The Osun State governorship election on 15 August continued to drive the day's news, with the practical machinery of the vote — voter cards, accreditation devices and security — front and centre. Alongside it, the parties edged closer to naming the people who will run their 2027 presidential campaigns before national campaigning begins on 19 August. Here is what happened over roughly the last day or two, told plainly and without endorsement.
Osun's final stretch: PVC collection closes as INEC defends its accreditation technology
With the Osun governorship vote nine days away, INEC has been closing out the last preparations. Collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) at local government offices runs through 7 August, after an earlier round at ward level and an extension INEC granted to lift low collection rates. The commission says it has customised 4,427 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices for the state, including 664 backups, and has repeatedly declared itself ready to run a credible poll for the 2,333,233 registered voters.
INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan has insisted that BVAS biometric verification will be the only method of accrediting voters — there will be no manual accreditation — and said that stolen or uncollected PVCs cannot be used to vote without live fingerprint verification of the rightful owner. Those assurances followed reports of PVC thefts in parts of the state. At the same time, a mock accreditation exercise on 1 August recorded device glitches at several designated polling units, prompting some parties and civil-society groups to press INEC to fix the problems before election day.
Why it matters: PVCs and working BVAS machines are the two things that decide whether an eligible voter can actually cast a ballot. If you are voting in Osun, the LGA collection window is essentially your last chance to pick up your card. And how smoothly the technology performs on 15 August — after visible hiccups in the trial run — will shape public confidence not just in this result but in INEC's readiness for the far larger 2027 general election.
The Osun race narrows to three as the campaign deadline nears
Campaigning in Osun is entering its closing days, with INEC's rules requiring all campaign activity to stop by 13 August, two days before the vote. Fourteen political parties are on the ballot, but the contest has effectively narrowed to three candidates: incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke, seeking re-election on the Accord platform; the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Oyebamiji; and the African Democratic Congress candidate, Dr Najeem Salaam. The Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party did not field candidates. In recent days Adeleke has taken his re-election message into rival strongholds, including Oyebamiji's home area, while the challengers have held their own rallies and flag-offs across the state.
Why it matters: knowing who the realistic contenders are, and when campaigning must legally end, helps voters cut through the noise of a crowded field. The final stretch before a blackout period is when parties make their last direct appeals — after 13 August, the focus shifts entirely to turnout and the conduct of the vote itself.
Parties move closer to naming their 2027 campaign directors
Ahead of the 19 August start of presidential and National Assembly campaigns, the major parties are firming up who will run their national efforts. Reports indicate the African Democratic Congress has settled on former Sokoto State governor Aminu Tambuwal as the leading choice to direct former Vice President Atiku Abubakar's campaign, while the All Progressives Congress is still weighing senior figures — including former Nasarawa governor Tanko Al-Makura and Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma — to lead President Bola Tinubu's re-election bid. The Labour Party, New Nigeria Peoples Party, Social Democratic Party and other parties are also reported to be finalising their campaign structures, with announcements expected before 19 August.
Why it matters: a campaign director-general runs a party's national election machine — setting strategy, coordinating rallies and managing the message across all 36 states. These are party appointments, not government decisions, and they do not change who is on the ballot. But they are an early, concrete signal of how each camp intends to organise for 2027, and the names involved often shape the tone of the campaign to come.
PoliticsDirect is non-partisan. This brief summarises reporting from outlets including Premium Times, The Punch, The Guardian, Vanguard, Daily Trust, ThisDay, Tribune, Daily Post and P.M. News, alongside INEC's own announcements. We describe events; we do not endorse parties or candidates.