To Oshiomhole: My Condolences |The Source

By Comfort Obi

It is 4.00am, October 1, 2020, Nigeria’s 60th anniversary.  And I am wide awake. My heart is heavy. And I am tossing about in bed.

I am in Owerri, with no plans for the day. In town, the tension is high. There is palpable fear. The Indigenous People Of Biafra, IPOB, had ordered a sit-at- home order. And in response, soldiers, policemen, and other security agents have taken over most streets in a show of force.

My mind wandered, lazily,  at what was, what is, what could have been. I wish I could get some more sleep. But I am uncomfortable. I am sweating. There is no public power supply. There has been none from the previous day. I hate dark rooms. So the two rechargeable torches in my room are on, and add to the heat.

The gen-set was put on  on by 6.45.00pm. By midnight, I ordered it off. Diesel is expensive. And we are all managing. I would need it on again by 6.45am in order to listen to the President’s annniversary speech.

I don’t know why, but I remembered Adams Oshiomhole, the newly politically-orphaned former National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Where would he be this day? Edo, Lagos, or Abuja? On October 1, 2019, it was easy to know  his whereabouts. Abuja, definitely, and on his way to the Villa, to be in the company of the powers-that be,  for the celebration of Nigeria’s independence.

No longer. Life and its twists and turns.

I had made up my mind not to comment on the outcome of the Edo State Governorship Election which outcome has quarantined Oshiomhole. But, as I remembered him, I punched my phone, to, again, watch and listen to Oshiomhole, in a  video, after he lost Edo. As he spoke on the loss, he was struggling to contain his emotion, unsure of himself, babbling nonstop, and restless.

As I watched Oshiomhole, waxing philosophical, trying, unsuccessfully, to be brave, my heart went out to him. He cut a pitiable figure. And I thought I should send him a condolence message on our Independence Day. For, I could imagine what was going through his mind as he granted that undignifying interview.

Regrets. Anger. Shame. Fear of a once beautiful political future shattered, just like that. Then questions, to nobody in particular – ”If I had known? Why did I? How am I going to face Godwin Obaseki? Or  Philip Shaibu, my younger Comrade, who, always, publicly,  call me father? Or even Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the man, who I, in 2016, used my mouth to finish as a man? Why did I kneel down before those Chiefs to beg for forgiveness? Why, why, and more whys?”

Ize-Iyamu would be justified to sue Oshiomhole for everything he has. He should think along that line of action.

I now don’t remember if I had said this here before, but I have always had a soft spot for Oshiomhole.

I like his grass to grace story. From being a tailor, where his talent helped earn him the Best Tailor Award, to his exploits as a Unionist, where he ended up as a two-time President of the NLC, to his foray into politics, where he surprised, even, himself by becoming a two-term Governor of Edo State, to landing on the National scene, to occupy the powerful seat of the National Chairman of the ruling party at the centre, it was like a fairy tale for him – much like a Cinderella-kind of story, the one many of us yearned for while growing up.

The former lowly Tailor began to dine and wine with the high and mighty. He was making front page news. He was fearless, talkative, and abused, at will,  former Presidents, even those who had helped him on his tortuous road to success in life. He had, many times, called for the probe and prosecution of both former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan.

He had power and influence in abundance.

He could call any APC Governor to order. He could keep them, or sack them. See how he forced power out of the hands of former Governor Rochas Okorocha. It is, mostly, because of the role he played in Imo State that Okorocha’s dashing son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, is not Imo Governor today.

Oshiomhole was complicit in the denial, of a second term in office, for former Governor Akinwumi Ambode of Lagos State.

One can also talk about the role he played in the APC crisis and misfortunes in Zamfara, Rivers, and Bayelsa. As the National Chairman of the party, the buck stopped on his table. Power, and influence, and money gushed from every pore in him.

And, Oshiomhole made good for himself.

He was able to build a mansion, some say a Palace, for himself, in his village.  He probably has same in both Abuja and Lagos, and perhaps in Kaduna, where he began life.

For him, life couldn’t be sweeter than it was. He had it all. Power. Influence. Money. Well read children. A young,  beautiful Oyinbo wife at home, or wherever.

And, as an icing on the cake, Oshiomhole was able to install his successor in office as Governor.

So, how did Oshiomhole fall from these Olympian heights to the bare floor? How did he lose all the influence and power? How did he reduce himself to the lowly level where he had to, publicly, kneel down before his people in Edo State, to beg for forgiveness?  How did he reduce himself to a caricature of his old self? How did he allow himself to be so humiliated?

I saw it coming.

In an earlier write-up, I had asked Oshiomhole to lie low. That was when he was sacked as the Party’s National Chairman, same period he stopped Governor Godwin Obaseki from taking part in the Edo Governorship Primary, and forced him out of the party.

I asked him to lie low because I was embarrassed for him that his name was among the APC National Governorship Campaign Committee for Edo. I had suggested to him to nicely, and politely, reject his membership of that Committee, so as to keep whatever self-esteem he had remaining.

Here are why.

Oshiomhole’s party had just given him a red card by sacking him as its National boss. He should have known that his name was added to that Campaign Committee list for the fun of it. It was added, as my mother of the blessed memory would have said, to fulfill all righteousness.

I felt somebody was out to ridicule Oshiomhole more than he had already been ridiculed. How could anybody have genuinely wanted him to campaign for Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, a man, whose character, he had, in 2016, completely destroyed.

While campaigning for Obaseki, Oshiomhole had, publicly, called Ize-Iyamu a thief, a character in whose hands one couldn’t trust a kobo, a cultist who threw acid at a fellow student while at the University of Benin, a fake Pastor,  a fake lawyer, since, according to Oshiimhole, he did not go to Law school.

So, I advised Oshiomhole to keep off. That he would be bad news for the campaign, especially, after the terrible things he had said about Ize-Iyamu, and his disgrace out of the National office. I couldn’t imagine him standing by Ize-Iyamu’s side campaigning for him. Surely he would be uncomfortable.

But Oshiomhole thought otherwise. He saw himself as a superstar. Some people are like that. They are what we called, in our secondary school days, ”notice-me-or-I-die.”  Indeed, power corrupts

When he got to Benin, he hijacked the campaign. He became the face of the campaign. He overshadowed the candidate. It was like he was the one on the ballot. He overshadowed everybody. As I write, I hardly remember the name of Ize-Iyamu’s running mate. It was Oshiomhole all the way.

Truth is, like many others, I gave Oshiomhole more intelligence than he exhibited. Oshiomhole should have known that he was fighting a lost battle in Edo. There were pointers to that. They were glaring.

President Muhammadu Buhari, a man of few words, was, from my reading, tired of Oshiomhole. Under him, the APC lost States and clout. Nobody, with conscience, would be happy over the treatment given to Obaseki. How could anybody stop a sitting Governor from taking part in the Governorship Primary?

The President, surely, took note. He waited to hit when it would hurt most.  That was why, without a blink of the eye, he sacked Oshiomhole as the APC National Chairman. And more.

Buhari knew a good number of APC Governors and stakeholders were not interested in Ize-Iyamu’s campaign. But he never called them to order.

Unlike the PDP, the APC did not have a final mega rally. The President looked the other way.

When Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, out of nowhere,  put out a brazen, unnecessary, advisory on the Edo Election, introducing himself as the Leader of all Democrats in Nigeria, in addition to his order “office”, the Leader of the APC, the President had had enough. He needed to do something.

And he did.

He decided, even if it was with a push from the International Community, to ask INEC and Security Agencies to play strictly by the rules.No mago-mago. They obeyed. Oshiomhole’s candidate lost.

To rob it in, President Buhari was the first to congratulate Obaseki on his victory. This other day, when he stamped his role in Edo with a Presidential seal, he was happy to flaunt his impartial, fatherly role. He told the story of his instruction to Security Agencies to keep off when he received a grateful Obaseki and his entourage in audience.

It was one of Buhari’s day in the sun as a President.

By his shocking greed for power; his desperation to be  Edo’s political godfather; his obscene foul-mouthedness, Oshiomhole, all by himself, committed a political suicide. He dug his own grave. And buried himself. He, on his own, downed an otherwise fairy tale political ascent. He also went down with his candidate.

After destroying Ize-Iyamu’s character in 2016, he may have dragged the man, along with him, to a premature political grave. Ize-Iyamu shares in his failure.

Here is why?

He did not show self-esteem. Otherwise, he should have asked Oshiomhole out of his campaign train. He did not need him. How could he, after 2016? He swallowed the insult heaped on him by his fellow man because he was desperate to be Governor. How could he? Where was his beautiful wife, a Professor of Medicine?

On October 1, 2020, Nigeria’s 60th anniversary, Oshiomhole would, otherwise, have made the front row, same row with the President.

See what he cost himself. See what he lost. Both at the State and National level, he takes a back seat. His chapter is no longer attractive to read. The fairy tale has ended.

But back to where I started. When I watched Oshiomhole addressing Journalists in that restless manner, not making much sense, as he spoke on his loss of Edo, from his private gym, instead of his former posh office, or his equally posh private office, or Edo APC office, I knew it was time to send him my condolences on the death of his Political influence.

My deep condolences dear Comrade. I wish you would be in a frame of mind to, now, rest. You have been too restless for a long time.

*Obi is the Editor-in-Chief/CEO of The Source (Magazine), https://thesourceng.com.  Email: [email protected], [email protected]