Afrobeats superstar Davido has revealed that he rejected a personal request from Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, to take down his social media posts criticising the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the Osun State governorship election. In a recent interview on News Central, Davido explained that he refused to delete the posts until his uncle, Governor Ademola Adeleke, was officially declared the winner.
Davido's Motivation for Speaking Out
Davido said he was compelled to speak out after noticing that INEC had stopped uploading polling unit results on its IREV portal during the election. He also claimed he received information that Senate President Godswill Akpabio was calling the collation centre in an attempt to halt the collation of votes that were in favour of his uncle.
"When the election started, the results were being uploaded every 30 minutes...When it got to 2-3 AM, INEC didn't update the portal for 5 hours, and I already knew what was going on. They were trying to manipulate, but when you're losing by 60-70,000 votes, it's very hard to manipulate that," Davido said, narrating how this prompted his posts on X.
Dangote's Intervention and Davido's Response
According to Davido, Aliko Dangote called him personally to request that he take down the posts accusing INEC and the Senate President of interfering with the collation process. However, Davido respectfully declined the request, choosing to keep the posts live until his uncle was declared the winner.
Governor Ademola Adeleke was eventually declared the winner of the election, securing 511,067 votes to defeat the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Bola Oyebamiji, who pulled 444,815 votes.
Reaction to APC Chieftain's Criticism
Davido also responded to comments from APC chieftain James Faleke, who, while replying to Davido's post on X, told him to focus on his music while politicians focus on politics. The award-winning musician criticised Faleke's mindset as a bad mentality that has contributed to building a terrible political system, which he said future generations will suffer for.
While Davido deployed his social media accounts, where he has tens of millions of followers, to scrutinise the electoral umpire and security forces, several other well-meaning Nigerians also joined the call demanding that INEC promptly upload results from the remaining polling units.
Broader Reactions to the Osun Election
Businessman and elder statesman Atedo Peterside questioned INEC for uploading results from 3,292 polling units in quick succession but failing to upload the remaining 471 polling units for hours. The Osun State election has drawn reactions across the political class and voters, who consider it an insight into what to expect at the 2027 general elections.
