As a model for Nigerian elections, the August 16 governorship vote in Nigeria's southwestern Osun State met several important benchmarks. Not only did the outcome matter; the voters and contestants alike were able to follow the results as they were uploaded in real time on the election-monitoring portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
And then an opposition candidate won. The incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke, who ran on the platform of the little-known Accord Party, defeated Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party nationally in power.
"Overall, it is not a good omen for the ruling party going into the 2027 elections," says Eric Orji, a Lagos-based political risk analyst.
"(President Bola) Tinubu would have felt more confident winning this just before the big one."
Originally published by African Business.