‘I defeated 17 governors with my phone’ — Davido speaks on Osun election, Tinubu, Akpabio, Okpebholo

Afrobeats star David “Davido” Adeleke has reflected on his uncle, Ademola Adeleke’s re-election as Osun State governor, claiming that he took on 17 All Progressives Congress (APC) governors with just his mobile phone.

The “Unavailable” hitmaker, who played a key role in Adeleke’s re-emergence as governor, also spoke about President Bola Tinubu, Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo, among others, during an interview with News Central TV on Tuesday.

The singer said: “I defeated 17 governors with all their power, with all their immunity, with all their aides, with all their escort commanders, with all their DSS, with all their billions. I defeated them with my phone, but, to me, it’s just like the political scene in Nigeria right now. It’s not like there have been celebrities who have become presidents, even Volodymyr Zelenskyy from Ukraine, who was an actor and comedian.

“Then he became the president. George Weah of Liberia was a footballer. He became the president so that leadership can come from anywhere for sure. But what I’m saying is that nothing is clear. The voting process is unclear. Even when you enter, you will still drag. Are the people around you even ready to serve? So for now, you know what I’m saying? I feel like I did what I had to do for the Osun people and for my family.”

Presidential candidate

The “Timeless” hitmaker also revealed that he received several messages asking him to replicate the support he gave his uncle during the presidential election. However, he said he would not allow such calls to influence his decision.

He added that he had no presidential candidate and would not support Tinubu, despite his uncle’s endorsement of the President for a second term.

He explained that his uncle’s decision to back Tinubu was based on personal considerations and what he believed would benefit the state.

“Personally, I don’t want to be involved in it. I’m sure a governor on good terms with the president would get more allocations, you know what I’m saying? That’s for the governor to decide. He’s been re-elected. Maybe I shouldn’t have said we, because my uncle came out to declare his support for Tinubu.

“As for me, I’m not prepared to support anybody. I personally haven’t seen anybody. In the past, yes, I’ve supported, you know, Atiku before when we were in PDP. And I even supported it in 2015, when the APC first merged. My late uncle, Serubawon, was part of the APC. So I campaigned then. Right now, I don’t have a presidential candidate. It might change. It’s not going to be APC,” Davido said.

He said every citizen has the freedom to choose their preferred presidential candidate, describing it as a personal decision.

Sowore and Okpebholo

The singer also ruled out apologising to Governor Okpebholo and Omoyele Sowore, the African Action Congress (AAC) presidential candidate, over his exchanges with them in the build-up to the election.

He accused Sowore of seeking attention, adding that the AAC candidate dragged him and his uncle into the matter following their encounter during the #EndSARS protest in Abuja.

He said, “During the #EndSARS protest in Abuja that my guys and I attended, we were all leading. Sowore came, and I tried to… I do like this. I was like, no, no, no, I don’t want to join. Since that day, he has been bitter with all those fake antics going to court, up and down.”

Insisting he owed Mr Sowore no apology, Davido said, “I’m not going to apologise. I didn’t do anything wrong. I was telling the people of the state the results that the governor has.”

In a fiery clapback to Mr Okepholo, Davido said the Edo governor was not genuinely elected to office but was merely “selected”.

Mr Okpebolo, who emerged as governor from the September 2024 Edo State governorship election, had thrown jibes branding Mr Adeleke a “dancing governor” during his campaign visit alongside other APC bigwigs to Osun State before Saturday’s poll.

“You left your state, came to another state, to rig. Then you start talking about how my uncle is a dancer,” Davido said, adding that Mr Okpebholo further remarked that “my uncle is not serious.”

“First of all, you were not even elected. You were selected. You didn’t win those votes, sir. You don’t know what it is to win an election; that’s why you could go there and talk.”

Davido said he felt “so bad” for the Edo govrnor’s children, “because they’re like, see what my dad is doing.”

Warning of a retaliation against Mr Okpebholo, the singer said, “You’re abusing a sitting governor in his own state. Anyhow, sir, finish your three years. We’ll visit you when it’s time for you to get re-elected.”

Akpabio

Davido said he aimed at Akpabio on X after hearing that he was allegedly attempting to influence the collation centre and manipulate the election results.

According to the singer, Akpabio was like a godfather to him. He said the Senate President called him during the election and asked him to delete his posts, but he refused.

“I heard the Senate president was trying to call the collation centre. That was like my godfather, Akpabio. They were calling me today. I said, sorry. I don’t know if you guys had literally just gone against my uncle. I’m saying you guys are seeing this man. I can’t delete anything. My uncle, Aliko Dangote, called me. I said, ” Uncle, I’m only doing it until INEC announces it. I’m not deleting anything.

READ ALSO: ‘I don’t want to be part of Nigerian politics; it’s evil’ — Davido

“Who else did I say was calling? Faleke, that one too retweeted me and was saying I should focus on my music. I said, well, politics is not a job. So you are there to save the people. So he said, ” Let us focus on our politics. That’s the mentality. Let us focus on our politics. And let me tell you, you guys. Well, you guys are getting old. It’s your children that’ll suffer from it.”

The “B4 B4” crooner alleged that the APC and its candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, spent ₦110 billion on the election.

“I just confirmed today, they spent ₦110 billion. I’m coming from somewhere where we had an insider who was sending us. If you see the cash that these people brought in, if they had gotten away with that election, Nigeria is finished because the blueprint will now be for election violence. The only way is violence and money.

“We didn’t spend a dime on election day. All we could do was pray that these people would take their money and vote for us. When the election started, the results were uploaded every 30 minutes. You know, it’s about 3,700 polling units they uploaded.”