Healing the wounds of electoral violence, rebuilding trust and converting a renewed mandate into inclusive development
The conclusion of the 2026 Osun State governorship election and the subsequent presentation of the Certificate of Return to Governor Ademola Adeleke mark more than the formal confirmation of an electoral victory. They represent the beginning of a more demanding phase of democratic leadership: the transition from campaigning to governing, from partisan mobilisation to public responsibility, and from electoral competition to social reconstruction.
Governor Adeleke’s announcement of a ₦500 million Election Violence Victims Endowment Fund, alongside a commitment by his family through the Springtime Development Foundation to provide scholarships up to university level for children and dependants of persons who died in election-related violence, is therefore significant. The governor has also proposed a verification and relief mechanism chaired by the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, with an explicit commitment that assistance should be non-partisan and available irrespective of political affiliation, religion, ethnicity, gender or social status.
That gesture deserves recognition. But it must also be understood as the beginning not the conclusion of the state’s responsibility to heal.
The real test of Governor Adeleke’s second term will not simply be how generously his administration compensates victims. It will be whether Osun can emerge from the election cycle with stronger institutions, greater political tolerance, improved economic opportunity, deeper social cohesion and a political culture in which losing an election does not mean becoming an enemy of the state.
The governor has reportedly described the Certificate of Return not as a personal trophy but as a renewed mandate from the people. His declaration that “the election is over” and that it is now time to “govern, unite, heal and build” provides an appropriate governing philosophy for the next phase.
But words must now become institutions, policies and measurable outcomes.
Elections inevitably produce winners and losers. Democracy becomes dangerous, however, when electoral defeat becomes synonymous with humiliation, exclusion or political persecution.
Osun’s political environment has experienced considerable tension. A recent assessment by the Kimpact Development Initiative documented 73 election-related violent incidents between October 2025 and July 2026, with 78 percent occurring between May and July; Osogbo accounted for 41 percent of the recorded incidents.
These figures should concern every stakeholder.
The governor therefore has a historic opportunity to establish a post-election reconciliation framework involving political parties, traditional rulers, religious leaders, civil society organisations, youth representatives, women, labour, business leaders and victims of political violence.
Such a framework should not become another political committee. It should produce practical outcomes: identification of victims, mediation of political grievances, restoration of damaged relationships, support for displaced or injured citizens, and institutional recommendations for preventing future violence.
Osun cannot afford to carry the bitterness of the 2026 election into the next electoral cycle.
The ₦500 Million Fund Must Become An Institution of Justice
The proposed fund is commendable, but its credibility will depend on transparency, independence and verifiable criteria.
Government should publish clear eligibility requirements, establish an independent audit mechanism and periodically disclose how the fund is disbursed.
Most importantly, compensation must not substitute for justice.
Where citizens were killed, injured or had their property destroyed, the state has a responsibility to ensure that investigations are conducted professionally and that perpetrators are prosecuted in accordance with the law, regardless of party affiliation.
This is where the governor’s promise of non-partisanship becomes especially important.
If an APC supporter is a victim, the state must protect him.
If an Accord supporter is a victim, the state must protect him.
If an ADC supporter is a victim, the state must protect him.
If a citizen who did not vote at all is a victim, the state must protect him.
The legitimacy of government is demonstrated most clearly in how it treats those who did not vote for it.
That should become one of the defining principles of Adeleke’s second administration.
Governor Adeleke now has a responsibility that is fundamentally different from that of a campaign candidate.
A candidate asks:
Who will vote for me?
A governor must ask:
What does every citizen need from government?
That distinction is central to democratic governance.
The people who voted for Adeleke are citizens. The people who voted against him are equally citizens. Those who abstained are citizens. Those who criticised him throughout the campaign are citizens.
Therefore, the second-term administration must consciously move beyond party-based governance toward citizenship-based governance.
This means appointments should increasingly reflect competence and public interest; government programmes should be distributed according to need rather than political loyalty; and public institutions should be protected from partisan capture.
The governor should also consider establishing a Governor’s Citizens Advisory Council, comprising respected professionals, traditional institutions, youth, women, labour, academia, religious bodies, private-sector representatives and civil society. Its purpose should not be to replace constitutional institutions, but to create a structured channel through which citizens can periodically evaluate government performance.
Ultimately, political legitimacy cannot be sustained by electoral victory alone.
It must be converted into economic legitimacy.
The people of Osun need jobs, functioning hospitals, quality education, roads, reliable infrastructure, agricultural opportunities, affordable housing, business support and a predictable environment for investment.
The state’s economic strategy should therefore focus on moving from government expenditure to productive economic transformation.
Osun possesses significant opportunities in agriculture, agro-processing, tourism, education, technology, mining, creative industries and small and medium-sized enterprises.
The next phase should be to build value chains around these sectors rather than merely announcing projects.
For example, agriculture should not stop at distributing inputs. Government should strengthen the entire chain:
production → processing → storage → transportation → marketing → export.
That is how agriculture becomes an economic industry rather than merely a subsistence activity.
Similarly, youth empowerment should move beyond occasional grants and political distribution. The state needs an integrated youth economic strategy encompassing technical skills, digital skills, entrepreneurship, apprenticeships, access to finance and private-sector partnerships.
The ultimate measure should be simple:
How many sustainable jobs were created?
A prosperous Osun cannot be built on physical infrastructure alone.
The state must invest heavily in human capital.
Education should receive particular attention not merely through infrastructure but through learning outcomes, teacher development, digital literacy, vocational education and stronger partnerships between tertiary institutions and industry.
Healthcare also requires a system-wide approach: primary healthcare, maternal and child health, emergency care, affordable medicines, health insurance and specialist services.
The second term provides an opportunity to develop a Osun Human Capital Development Compact, setting measurable five-year targets for education, health, employment and poverty reduction.
Government should publish the targets.
Citizens should be able to ask, year after year:
What was promised? What was delivered? What remains outstanding?
That is accountability.
One of the dangers of Nigerian politics is that governments sometimes measure success by the number of projects announced rather than the quality of outcomes produced.
A second-term Adeleke administration should resist this temptation.
Every major programme should have:
a clearly defined objective;
a budget;
a timeline;
responsible agencies;
measurable indicators;
procurement transparency;
citizen feedback mechanisms; and
independent evaluation.
The government should also strengthen the publication of budgets, procurement information, project locations and implementation reports in accessible formats.
Transparency is not merely an administrative virtue; it is a mechanism for rebuilding public trust.
Perhaps the most urgent lesson from the election is that political violence must no longer be treated as an inevitable feature of Nigerian politics.
It is not inevitable.
It is a governance failure when political actors recruit young people as instruments of violence and then abandon them when the election is over.
The government should work with security agencies, political parties, traditional institutions and civil society to establish a permanent Political Violence Prevention and Early Warning Mechanism.
The system should monitor threats, hate speech, political mobilisation around violence, circulation of weapons and attacks on political opponents.
But security must remain professional and politically neutral.
The National Peace Committee’s contextual assessment of Osun’s electoral environment noted that allegations concerning security-sector neutrality and misinformation had become sources of tension, while stressing that some allegations had not been independently confirmed.
That distinction matters.
A responsible government should neither ignore legitimate allegations nor convert unverified allegations into political facts.
The answer is independent investigation, due process and institutional accountability.
A mature democracy does not require the opposition to disappear after an election.
Indeed, a strong opposition can improve government.
Governor Adeleke should therefore resist the temptation to interpret criticism as hostility to Osun State.
The APC, ADC and other political actors should be allowed to organise peacefully, scrutinise government policies and challenge decisions within the law.
The opposition, in turn, must accept the electoral verdict and pursue legitimate democratic channels rather than violence or institutional sabotage.
This reciprocal responsibility is essential.
Government must tolerate criticism; opposition must respect constitutional order.
That is democratic maturity.
From the perspective of public theology, political authority is not simply the possession of power; it is a public trust.
Leadership must therefore be evaluated by its contribution to the common good.
The biblical tradition repeatedly challenges rulers to protect the vulnerable, pursue justice and resist oppression. The prophetic tradition is particularly relevant: political authority loses moral legitimacy when it protects privilege while neglecting the weak.
This means that Governor Adeleke’s second term should be judged not merely by the number of roads constructed or projects commissioned, but also by what happens to the widow, the unemployed graduate, the farmer, the artisan, the teacher, the pensioner, the small business owner and the child who has lost a parent to political violence.
The ₦500 million victims’ fund therefore carries a deeper moral significance.
It says, potentially, that the state remembers its citizens.
But remembrance must lead to institutional reforms.
Governor Adeleke now has a rare opportunity.
His first term can be assessed through projects and programmes. His second term should be measured increasingly by the institutions he leaves behind.
Will Osun have stronger local government administration?
Will public procurement become more transparent?
Will civil service professionalism improve?
Will internally generated revenue expand without oppressive taxation?
Will public schools produce better learning outcomes?
Will healthcare become more accessible?
Will political violence decline?
Will young people find meaningful economic opportunities?
Will citizens trust public institutions more than they did before?
These are the questions that will define his historical legacy.
The greatest temptation of a second-term governor is to govern with the next election constantly in mind.
A statesman must think differently.
Governor Adeleke should govern for 2030 and beyond, not merely for the next political contest.
That means building institutions that can survive his departure from office.
If a programme works only because the governor personally supervises it, it is not yet a strong institution.
If a road is constructed but maintenance is neglected, it is not sustainable development.
If a social programme depends on political patronage, it is not social protection.
If government transparency depends on the personality of one office holder, it is not institutional accountability.
The real legacy is what continues to work after the governor leaves office.
What Osun requires now is a new social contract between government and citizens.
The government should guarantee:
security, justice, inclusion, transparency and opportunity.
Citizens should respond with:
civic responsibility, peaceful participation, tax compliance, respect for law and constructive engagement.
Political parties should commit to:
non-violence, democratic competition and respect for electoral institutions.
Traditional and religious institutions should promote:
peace, reconciliation and moral accountability.
Civil society should provide:
independent monitoring and evidence-based criticism.
And the private sector should participate in:
investment, job creation and economic development.
That is how an election becomes more than a contest for political power. It becomes an opportunity to renew the relationship between citizens and the state.
Governor Ademola Adeleke has won the election. But the harder contest has just begun.
The contest now is against poverty.
Against unemployment.
Against insecurity.
Against institutional weakness.
Against political intolerance.
Against youth hopelessness.
Against corruption and waste.
Against the culture that treats public office as political possession rather than public trust.
The ₦500 million Election Violence Victims Endowment Fund is a meaningful first step because it recognises that electoral victory cannot erase the human cost of political conflict. But the ultimate objective must be larger: to build an Osun in which political disagreement does not produce violence and electoral defeat does not produce exclusion.
The governor’s declaration that “the election is over” should therefore become more than a political statement. It should become the governing philosophy of the second term.
Now is the time to govern the Accord voter and the APC voter.
The Christian and the Muslim.
The young and the old.
The rich and the poor.
The urban resident and the rural farmer.
The supporter and the critic.
The winner and the loser.
Osun belongs to all of them.
The true measure of Governor Adeleke’s second mandate will not ultimately be the size of the majority that returned him to office. It will be whether, by the end of his tenure, even those who opposed him can honestly say:
“This government served the state, not merely its supporters.”
That is the standard of statesmanship.
That is the challenge before Ademola Adeleke.
And that is the opportunity before Osun State.
Cliff Stanley
Political Scientist & Public Theologian
Cliffstanley3@gmail.com 07032826319