Afrobeats star Davido has clashed online with MC Oluomo, National President of the NURTW, after wading into a tense standoff between the union boss and his uncle, Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke.
The dispute traces back to last Thursday, when Governor Adeleke ordered an immediate, blanket suspension of NURTW activities across motor parks in Osun State.
According to a statement from the state’s Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi, the directive followed a security council meeting called to review a wave of violence linked to rival factions battling for control of the union’s park operations, particularly in Osogbo.
As part of the crackdown, the governor ordered police to halt the collection of levies by the union across all motor parks in the state and directed security agencies to arrest anyone parading as officials or executives of the union.
Speaking at the inauguration of a seven-member caretaker committee in Abuja over the weekend, MC Oluomo, represented by his deputy, Aliyu Issa Ore, flatly rejected the governor’s authority to act, arguing that the NURTW is a legally established body that has previously won court cases against similar moves by state governments.
He insisted that no state government could override a union established by federal statute, telling the gathering that the state governor “doesn’t have that power” and that “not a single state governor has power to suspend the activities of the union, because we are not under any state.”
Ore, briefing the crowd on the union’s response, added that the national body had struggled to get Osun’s chapter to fall in line even before the governor’s intervention, noting that repeated letters inviting the state leadership to Abuja had gone unanswered.
He revealed the caretaker committee headed by Kazeem Oyewale as chairman, with Sunday Oludare as secretary and Lukman Ahmed as treasurer, had been set up partly because of the union’s existing Memorandum of Understanding with INEC ahead of Osun’s approaching governorship election, a detail that underscored just how high the political stakes around the transport union have become.
That is where Davido entered the fray. Never one to stay silent when family is involved, the singer, whose full name is David Adeleke, ties him directly to the governor as his nephew took to social media to fire back at the union boss directly, tagging him in a post that has since gone viral.
Mocking Oluomo’s grasp of grammar rather than engaging with the substance of his argument, Davido wrote, “MC Oluomo wey no fit compose sentence dey talk… Kudosuuuu.”
The jab quickly split opinion online, with some fans cheering the singer for standing by his uncle and others accusing him of overreach in wading into a serious governance and labor dispute.
Neither Governor Adeleke nor MC Oluomo has issued a further public response since Davido’s comment, though the underlying standoff between Osun State and the nationally organized transport union remains unresolved.
With a governorship election on the horizon and control of motor parks carrying significant political and financial weight, the clash between Government House in Osogbo and NURTW’s national leadership in Abuja looks likely to run well beyond this latest social media skirmish.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
At its core, this is a power struggle over who controls Osun’s motor parks. Governor Adeleke says the state has the authority to shut down NURTW over deadly factional violence, while MC Oluomo insists no governor can suspend a federally established union.
Davido’s mockery of Oluomo added celebrity fuel to the fire, but the real story to watch is the unresolved clash between state authority and union power, playing out just ahead of Osun’s governorship election with control of park revenue and political influence hanging in the balance.
