Yemisi Adeagbo of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) is the only female governorship candidate among the 14 political parties cleared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to contest the Osun State governorship election scheduled for August 15, 2026. According to a report by Dataphyte, only four of the 28 candidates for governor and deputy governor are women. Adeagbo is the lone female governorship contender, while the three female deputy-governorship candidates are Temitope Agiri of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Kehinde Aresa of the Boot Party (BP), and Oluwabusayo Adeyera of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).
Who Is Yemisi Adeagbo?
Adeagbo is a retired school principal with a Bachelor of Education degree. She is also among the oldest candidates in the race. Her campaign pitches her as a motherly figure capable of bringing a different style of governance to Osun, with a focus on the welfare of workers and ordinary residents. Her educational background gives her platform a strong emphasis on human development and social welfare.
She has urged voters to look beyond the major parties. However, analysts say her prospects of winning are slim. The contest has largely narrowed into a two-horse race between incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party and the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, with ADC's Najeem Salam also pushing to join the leading pack. Adeagbo's biggest asset, observers note, is her distinctiveness in a male-dominated field.
Women Voters Versus Women Candidates
The contrast between women's presence as voters and their absence as candidates is sharp. A fact-check report by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) on the 2022 Osun governorship election found that women accounted for about 52.76 per cent of registered voters in the state, meaning more women than men were on the electoral roll. Yet women hold just one of 14 governorship tickets in 2026.
This gap is not new in Osun. No woman contested for governor in either the 2022 or 2014 elections. The 2026 race therefore marks the return of a woman to the governorship ballot after a four-year absence, though female representation across both executive tickets remains limited.
Broader research points to a set of structural barriers that prevent women from reaching the ballot in the first place, including institutional gatekeeping within political parties, the high cost of political participation, conservative cultural norms, and gender discrimination. Civil society groups have noted that some women were pressured to withdraw during recent party primaries in favour of male rivals.
Nigeria's National Gender Policy recommends a 35 per cent affirmative action target for women in elective and appointive positions, a threshold that Osun's 2026 ballot falls well short of. Women currently hold 14.29 per cent of the governorship slots and 21.43 per cent of the deputy-governorship slots, according to Dataphyte.
Osun 2026: List of 3 Major Contenders
Earlier, Legit.ng reported that Osun State is heading into its most watched political contest in years, with 14 candidates on the ballot for the governorship election set for Saturday, August 15, 2026. While the field is broad, three candidates have emerged as the most prominent contenders: incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party, Bola Oyebamiji of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Najeem Salam of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
As the election approaches, Adeagbo's candidacy highlights the persistent underrepresentation of women in Nigerian politics, despite their majority among voters. The final outcome will determine whether her campaign can overcome the structural barriers that have historically limited female participation in Osun's gubernatorial contests.
