A Comrade with little or no camaraderie!

These are certainly not the best of times for All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman and former Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole. Although fond of his nickname “Comrade” which he earned from his days as a labor leader, since assuming high office he has shown little camaraderie towards those he deals with. An insight into […]

These are certainly not the best of times for All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman and former Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole. Although fond of his nickname “Comrade” which he earned from his days as a labor leader, since assuming high office he has shown little camaraderie towards those he deals with. An insight into his uncompassionate character is still fresh in the memory. When “Comrade” was Governor of Edo State a poor woman detained for illegal street-trading begged him on her knees for mercy, pleading that she was a widow merely trying to feed her family. With hands on hips “Comrade” quite despicably told her to go and die!

His character defects have now fostered disunity within the ruling APC. In a letter leaked to the press the Party’s National Vice-Chairman Lawal Shuaibu has asked him to resign accusing him of incompetence, high handedness, and immaturity. Shuaibu placed the blame for the recent setbacks in the Party’s fortunes squarely at Comrade’s doorstep pointing out that under his leadership both the number of APC controlled Stares and the number of APC Senators have depleted. Indisputably the fortunes of the APC have waned since Comrade became Party National Chairman. Perhaps also wanting to get his pound of flesh the former APC National Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun who was removed to make way for Comrade, said that Oshiomhole’s lack of capacity and “agbero” style of engagement led to the current crisis which has degraded and de-marketed the Party.

Oyegun believes that Comrade habitually engages his mouth before engaging his mind. Twisting the knife in deeper he went on to contend that Comrade lacks the capacity to manage the different interests and tendencies within a Party as evidence by his shoddy handling of the Party primaries. Petitions from disgruntled APC members alleging that Comrade took bribes from candidates during the Party primaries, lead to his “interview” with the Department of State Services (DSS). The immediate past Minister of Communications Alhaji Adebayo Shittu joined the call for Comrade’s resignation because the Party’s top hierarchy blames him for their defeat in Zamfara, Rivers, Bauchi and Imo States. They say they will do everything possible to ensure his removal. There is no doubt that the APC’s star as well as Comrade’s are dimming.

Oshiomhole was publicly humiliated and firmly put in place during President Buhari’s second inauguration proceedings when in breach of protocol he stood between the Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria and the Service Chiefs. In full glare of the public he was asked to move from that position. The official spin is that he was only “downgraded” not disgraced! It was the “highlight” of the nondescript occasion. Comrade has been advised severally to step aside so as to facilitate improvement in the APC’s fortunes. Paradoxically while the six Chairman of the APC from the South-South Zone support him, many stakeholders of the Party in Edo State are against him.

The Social and print media are rife with tales of irreconcilable differences between Comrade and current Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki. There is an alleged plot to give Obaseki the “Ambode treatment” in which a successful Governor will not be receive the Party nomination for re-election because he refused to play ball. With the nature of unprincipled politics in Edo State Obaseki should not take the threat lightly. As with all things government which are shrouded in secrecy, Obaseki is accused of using friends, cronies and business associates to execute projects in Edo State to the detriment of party leaders. In response Obaseki says he was elected to serve Edo people, not a few greedy individuals. At the end of the day the hoopla is all about sharing the common patrimony. Other Governors such as Ambode, Okorochas, and Akeredolu have also alluded to Comrade requesting for “settlement”. As the polity heats up in Edo State the tone of the language is deteriorating. Comrade’s supporters refer to Obaseki as a “political neophyte” who is now biting the finger that fed him.

Ironically Comrade when he was Governor!  In all truthfulness nobody knew of Obaseki who never lived in Edo State nor voted in any election there, until Comrade brought him from nowhere to become Governor. The far better educated and eloquent Obaseki claims that if you follow a leader and later discover the truth, you should follow the truth and leave the leader! His supporters say that Comrade lacks manners, morals, respect, character, common sense, trust, patience, class, and integrity. There is an adage that it is impossible to see your reflection in boiling water. Late in life Comrade appears yet to have learnt that being rude and arrogant isn’t a virtue. The APC is losing ground and support because people believe that you don’t blame a clown for acting like clown, you just stop going to the circus. It’s difficult to see how a Party which is not united can possibly foster national unity. They can’t give what they don’t have. In a nation where the majority of the populace lives in abject poverty and squalor and government officials insult them while living in splendor it simply evidences a lack of camaraderie.