As the Osun governorship race heats up, President Tinubu’s media aide has stirred the conversation with a blunt take - Osun State is not hiring an entertainer, it is hiring a Chief Executive.

Here is the gist, as reported by cbinews.tv:

Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, has openly thrown his weight behind the All Progressives Congress candidate for the Osun governorship election, Bola Oyebamiji.

His comments came after the Arise TV town hall meeting for candidates contesting the election scheduled for 15 August, 2026.

Oyebamiji is up against Najeem Salam of the African Democratic Congress and the incumbent governor, Ademola Adeleke, who is seeking a second term on the platform of the Accord Party.

Reacting on his X handle on Wednesday, August 12, 2026 Ajayi said Oyebamiji made the stronger case at the town hall.

According to cbinews.tv, Ajayi wrote: “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 added that if judged strictly on policy articulation, command of facts, fiscal realism and evidence of managerial competence, Oyebamiji came out ahead.

Ajayi noted that Oyebamiji, a former banker and two-time Commissioner for Finance under ex-governors Rauf Aregbesola and Gboyega Oyetola, presented himself as someone who has actually managed public finances rather than just speaking about them.

Citing Oyebamiji’s record, Ajayi said the APC candidate referenced his stewardship of Osun State Investment Holdings, where he claimed to have turned the organisation around and built a substantial real estate portfolio in Lagos and Abuja, and his tenure as Finance Commissioner where, he argued, the Oyetola administration met its obligations without fresh borrowing and left about N16 billion in the treasury. Ajayi said those claims can be independently verified.

He also described Oyebamiji’s most interesting argument as asking voters to imagine the three candidates before a recruiter who had to choose one person to manage a business.

On Governor Adeleke, Ajayi said his outing was “forceful and combative” and that rather than using the forum to make a compelling case for his first-term scorecard, he spent considerable time attacking former governors Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Gboyega Oyetola.

“Political attacks may excite loyalists, but they are not substitutes for a convincing account of stewardship,” he said.

For Najeem Salam, Ajayi described him as the most ambitious in his promises, but said the offer of free services and expansive government intervention lacked a clear financing plan, warning it could throw the state into a “fiscal cul-de-sac.”

Ultimately, Ajayi insisted the election should be an audit of competing records, plans and managerial capacity, not a popularity contest.

Source: cbinews.tv

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