By Ozodinukwe Okenwa
Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, the former National Chairman of the ruling APC party and ex-Governor of Edo State, is an enigma. He is a man trying very hard to bounce back to national reckoning after a few years of political oblivion. The Comrade from Edo rose to national prominence when he led the Labour union decades ago making a name for himself for his intrepidity, lucidity and professionalism. The late labour legends like Tai Solarin and Michael Imoudu must be proud of the diminutive man from Iyamho, near Auchi, who did his very best to voice out the grievances of workers across board. His rhetorics resonated with the time and applause was audible enough then.
From labour unionism Oshiomhole joined partisan politics climbing steadily the ladder until he hit ‘gold’ as the elected Executive Governor of Edo State. He governed the state for eight eventful years that witnessed plaudits and controversies.
Plaudits like his infrastructural developmental achievements. But controversies like his heated battles of supremacy with the Igbinedion rich famous family in Benin City. One of the controversies also happened to be his inconsiderate dismissal of a poor widow, 40-year-old Joy Ifijeh, while inspecting a project along Mission Road in the state capital. “If you are a widow, go and die” the then Governor Oshiomhole had barked at the woman upon her pleas for leniency following the seizure of her goods.
However, Oshiomhole showed his humane side, pricked by conscience, when months later he had invited over the insulted widow to the Government House where he handed over a cheque of two million Naira to her! He offered her employment as well! Video images later emerged online of the Governor sipping tea with the fortunate woman.
Prior to hosting the woman Oshiomhole was captured on video wearing his traditional khaki uniform and cap, hands in his pocket as he addressed the woman. She was on her knees pleading as the task force team took her goods away. A sizable crowd gathered as the Governor was acting like the Lord of the Manor on that fateful day.
During one of my trips back home during his gubernatorial reign I had stumbled on the Comrade along Dawson Road in Benin City as I drove towards Aerodrome Close to meet a good friend. He looked ordinary and effective as Governor drawing large crowds during unscheduled project inspection tours around the city and elsewhere in the state.
Today, there is a striking difference between Comrade Oshiomhole the Labour leader and Oshiomhole the politician. The labour leader was one whose moderate taste and frugality were generally acknowledged. Now, the Comrade has changed drastically, his life transformed by filthy lucre accruable via politics! He lives in obscene opulence inside a breathtaking mansion in his Iyamho native land emulating the likes of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and Olusegun Obasanjo in building world-class country homes for themselves.
After suffering a humiliating guber defeat in Edo State the Comrade had shamefully retreated to his glorified village to quietly nurse the Obaseki-inflicted political wound. And now with the general elections scheduled for early next year approaching the former Governor has crawled out of his hiding, sensing an opportunity in the political horizon.
The Tinubu-Shettima muslim/muslim presidential ticket had found the Comrade worthy of being incorporated into their campaign council. Other scoundrels abound within, including one Femi Fani-Kayode!
Having found back his voice Oshiomhole often railed at the opposition and some other times he featured on live TV programmes where he lambasted opponents of his pay-master, Asiwaju Tinubu. Nothing wrong with a yes-man doing his utmost to please the godfather. What rankles, however, remains playing hypocrisy and opportunism with everything.
He had once attacked the charismatic Labour Party presidential hopeful, Peter Obi, describing him uncharitably as an importer of foreign goods and abeter of unemployment in the system! He kept saying that Obi’s supermarket in Abuja had every foreign goods one could ever think of as if entrepreneurship has now become a crime!
Recently the former Labour union leader took his BAT campaign to Channels TV in Lagos. There, he lampooned the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, calling him names and blaming the party’s 16 years in power for the non-maintenance of the refineries. “You (Atiku) can’t manage your household, you are a serial divorcee and you want to preach unity and family to me?” he had argued strongly.
While the Atiku campaign team had fired back hitting Oshiomhole below the belt we hold that the diminutive loquacious Edo-born politician misfired; he chewed more than he could swallow! Those who live in glass houses do not throw stones or engage themselves in gang fights. The Comrade is nothing but a hypocrite and an opportunist!
It is just like Femi Fani-Kayode, the notorious former Aviation Minister, accusing his opponents of drug addiction, philandering lifestyle and playing ‘stomach-infrastructure’ politics for survival. Or worse still, Asiwaju Tinubu accusing his political adversaries of narcotics dealings, falsification of age, name and academic credentials and engagement in graft. Nothing would be more morally reprehensible than that! An executive thief calling out someone for stealing a cock! Or a wife-beater and political prostitute lamenting the fate that befall those like him.
Or better still (as Minister ‘Lie’ Mohammed put it recently) “the bedwetter should not join those who are insulting the washerman”. He was furiously reacting to the PDP presidential candidate’s penchant of attacking the Buhari administration accusing the government of spending seven years doing nothing! As a professional propagandist of high repute Mohammed can praise Buhari to high heavens rating high his performance in office. But the general consensus is that the President has disappointed many Nigerians.
In our country hypocrites and criminals abound, all united in their unpatriotic efforts to nip national development in the bud. So, Minister ‘Lie’ and many others professing Buharism could be excused for doing their very best to paint the retired soldier in glowing lights.
Oshiomhole’s unprincipled politics led him to want to play godfather in Edo politics. But he failed spectacularly to impose his guber choice (Ize-Iyamu) on the good people of Edo state. The people expressed their electoral disapproval of the Comrade’s attempt to play dog by returning to his vomit! You cannot, for some political convenience or interest, condemn a man yesterday and want to paint him dubiously in another colour tomorrow!
Since Oshiomhole has declared his candidacy for the Senate we expect the man from Iyamho to concentrate his energy on convincing his constituents to vote for him despite his baggage.
When he was the Governor of Edo State the Comrade went across the border to ‘acquire’ a brand new beautiful wife following the demise of his former wife. And today no one knows her whereabouts or the state of the marriage. For the same man to turn around to lambast a fellow philanderer beats our imagination. There ought to be a certain limit to political hypocrisy and expediency.
We refuse to applaud or appreciate Comrade Oshiomhole’s provocative opportunistic naked dance on the village square. If anything, we condemn his wilful acrobatic political somersaults of late.
SOC Okenwa
soco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr
