Arise Television anchor Rufai Oseni has delivered a scathing assessment of the Osun State governorship candidates who participated in a town hall debate on Tuesday, characterizing their performances as collectively deficient in vision and innovative thinking.
Speaking on his programme Wednesday, Oseni said the debate, which featured all major contenders including incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke, failed to produce the quality of discourse voters deserve ahead of the 2026 election. “I felt like the candidates didn’t present bright ideas. All of them,” Oseni said. “I didn’t see the brightness of ideas. I didn’t see a lot of vision. I saw more attacks.”
The anchor singled out Governor Adeleke’s approach as largely reactive. While the governor defended his administration’s record, highlighting a 350-kilometre road construction project, Oseni argued this amounted to a tally of achievements rather than a forward-looking agenda. “The governor was reacting to many things, trying to defend his administration,” he said. “But what is the grand vision?”
Amid the general disappointment, Oseni identified a solitary exception. The candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), a medical doctor by training, distinguished himself by articulating a detailed plan to reform the state’s Healthcare sector. Oseni attributed the candidate’s specificity to his professional background, noting he “put a finger on what was happening in the health sector” and outlined concrete steps for improvement.
The town hall meeting was organised as a key pre-election platform for candidates to engage directly with the electorate. Oseni’s critique reflects a broader anxiety among observers that political contests in Nigeria’s sub-national units are increasingly defined by personality clashes and record-keeping rather than competitive policy alternatives.
With the governorship election scheduled for August 2026, the debate was an early test of the opposition’s readiness to challenge the ruling party’s incumbent. Oseni’s verdict suggests that, for now, the contest is bereft of the ideological clarity that could galvanise voters around a transformative mandate. As the campaign cycle progresses, the onus will be on all candidates to transcend the “lacklustre” standard on display this week and present Osun’s electorate with a credible blueprint for the state’s future.
