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Kano State governorship candidate Aminu Gwarzo said Sunday that Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke’s re-election demonstrates that political power ultimately rests with the electorate, framing the outcome as a template his own party could replicate in Kano’s 2027 race.
Gwarzo, the National Democratic Congress candidate for Kano, made the remarks in an interview, reacting to Adeleke’s victory in Saturday’s Osun State governorship election. He congratulated Adeleke and Osun residents, describing the result as evidence of democracy’s resilience and voters’ determination to protect their mandate.
“The people have defended their mandate and demonstrated their resolve to protect the democratic process,” Gwarzo said, adding that the outcome confirmed that “democracy is truly working” and that voters’ choices must be respected.
Gwarzo tied Adeleke’s win directly to his own party’s prospects in Kano. “The victory in Osun is a clear signal that the people are ready to defend their mandate, and we believe the same spirit will be witnessed in Kano in 2027,” he said.
The Independent National Electoral Commission declared Adeleke the winner Sunday morning at the collation centre in Osogbo, with Returning Officer Prof. Joshua Olalekan Ogunwole announcing that the Accord Party candidate polled 511,067 votes to defeat All Progressives Congress candidate Bola Oyebamiji, who scored 444,815 votes. African Democratic Congress candidate Najeem Salaam finished third with 17,180 votes. Adeleke’s margin of victory stood at more than 66,000 votes, and he carried 19 of the state’s 30 local government areas to Oyebamiji’s 11.
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INEC data showed 1,010,684 accredited voters out of 2,339,544 registered, with 1,005,800 total votes cast and 985,097 declared valid after 20,721 ballots were rejected. The result gave Adeleke roughly 51.9 percent of valid votes cast, securing him a second consecutive term after first winning the governorship in 2022.
Adeleke’s victory carried particular weight because he contested this cycle under the Accord Party banner rather than the Peoples Democratic Party, under which he won his first term. He defected from the PDP in December, saying the smaller party’s welfarist orientation aligned with his focus on citizens’ welfare. The win marks the first time the Accord Party has captured the Osun governorship since its founding.
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The election drew participation from 15 candidates and was closely watched nationally, partly because it followed a period of tension between the state government and federal anti-graft authorities after the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission moved to restrict an Osun State Government account weeks earlier. Some observers cited by local election monitors also reported technical malfunctions with Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machines at several polling units, which contributed to accreditation and voting delays in parts of the state.
Gwarzo’s comments reflect a pattern common among opposition-aligned candidates in Nigeria, where results from unrelated state elections are frequently cited as evidence of broader anti-incumbency or pro-opposition momentum ahead of future contests, though state-level electoral dynamics in Kano differ substantially from those in Osun given differences in party strength, demographic composition, and local political history between the two states. Kano’s 2027 governorship race remains more than a year away, and Gwarzo’s remarks did not address specific policy plans or campaign strategy for his own bid beyond the comparison to Osun’s outcome.
