One of the major talking points from the recently held Osun governorship election is the unflinching support of the Nigerian singer Davido for his uncle, Governor Ademola Adeleke. The election, Vanessa Obioha writes, has once again put their bond in the spotlight
Since Governor Ademola Adeleke emerged victorious in his re-election bid last weekend, there’s been a renewed interest in his relationship with his nephew, the award-winning Nigerian singer Davido. On the internet, videos and photos of them together resurfaced, indicating that their bond didn’t just start yesterday.
In one video, a younger Davido is being playfully interviewed while his uncle can be seen smiling in the background. Another shows the governor dancing with the singer at Davido’s traditional wedding. In another instance, an emotional Governor Adeleke told his nephew on the phone, after he was declared the winner of the election, that he should come and hug him. The governor was also seen dancing to Davido’s song during a television interview as he celebrated his re-election.
But none of these captured the essence of their relationship like the photo Davido posted of him and his uncle on the evening of Saturday, August 15, as the election results were collated. The photo captioned “Batman and Robin, Us Against the World” captures what has become increasingly evident about their relationship. Batman and Robin, the famous DC Comics duo, are known for working together, with Robin standing beside Batman in his fight against the criminals of Gotham City. Batman is the more powerful and experienced figure, while Robin is his trusted sidekick.
In their own way, Davido and his uncle have also become a familiar pair, particularly whenever there is a political battle to fight. From campaign rallies and social media battles to family celebrations, Davido has repeatedly positioned himself beside his uncle. Sometimes he has been a campaigner; at other times, a defender. And occasionally, he has simply been the nephew who wants to see his uncle win.
Since Adeleke became governor of Osun State in 2022, Davido has made little attempt to conceal where his loyalty lies. While he had been vocal about certain social issues, it was his involvement in his uncle’s campaign that really spotlighted his political side.
Davido comes from a family of businessmen and politicians. His grandfather was a politician while his father is a billionaire businessman. His late Uncle, Isiaka Adeleke, was a senator and the first civilian governor of Osun in 1992. Ademola took the political baton and has perhaps drawn Davido into that political sphere as well when he appointed him the Chairman of the state’s Sports Trust Fund last year.
His support during the governor’s re-election campaign was particularly conspicuous. He used his enormous social media following to canvass support, joined campaign rallies and grassroots engagements, and at one point announced that he would put his music career on hold for two months to campaign for his uncle.
Davido has said in an interview that he charges about $600,000 for a show and performs several times a month. At the four-shows-a-month pace he described, that would amount to about $2.4 million in potential monthly performance fees. Putting his music career on hold for two months therefore meant stepping away from potentially millions of dollars in performance fees.
The singer was named chairman of the Imole Youth Campaign Mobilisation Team by his uncle and has participated in several grassroots engagements across the state. During one of his earlier campaign appearances, Davido told supporters that he believed his uncle had performed well and deserved another term in office. He has also met with commercial motorcycle and tricycle riders as part of efforts to mobilise young voters.
Days before the August 15 election, Davido wrote to the United States President, Donald Trump and the international community, calling for close monitoring of the elections amid concerns over possible disruption of the democratic process.
If Davido’s support for his uncle is most visible during elections, it is on social media that he has often been most combative. On X alone, the artist has over 17 million followers, and on Instagram has nearly 31 million followers. On Saturday, the singer used his platforms to monitor the elections, calling the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to upload results or make their party agents available at polling units.
When he thought the results were no longer being collated, Davido claimed in a post that Senate President Godswill Akpabio had called the Collation Centre to stop the collation of results, an allegation that was not independently established.
Each time he believed the election results were compromised, he went after the opposition party members. For instance, he called out James Faleke, the APC representative of Ikeja Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, for allegedly putting pressure on INEC to alter the Osun result and addressed him directly, saying, “James Faleke, stop putting pressure on INEC to change Osun election result. Respect the wishes of Osun people. We don’t want Oyetola and AMBO.”
Davido also had a spat with human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, after the latter had described his uncle as “brainless” in an interview. Sharing a clip of the interview on X, he responded by calling Sowore an “Arindin,” a Yoruba term used to describe someone considered foolish or unintelligent. The activist fired back, accusing the Adeleke family of using Osun as a private estate.
Even his association with his uncle’s re-election campaign came with its own controversy. The singer came under fire in July when a viral video by social media activist Martins Ose, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), claimed that their relationship deteriorated after he turned down an alleged N50 million offer to campaign for his uncle, the governor of Osun. VeryDarkMan’s claim has not been independently established.
For all the controversy that accompanied his involvement, Davido has maintained that his interest was never to become involved in Nigeria’s politics. When APC National Youth Leader Dayo Israel cited Davido’s influence in the outcome of the governorship election in his analysis of the party’s failure to win the state, the singer responded that he had only backed his family and done his job.
“Nigerian politics is evil, and I don’t want to be part of it till God helps us,” he wrote on X. He had earlier announced plans to pursue a master’s degree in political science in the UK next year.
Whether Davido eventually changes his mind and takes over the political baton from his uncle remains to be seen. Perhaps that is what makes his “Batman and Robin” caption so fitting.Their public appearances together may often be on political battlefields, but the relationship itself goes beyond politics. The childhood videos, the wedding celebrations, the campaign rallies and the emotional embrace after Adeleke’s victory all point to something more personal.
Moreover, their relationship shows what is rarely seen in many wealthy families in Nigeria, where envy, rivalry and malice can sometimes keep family members apart. In the Adeleke household, there appears to be little trace of this as family members continue to support and work with one another. The governor himself has children who are also in the entertainment industry, including Sina and B-Red, further deepening the family’s connection to the industry.
Batman and Robin may have been partners in the fight to protect Gotham, but for Davido and his uncle, the fight appears to be only one part of the story. Whatever may be happening behind closed doors, the Adelekes continue to present a united family front, and Davido, at least publicly, remains firmly beside his uncle.
