by Arise Television in collaboration with the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation, brought together five governorship candidates ahead of Saturday’s election.
The candidates used the platform to outline their positions on education, security, infrastructure, governance, public finance and the state’s economy, while also highlighting their records in previous public offices.
Among the prominent contenders were incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party and the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Munirudeen Oyebamiji.
A review of official records, government data, legislative documents and other publicly available sources, however, shows that some of the claims made during the debate require clarification, while others do not align with the available evidence.
Adeleke’s Education Claim
Governor Adeleke, while defending his administration’s performance in education, claimed that Osun had dramatically improved its position in national examination rankings.
He said the state had moved from 33rd position to seventh in the country based on its performance in the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and National Examinations Council (NECO) examinations.
However, the available NECO ranking does not support the claim in the manner presented.
The 2024 NECO Internal Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination ranking referenced by the governor was based on the absolute number of candidates who obtained at least five credits, including Mathematics and English.
That is different from ranking states according to the percentage of candidates who achieved the required five credits.
For example, Lagos had 65,296 candidates who met the five-credit requirement and ranked first in the absolute-number ranking. However, only 73.48 per cent of its 88,858 candidates met the requirement, placing the state ninth when ranked by percentage.
Osun recorded 29,101 candidates who achieved the five-credit benchmark out of 41,264 candidates who sat for the examination.
That represented a pass rate of 70.52 per cent, which placed Osun 13th when states were ranked according to the proportion of successful candidates, rather than seventh.
The distinction is significant because a ranking based on the total number of successful candidates can favour states with larger populations and larger numbers of examination candidates.
Adeleke’s State Police Claim
The governor also spoke about state policing, recalling his time in the Senate and claiming that he was responsible for introducing state police legislation.
A review of legislative records shows that Adeleke did indeed make a legislative intervention on community and state policing during his time in the National Assembly, although his role was more specific than the claim suggests.
On February 6, 2018, Adeleke, then representing Osun West Senatorial District, sponsored a motion titled The Need to Post Junior Cadres of the Nigeria Police Force to Their States and Local Government to Enhance Community Policing in Nigeria.
In his presentation, he argued that the disconnect between the police and local communities contributed to security challenges and advocated greater deployment of junior police officers to their states and local governments.
The motion was adopted by the Senate, which resolved to invite the Inspector-General of Police to brief the chamber on how community policing could be implemented.
Adeleke also discussed state policing during his contribution.
However, the broader Senate move towards constitutional backing for state police was not solely his initiative.
Senator Jonah Jang had moved a motion on July 3, 2018, following security concerns in Plateau State, and the Senate subsequently mandated its Constitution Review Committee to begin work towards constitutional amendments that would allow states to establish their own police forces.
The distinction therefore matters: Adeleke sponsored a motion relating to community policing and spoke in support of state policing, but the legislative process for creating state police involved wider Senate action.
Oyebamiji’s Revenue Figures Challenged
APC candidate Bola Munirudeen Oyebamiji also made a number of claims about Osun’s finances, particularly the revenue received by the state under previous APC administrations compared with the Adeleke administration.
Oyebamiji claimed that the APC administrations of Rauf Aregbesola and Gboyega Oyetola received only about N450 billion in federal allocations over 12 years, while Adeleke’s government had received N650 billion in approximately three and a half years.
Available Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) records tell a different story.
A review of the figures shows that the gross allocation to Osun during the 12 years of the Aregbesola and Oyetola administrations amounted to about N466.04 billion.
For the Adeleke administration, the gross allocation over the period reviewed was about N560.83 billion, while the net allocation stood at approximately N396.52 billion.
The figures therefore do not support Oyebamiji’s claim that the APC administrations received only N450 billion if gross allocations are being discussed.
The difference is important because gross allocations and net allocations are not the same. Gross figures represent allocations before deductions and other obligations, while net figures reflect what remains after such deductions.
World Bank Recognition Explained
Oyebamiji also cited World Bank recognition received by Osun under the administration of former Governor Oyetola.
He said the state had been recognised as the “best project manager” by the World Bank and had also been named the best state for improving internally generated revenue.
Available records provide some support for the underlying claims, but not necessarily in the exact form presented by the APC candidate.
Osun did receive recognition for its performance in implementing World Bank-assisted projects.
However, the recognition was not formally titled “Best Project Manager”.
In the Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP), Osun was recognised as the best-performing state among the participating states, including Niger, Adamawa and Enugu.
The claim concerning internally generated revenue also requires context.
In November 2022, Osun received a “TOP Performer Award” in the Domestic Revenue Mobilisation category under the States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme.
The SFTAS programme was supported by the World Bank and designed to strengthen fiscal transparency, accountability, sustainability and domestic revenue mobilisation among participating states.
Osun’s recognition was therefore specifically connected to its performance under the programme’s domestic revenue mobilisation indicators.
It was not an award declaring Osun the state with the highest internally generated revenue in Nigeria.
Indeed, available IGR data show that Osun generated N24.6 billion in 2022 and ranked 16th among the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Lagos, for comparison, generated N651.1 billion in the same year.
Claim That Adeleke Held No Executive Council Meeting
Oyebamiji also alleged that Adeleke’s administration had not held a single State Executive Council meeting.
“I have not seen a single Executive Council meeting,” he was quoted as saying.
Available records directly contradict the claim.
The Osun State Government documented a State Executive Council meeting chaired by Adeleke on September 15, 2023.
The meeting, described by the government as the maiden sitting of the State Executive Council under the administration, was attended by commissioners and special advisers of cabinet rank.
At the meeting, Adeleke issued directives on performance monitoring and the council agreed to hold weekly meetings on Wednesdays.
Subsequent records also document additional Executive Council meetings.
In October 2023, the council met to consider proposals relating to the 2024 budget and other government matters.
Another meeting was documented in January 2024, while further council meetings took place later that year.
At a meeting in March 2024, for instance, the council approved the appointment of a new Aare of Iree.
The state government also reported another Executive Council meeting in August 2024, where revised information and communications technology policies and other government matters were considered.
Records from September 2025 similarly indicate that Adeleke chaired a State Executive Council meeting at which government policies were reviewed and implementation directives issued.
What the Claims Reveal
The competing claims provide an insight into the issues likely to shape Saturday’s governorship election.
Adeleke is seeking to defend his record after almost four years in office, while Oyebamiji is presenting himself as a candidate with experience in public finance and administration.
For voters, however, the numbers and claims being presented by the candidates require careful examination, particularly where they concern public funds, education performance and government activities.
The election will determine who takes control of Osun State for the next four years, with the outcome likely to shape the state’s political direction ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections.
With the campaign now reaching its climax, the ability of voters to distinguish between political claims and verifiable records could prove just as important as the promises being made on the campaign trail.
