Nigeria’s wealthy Adeleke family has reinforced its influence in Osun State in <a href="https://absafricatv.com/modernism-and-liberation-in-western-africa/” title=”Modernism and Liberation in Western Africa”>western Nigeria after incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke secured a second term, defeating a candidate from the party that controls Africa’s most populous country.
Nigerian tycoon Deji Adeleke’s brother, also Davido’s uncle, wins second term as governor of a gold-rich state after defeating Nigeria’s ruling party
- Incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke won re-election in Osun State, maintaining the Adeleke family’s strong political influence.
- Adeleke secured 50.8% of the votes, defeating the candidate from the ruling national party (APC) and strengthening his family’s legacy in politics.
- Osun State, known for significant gold and mineral resources, continues to attract investment in mining, infrastructure, and agriculture under Adeleke’s leadership.
- The Adeleke family’s influence spans business, education, and entertainment, notably through billionaire Deji Adeleke and Afrobeats star Davido, who campaigned for the governor.
Ademola Adeleke, the younger brother of Nigerian business tycoon Adedeji “Deji” Adeleke and uncle of Afrobeats superstar Davido, won Saturday’s governorship election after switching parties just months before the vote.
Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission declared Adeleke the winner as the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), led by President Bola Tinubu, pushes to expand its control across states ahead of the 2027 general election.
According to election data reviewed byBusiness Insider Africa, Adeleke secured 511,067 votes, or about 50.8% of ballots cast, ahead of APC candidate Bola Oyebamiji with 444,815 votes and African Democratic Congress candidate Najeem Salam with 17,180.
The result underscores the limits of the country’s ruling party’s national dominance ahead of the 2027 general election while preserving the Adeleke family’s political foothold in Osun.
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Osun, a southwestern Nigerian state nearly three times the size of Delaware, had an economy estimated at about ₦2.3 trillion ($5.7 billion) in 2021, according to BudgIT’s state-level GDP estimates, placing it among Nigeria’s smaller state economies.
More recent comparable GDP figures are limited, but the state has continued to court investment in mining, infrastructure and agriculture.
Gold is central to that push, with Osun lying within the Ilesha Schist Belt and hosting Segilola, Nigeria’s first large-scale gold mine, which produced 91,910 ounces in 2025.
Official 2019 data showed Osun accounted for 42.56% of Nigeria’s recorded gold production, the largest share at the time, ahead of Niger State at 27.8%.
Adeleke’s administration has since moved to revive the state’s shareholding arrangement in Segilola while seeking more mining investment.
Beyond gold, Osun has deposits of talc, feldspar, granite, kaolin and tantalum, although gold remains its standout mineral asset.
In February, the governor took that investment pitch to the Mining Indaba in Cape Town, telling investors that Osun had streamlined approvals and cut some processing times by more than half to turn mineral re
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Osun State, known for significant gold and mineral re, and agriculture under Adeleke’s leadership.BI Africa
Beyond politics, the Adeleke family has built a broad footprint across business, education and entertainment, giving it influence that extends well beyond Osun State.
At the centre of the family’s business interests is Deji Adeleke, chairman of Pacific Holdings Limited, a privately held conglomerate with interests in energy, education, civil engineering, agriculture and real estate.
His business career began with Pacific Drilling Company in 1983 before the interests were consolidated under Pacific Holdings.
Through Pacific Energy, the group operates the 335MW Omotosho and 335MW Olorunsogo power plants, with one 2025 estimate valuing Pacific Energy at about $1.4 billion.
The group has also completed a reported $2 billion, 1,250MW power project at Ajebamidele in Ondo State.
Adeleke said in 2025 that the project was awaiting a gas connection and could employ more than 2,000 workers once operational.
Beyond energy, the family’s interests extend into higher education through Adeleke University, a private institution in southwestern Nigeria that Deji Adeleke founded in 2011 through his Springtime Development Foundation.
His exact wealth has not been assessed byForbes orBloomberg, partly because Pacific Holdings is privately held and discloses limited financial information, making his billionaire status difficult to verify.
Meanwhile, Business Insider Africa is working on an interview with a member of the Adeleke family to examine its business empire, investment strategy and the scale of its holdings.
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The family’s influence also stretches into Africa’s entertainment industry through Deji Adeleke’s son, David Adeleke, better known as Davido, one of the continent’s biggest music exports.
Davido’s backing added celebrity weight to the governorship race and expanded the family’s visibility beyond business and politics.
Ultimately, Ademola Adeleke’s second-term victory preserves the family’s political influence while keeping one of Nigeria’s most prominent business and entertainment dynasties closely tied to the leadership of a gold-rich state with growing mining and investment ambitions.
