I prayed for Oshiomhole

Let me begin this piece with a true confession. I am not a fan of Adams Oshiomhole’s combativeness bordering on the dictatorial. But it has served him well, plucking him from labour unionism to the government house, Benin City, as a two-term governor of Edo State. So, he need not worry about what I think […]

Let me begin this piece with a true confession. I am not a fan of Adams Oshiomhole’s combativeness bordering on the dictatorial. But it has served him well, plucking him from labour unionism to the government house, Benin City, as a two-term governor of Edo State. So, he need not worry about what I think of his style of leadership. Still, when the governors of his party went after his scalp after the 2019 general elections, I silently prayed for his survival on the totem pole swaying in the wind. He survived because God heard my prayers, I tell you. No, I am not a prayer warrior.

Oshiomhole was at his combative best last week when the Supreme Court made a sudden change in who is the legal occupant of government house, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, in succession to Seriake Dickson, the two-term governor of the state. INEC conducted the state governorship election on November 16, 2019. APC fielded David Lyon, and PDP, Senator Douye Diri. Two days later, INEC declared Lyon duly elected. This was not just a simple win. It was a loss of one more PDP state to APC. As usual, protests greeted the results of the election. The rest of us just chuckled. We are too used to such protests to be inured to them by now.

Everything was going on just fine. Dickson had cleared his personal effects from the impressive government house he built when he assumed power. He had hoped that his hand-picked successor would inherit it all. Lyon’s victory must have naturally jolted him. Dickson watched as Lyon busied himself rehearsing at the civic centre for his inauguration scheduled for February 14. And then Kismet threw the banana peel in his path. And blamed it on fate.

The deputy governor-elected had run afoul of the law. The Supreme Court to which the PDP took its case, brought the judicial hammer down on Lyon and his deputy-elect. He could not be governor because his deputy-elect had, in the immortal words of the apex court, infected him with a legally incurable virus. The victory batons immediately changed hands. And Oshiomhole’s dander went way up where the colour of disappointment is a deep red. I could understand.

Diri has been sworn in as the state governor. This is called a slap in the face. Oshiomhole does not take a slap in the face or anywhere else on his body, for that matter. I am sure he is having nightmares in broad daylight, wondering how it happened that under his watch, the candidate of the ruling party who had been declared winner of the election nearly four months ago, suddenly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. Life, with its turns and twists.

The chairman combatively made two declarations, in case anyone thought he was not man enough to contest the Supreme Court decision. One, he declared that the party would challenge the Supreme Court ruling, in, you got it, the apex court, itself. Two, he said that nobody would be sworn in on February 14. By whose authority did he make the last declaration? The election of a state governor or the ruling by our courts of law, from the lowest court to the apex court, is not subject to the man’s approval as national chairman of his party. Or so, I thought.

I have two problems with the chairman. One, he too often forgets that despite his powerful office, he is still only a party chairman just like any other party chairman. He is not the president or the vice-president. He is not the CJN. He has no authority to order anyone around. I thought a man in his position should know and appreciate the limits of his power. Sounding important beyond one’s level is not strange to politics but when this is taken more or less as a right there could be problems.

Two, too often I find Oshiomhole’s statements unguarded, provocative and even inciting. When he ruled that no one would be sworn after the Supreme Court denied his party its flawed victory, he did not reckon with the foot soldiers of the party who would then likely take it upon themselves to ensure that the chairman’s order was duly obeyed. The first evidence of this were the protests in Yenagoa by APC supporters. They went on a rampage and visited destruction on on the homes of the leading PDP members in the state. They visited destruction on the private home of Dickson, the Steve Azaiki Private Library, Diri’s house, Radio Bayelsa and of course, part of the PDP secretariat in the state. These destructions were uncalled for. They could not have happened if Oshiomhole as a responsible political leader had been more guarded in his utterances after the Supreme Court ruling.

An APC chieftain told me that their problem with their national chairman is that he believes that his word is final on anything. He told me that this was the primary cause of the current rift between Oshiomhole and his state governor, Obaseki. It is capable of tearing the party in the state asunder. APC lacks internal democracy, the bane of the once-biggest party in Africa, PDP. This appears to have grown worse under Oshiomhole.

I recall that on his assumption of office in 2018, I published a column on this page in which I reminded Oshiomhole to make a difference in the management of our political parties by committing the members of his party to internal democracy because “it is critical to the health of our democracy. Internal democracy in the political parties is all about justice, fairness and a level playing field that respects the right of every party member to aspire to elective offices of their choice. If these are lacking in a political party, the obvious consequence is that it lacks unity and cohesion.”

He did not listen to me. No matter. I promise the chairman one thing. If the APC governors root for his scalp again, I will go down on my knees and pray to God to help him keep a civil tongue, rein in his combativeness and commit to the promotion of internal democracy in his party.   I offer my commiserations to Lyon. I hope he is strong enough to take it. These things happen. Life is nothing but a series of going up and coming down the spiral case.