In a recent podcast appearance, human rights activist and lawyer Barr. Deji Adeyanju claimed that Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke has achieved more in office than his Abia State counterpart, Alex Otti. Adeyanju attributed the high public perception of Otti to “social media influencers” and “propaganda”, while asserting that Adeleke is delivering more substantive results despite his “dancing” persona.
THE CLAIM:
“The dancing governor (Adeleke) has done more than Alex Otti. The difference is that Otti has more social media influencers; the other guy only attends parties and dances; he’s not taking propaganda seriously. Otti commissioned a water fountain; people were jubilating.” — Barr. Deji Adeyanju.
VERIFYING THE CLAIMS
To verify this claim, NewsNGR examined the 2025 governance scorecards and fiscal data provided by Statisense, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the Debt Management Office (DMO), and the 2025 SBM Health Preparedness Index. The analysis focused on debt management, revenue growth, infrastructure investment, and human development.
1. Fiscal Discipline and Debt Management: Data from the DMO (June 2023 – Dec 2025) shows that both governors have made efforts to reduce debt, but the scales differ:
2. Revenue Generation (IGR): Adeleke’s administration has shown superior performance in aggressive revenue drives:
3. Infrastructure and Capital Expenditure (Capex): A primary metric for doing more in governance is the allocation of funds to capital projects versus recurrent spending (salaries and overheads):
4. Ease of Doing Business and Health
5. Human Development Index (HDI) and FDI
6. Education: Performance & Funding
While Osun has made the most “dramatic” leap in rankings, Abia remains the consistent academic powerhouse of the two.
VERDICT: MISLEADING
Barr. Deji Adeyanju’s claim that Governor Adeleke has done more than Governor Alex Otti is MISLEADING.
While Governor Adeleke leads in IGR growth percentage and external debt control, Governor Otti significantly outperforms him in domestic debt reduction, fiscal performance ranking, Ease of Doing Business, Health Preparedness, Education performance ranking and investment
Most crucially, the data on Capital Expenditure, the most direct measure of “doing” projects, shows that Otti has committed 82% of his budget to infrastructure, more than doubling Adeleke’s 45% commitment. Therefore, the assertion that Otti’s reputation is merely a product of “social media influencers” is contradicted by major fiscal and developmental indices.
