Oshiomhole: Digging holes at finish line

That Governor Adams Aliu Oshiomhole of Edo State is a man of the people could be attributed to his leadership experience at the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC). During his reign as NLC president, Nigerian workers came to acknowledge his leadership skills from the standpoints that he motivates, mobilizes and tantalizes with words.

In 2007, Oshiomhole brought those credentials to bear on his quest for the governorship seat of Edo State. The electoral pugilism did not terminate at the polling booths. Further argumentation took over from where the voters stopped their endorsements on the ballot. Although the Governorship Election Petition Tribunal nullified the election of Professor Oserheimen Osunbor, that verdict was taken to the Court of Appeal for denunciation or confirmation.

On November 11, 2008, seven months after the Tribunal gave its ruling; the Court of Appeal, sitting amid sweat, tension and palpitation in Benin City, reaffirmed Oshiomhole as the rightful winner of the 2007 governorship election. All lovers of democracy hailed, while the lovers of impunity bewailed the electoral verdict.

Many people in Edo and across the country rejoiced at the development as the victory of democracy and restoration of people’s power. With the triumph came so much expectation from the former labour leader, with many people expressing the hope that devoid of any godfather, he would use his mandate to serve the people and the cause of democracy in the state.

Oshiomhole went about his job with great gusto and aplomb. He took on the challenge of changing the infrastructural face of the state and environmental outlook of the ancient city, the capital. He exulted in the defeat of big men, who heretofore dictated the pace and direction of politics in the state. Within a space of four years, the man had dabbled into a lot of things, initiated a lot of projects, so much that when he began the campaign for another term in office, a lot of people pointed to the plethora of uncompleted projects and joined in the plea for his further residence of Osadebey House.

In April 2012, the month of his birth, the governor was involved in ghastly motor accident, which claimed the lives of three journalists. The incident, which took place along the Auchi-Afuze road helped to whip up a gush popular sympathy for the governor, because he was coming back from Afuze, Owan East local council; where he received PDP defectors to his Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), when the accident occurred.

In November 2012, his prayers and those of his faithful were answered. Having come back to power, Oshio Baba, having done fairly well with infrastructure, also desired to tinker with the political structure of the state. He caught a new bug, dream dreams of new conquests and roles in the state and nation at large. Again, fortune smiled his way as his party, now a conglomerate, achieved a magical victory over the former federal potentates in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The APC victory provided the enabling political environment for the Edo governor to announce his desire for active play in the national turf. He began by making startling disclosures, some weird, wild and wide-off the mark, about some key players of the former occupants of federal government. Hearing him speak with a kind of affected excitement, you get the picture of a man who has rediscovered the essence of power. Again from the tone and cadence of his voice, especially after popping out of the Villa on his frequent jaunts there, there was no mistaking the fact that Oshiomhole likes hearing his voice and being at the foci of political power.

At the height of his new project of seeking to dominate the political environment of Edo State, he took times off his busy schedules to take jabs at the former chairman of PDP Board of Trustees, chief Tony Anenih and his predecessor in office, Prince Lucky Igbinedion.

Feeling that he has cowed those eminent political personages, the Governor descended on the Esama of Benin Kingdom, Sir Gabriel Igbinedion, accusing him of conniving with his son, the former governor, to annexe the land of Edo people. It was at that inauspicious point of taking on the revered Benin chief that some old women marched half-nude to protest Oshiomhole’s attacks.

It was discovered that Adams, despite having come on stage with the help of godfathers himself, wanted to be a godfather and be the one to anoint a successor. And the music changed. The people, including some of his lieutenants, began to suspect Oshio of sinister plans.

Though nobody came out to accuse the governor openly, accusations spoken and murmured, founded and unfounded; began to circulate around him.

As the timeline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), for the governorship primaries in the state draws near, another wave of allegations started welling in Edo. It appeared that His Excellency generated the latest furore. It had to do with fetishism again. Governor said he learnt that his deputy of eight years, Dr. Pius Odubu, had awarded a contract to native doctors to eliminate him.

But before anybody could ask how, why and where, a bold attempt was made to harass the deputy governor by some citizens of the gun. Like harmattan fire, the news, not rumour this time; spread fast. People started asking questions and putting one and one together. Why is it, that it was at such a time that the self-effacing and quiet Odubu declared interest in replacing his Oga at Dennis Osadebey House that gun citizens remembered him? How did the ancient city suddenly become another theatre of political violence? Could it be that the curses by half-nude women protesting the governor’s bad mouth suddenly became efficacious? Who informed the governor that a contract to eliminate him through diabolical means was awarded by Odubu? Is the governor also involved in fetishism?

And amid the political noise and allegations of sorcery and assassination attempt, the Oba left the forest and joined his ancestors. Shocked by the death of the well respected and iconic monarch, the Edo chief executive decided to register his heartfelt condolences. Even this mandate, executed through an innocuous condolence letter, turned out another source of fresh trouble between the Comrade Governor and lovers of the traditional institution.

The Comrade, either out of desire to impress or ingratiate himself, described the late Oba as an iconoclast, (a destroyer of images, rebel). But those who know the Oba too well say the adjective does not in any way reflect on the salient attributes of the revered late Benin monarch.

Even in his autobiography, titled, “I remain, Sir, Your obedient Servant”; there was no reference or description of any incident that depicted the late Oba Erediauwa as an iconoclast. That is why those knowledgeable of the Benin traditional respect for elders, especially with true Bini blood flowing in their veins, insist that OshoBaba must retract and plead for forgiveness for traducing their monarch in ignoble language.

As if that was not enough trouble for Adams, a shooting session broke out at the Edo State House of Assembly, following an impeachment d’état of the Speaker. Already the last days of the all conquering Oshiomhole have produced two speakers for the House of Assembly. Indeed, when it rains, it pours for comrade.

Nobody could figure out why all these are piling up for Comrade Aliu. And remembering that the whole palaver gained traction from the month of April, could it be that having been born in April, which incidentally is the month associated with light-hearted foolery, the governor’s jokes have turned around to torment him?

In a tinge of irony, the same Oshiomhole, whose brush with a killer tipper during his campaign for second term stirred the milk of human sympathy, is the same person dismissing his estranged deputy’s brush with death at another campaign event. Has power and ambition to be godfather left a carbuncle on his conscience?

Eight months ago, the former NLC Presido was seen in national television narrating his ordeal in Yenagoa, where he had gone to midwife the APC governorship primary. He employed his word power and depicted his party’s candidate in the election, Timipre Sylva, as a champion of violence, disclosing that when militants-turned delegates started gaining entry into the venue of the primary he feigned hunger and left the state. He swore that instead of governorship primary, what he saw in Yenagoa that September was the equivalence of hell and war.

In less than five months (September 10) the governorship poll to elect Oshiomhole’s successor would hold in the state. As a veteran labour leader, the comrade Governor knows that the best way to get out of a big hole is to dig smaller holes. As he sets about his last battle, not against godfathers, but to be godfather; it would be seen how he solves the puzzles surrounding his relationship with his deputy and squares up in the battle to implant his preferred choice as successor.

It would be interesting to see how the governor takes his candidate in campaign tours, particularly now that Bini people want him to eat his word against some elders of the state.

And on the day of the governorship primary when the legion of APC governorship aspirants, including Odubu and Oshio’s candidate would clash, observers are waiting to see him fix the puzzles.

In the final analysis, Comrade Adams Aliu Eric Oshiomhole, may teach politicians a lesson and learn himself, how that it is not too good to start strong and finish weakly. Above all, that, holes are not good for legs inside big shoes.

Close to leaving office, Oshiomhole can no longer boast of equal measure of groundswell of public appeal his emergence in Edo mustered. The finish line is definitely not the best time to dig holes.