The Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, has disclosed his unwavering support for the All Progressives Congress’ candidate in the upcoming governorship election in Osun State, Bola Oyebamiji.

This is coming on the heels of a town hall meeting organised by Arise TV for candidates contesting the election.

Oyebamiji faces opposition from Najeem Salam of the African Democratic Congress and incumbent governor, Ademola Adeleke, who is running on the platform of the Accord Party and vying for his second term in office.

The election is scheduled to be held on August 15, 2026.

Describing Oyebamiji’s profile and worthiness for the governor’s seat, Ajayi took to his X handle on Wednesday, saying the APC candidate, during the town hall meeting, “made the stronger case that he understands that job.”

In their separate interviews during the course of the townhall meeting, Adeleke spoke on his administration’s scorecard during his first four years in office, as Oyebamiji explained how he would transform the state across various developmental areas.

However, Temitope stated, “That is a useful way to look at the Osun election. 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.”

The presidential aide tweeted that “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. He appeared to understand government as a management responsibility rather than merely a platform for political performance.

“His emphasis was on how public resources should be managed to lift people out of social and economic difficulty, rather than become instruments of personal or familial aggrandisement.”

Ajayi stated that owing to Oyebamiji’s experience as a former Commissioner for Finance under the administrations of ex-governors Rauf Aregbesola and Gboyega Oyetola, the APC candidate “presented himself as someone who has actually managed public finances rather than just speaking about them.”

The tweet read further, “In a state with a history of fiscal constraints, promising everything without convincingly explaining the financing is not social policy, but fiscal romanticism. Oyebamiji, by contrast, played to his professional strength. A former banker and finance commissioner, he demonstrated a firmer grasp of the numbers and the mechanics of government. He cited his stewardship of Osun State Investment Holdings, where he said he helped turn around the organisation and, in the process, build a substantial real estate portfolio in Lagos and Abuja.

“He also spoke about his tenure as Commissioner of Finance and the fiscal pressures the Aregbesola administration faced. More importantly, he presented himself as someone who has actually managed public finances rather than just speaking about them. He argued that under Oyetola, when he served as the state’s financial manager, the government met its obligations without fresh borrowing and left about N16 billion in the treasury for the incoming administration. Those claims can be independently verified.

“But that, in itself, is the point. A governorship election should be an audit of competing records, plans and managerial capacity, not a popularity contest between personalities. Oyebamiji made the most interesting argument of the townhall sessions when he essentially asked voters to imagine the three candidates sitting before a recruiter who had to choose one of them to manage a business. Looking at their qualifications, experience, temperament and understanding of finance, whom would the recruiter hire?”

Attack on predecessors, Salam’s promises lack clear funding plan

Ajayi lamented that rather than using the meeting “to make a compelling case for what his administration has achieved” and what he’s achieved in office, Adeleke “spent considerable time attacking former governors Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Gboyega Oyetola.”

He further described the governor’s outing at the meeting as “forceful and combative.”

“Political attacks may excite loyalists, but they are not substitutes for a convincing account of stewardship. This is particularly important because Adeleke is seeking a second term. A candidate asking voters for another four years should be able to make the election principally about his record, not the shortcomings of predecessors,” the tweet added.

He continued, “Najeem Salam was perhaps the most ambitious in his promises, but that was also his problem. His offer of free services and expansive government intervention sounded attractive, but there was insufficient attention to the harder question of how Osun would pay for them. If he became governor, he would become another Aregbesola in office with bogus programmes and unsustainable projects and throw Osun State into a fiscal cul-de-sac.”