He’ll dance before doing anything – Okpebholo mocks Adeleke, urges Osun voters to vote him out

OSOGBO —Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo has turned Governor Ademola Adeleke’s much-publicised dancing into a campaign weapon, urging Osun voters to reject the incumbent at the August 15 governorship election.

Okpebholo, speaking at an All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign rally in Osun alongside the party’s candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, repeatedly ridiculed Adeleke’s penchant for dancing, arguing that the governor had devoted too much attention to entertainment at the expense of governance.

The Edo governor urged voters to back Oyebamiji, presenting the APC candidate as the alternative capable of delivering roads, infrastructure and broader development to the state.

“Before somebody sign paper, he will dance. Are you not tired? For four years, this man has been dancing. Before he take breakfast. Before he drink tea, he will dance.

“The man that will give you a good road is Oyebamiji. Are we ready to make a change? Are we ready to say bye-bye to dancing?”

The attack was not limited to Adeleke’s public image.

Okpebholo also invoked the 2024 Edo governorship election, when he defeated the then incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki’s preferred candidate, Asue Ighodalo.

Seeking to draw a parallel between the two contests, he portrayed Adeleke as politically aligned with Obaseki and urged Osun voters to repeat what he described as the Edo experience.

“If they bring money, chop that money from them, but don’t vote for them… That man is Obasaki’s friend. You know we kick Obasaki out of Edo too? So we have to kick his friend out of this place too.

“A government that is not working, the best gift for him is to send him out of that state… Are you not tired of dancing, dancing, dancing, governor?”

Okpebholo’s remarks add another layer to an increasingly combative Osun campaign, with the APC seeking to unseat Adeleke as the governor pursues another term.

The APC has made infrastructure and governance central to its pitch, while its attacks on Adeleke have frequently focused on the governor’s public persona and his administration’s record.

The August 15 election is expected to be closely watched as Adeleke seeks to retain the governorship under the Accord Party (AP), while Oyebamiji attempts to return the state to APC control.

Okpebholo’s message to the electorate was blunt: campaign inducements should not determine their choice at the ballot box.

“If they bring money, chop that money from them, but don’t vote for them,” he told supporters.

With the contest entering its decisive phase, the APC appears determined to make Adeleke’s dancing a symbol of what it says is a government more interested in performance than performance in office.

For Okpebholo, the choice he presented to Osun voters was equally theatrical: Oyebamiji for development, or “bye-bye to dancing.”