Adams Oshiomhole: Beyond an evil genius

By OBINNA EZUGWU

A few days ago, a picture of what looked like an errant school boy serving punishment for his misdemeanour flooded social media. But it was neither a school nor a school boy, it was rather 68-year-old former national chairman of the country’s ruling party, the All Progressive Congress (APC) and two term governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole kneeling on both legs to beg traditional rulers in the state to reject his successor, the incumbent governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki who he had practically installed in 2016, and to support Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the person he asked Edo people to reject that same year.

It is the contradiction that has defined the life of the former labour leader turned politician. Oshiomhole epitomizes the Nigerian politics and typifies the Nigerian politician. His is, it appears, politics not of principle or ideology, but of pecuniary interest and personal aggrandisement. Oshiomhole is a man of many parts and many contradictions; a man who has gone from being a campaigner for an end to godfatherism in Nigeria’s politics, particularly in his native state of Edo, to transmuting into a godfather himself, just as he has gone from a celebrated labour leader fighting ostensibly for the masses and against the government, to being practically the same things he fought against.

Once in his life, Oshiomhole was the darling of the masses, an epitome of uprightness and a soldier in the war against government oppression. As the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) in the days of Olusegun Obasanjo presidency, Oshiomhole was a thorn in the flesh of that administration, or so it seemed. The NLC was the only formidable opposition to a government, which despite being civilian saw itself largely as a military regime. And to make matters worse, the country lacked the benefit of a strong opposition party.

Oshiomhole stood in the gap. He called for industrial actions whenever Obasanjo refused to yield. Through his activism Oshiomhole negotiated a 25 percent increase in the country’s minimum wage in 2002. And in return, the NLC backed Obasanjo’s second term bid in 2003.

But once he secured another term in office, Obasanjo moved – compelled by the breakdown of local refineries leading to more reliance on imports – to increase price of petroleum products. Oshiomhole led strikes and demonstrations against the increase, during which he faced arrests, tear gas and temporary blockades of union offices. Obasanjo would later introduce legislations aimed at making NLC strikes more difficult. He didn’t quite succeed. And when Oshiomhole bowed out from as NLC presidency, his reputation as a defender of the weak and a staunch advocate for good governance had soared.

So good was his image that when he decided to run for the office of governor in his home state of Edo in the 2007 general election, it was only a matter of whether the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), would let the people’s will to prevail.

That year, Oshiomhole ran under the Labour party and won – although, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor of the PDP was initially declared the winner; he was able to reclaim his mandate in court in 2008 with the backing of then Action Congress of Nigeria led by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. He would later join the party which subsequently merged with the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), among other parties to form the APC in 2013.

Coming from the background of an advocate for good governance, Oshiomhole’s government was welcomed with great expectation by Edo people. He was to practice what he preached as a labour leader; pay workers a healthy wage, create employment for the unemployed and improve infrastructure in a state reeling from poor governance which it had been subjected to in the immediate past years of his predecessor, Lucky Igbinedion.

But his administration turned out to be a mixed bag. The question about who performed better between him and his predecessor remains a subject of hot debate in Edo. While many praise him for doing roads and other infrastructure, others argue that whatever projects he did better than Igbinedion, he cancelled out with the pile of debts he left for the state, and for his successor, the now estranged godson, Gov. Obaseki, to clean up.

“The only thing he did was that he piled up debts for the state,” said Osazuwa Kelvin, a Benin resident. “The current governor is crying now. I would say Igbinedion focused more on job creation by promoting sports and industries.”

Indeed, Oshiomhole did have penchant for borrowing. And for some, the most outstanding legacy he left, besides the eye-catching mansion he built for himself at his home town, Iyamho, Estako West local government alleged to have cost billions of naira, and perhaps the roads, is the fact that under his watch, Edo became one of the most indebted states in the country with foreign debt profile of $279 million (N106 billion) and domestic debt of N69 billion, second only to Lagos which bears the chunk of it all.

The contradiction in Oshiomhole’s personality is perhaps made most stark by the fact that he is now in many ways, a political godfather himself. He had devoted much of his time as governor fighting the Igbinedion political dynasty in the name of ending godfather politics in the state. But having succeeded in relegating the Igbinedions to a sort of political oblivion, he has stepped in as the new godfather.

In 2016, he made sure that Obaseki won in an election characterised largely by violence. But four years on, he wants the same Obaseki out ostensibly because, according to him, he hasn’t performed and has derailed from his ‘agenda.’ Obaseki’s major crime, however, is that he refused to patronise politicians in the state, particularly APC chieftains and Oshiomhole’s loyalists who deployed resources to ensure he became governor.

“It is not as if Obaseki has not done well, he has done roads, bridges etc, but he has not still done well because he relegated the people he ought to pass through in doing those things. He is even calling them greedy people who he cannot share money with,” a member of the APC who craved anonymity had told BusinessHallmark.

Obaseki had, upon taking office in 2016, adopted “global best practices in governance.” He awarded contracts to real contractors – what is known in Edo APC circles now as “Lagos people” – by-passing party leaders, contrary to what was obtained under Oshiomhole. He also scrapped all the parastatals and agencies Oshiomhole had set up ostensibly to settle the boys.

Under Oshiomhole, contracts for projects where allegedly awarded to these party leaders who took 40 percent from the budgetary provisions for such projects and used the remaining 60 percent to hire professionals to execute them. The former governor also held monthly meetings with leaders of the APC from the various local governments in the state, at the end of which their palms were greased.

On account of this, Oshiomhole was hugely popular within the APC in the state. He was highly regarded and thus was able to convince the various party stakeholders who initially did not buy the idea of having Obaseki as his successor. Obaseki had headed Oshiomhole’s economic team from 2009 and there was nothing in those years to convince them that he was going to be a good party man. He never, it was said, attended party meetings and only concentrated on his job.

But Oshiomhole gave them his words and they committed resources to ensure his emergence. However, as it turned out, they were probably right in their initial concerns. Obaseki, just as they feared, turned out to be a ‘bad’ party man who wouldn’t take care of his benefactors, or better put, who wouldn’t release money.

“He (Obaseki) has succeeded in alienating the party. He has succeeded in marginalising other members of the party under the bogus claim that he doesn’t have the resources to satisfy the private greed of party members,” Mr. Henry Idahagbon, an APC chieftain and former Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice had argued in an interview.

“No party member wants the governor to give them money or dash them money. I ask the question: for the eight years that he was Chairman of the Economic Team under Oshiomhole, was he dashed money?
“Comrade (Oshiomhole) is somebody that if he spends a thousand, he wants to get N2,000 value from every thousand that he spent. But party members are entitled to patronage from government having worked assiduously to enthrone the government. Those who are contractors can be patronised in the area of the contract they specialised in.”

These party leaders, unable to do no more than express their anger, especially given the fact that Osakpamwan Eriyo, then APC youth leader and Chairman of Road Transport Employers Association who had gone to confront Obaseki months after he assumed office, ended up at Oko Prison where he cooled off for a few months, waited for the September election to pay him back.

As part of this Oshiomhole brought back Ize-Iyamu into the APC, and having ensured he emerged candidate of the ruling party – which prompted Obaseki to go to the PDP – is now determined to ensure he emerges next governor. He is getting prepared for what is an election likely to be defined by violence.
For the former labour leader turned politician, life has thus come full cycle. He has gone from standing for the masses to fighting for the interest of himself and the elite. He has gone from fighting godfathers to becoming a godfather himself. But even his credentials as a pro masses labour leader is now subject to some controversy as some of his contemporaries in his days of activism have maintained he has always had double persona.

“As the number one Labour leader (NLC chairman), Adams would huff and puff, mobilizing us, the Labour and civil society for one strike and protest or the other. With his oratory, he would make the necessary noise for sound bites. We would go out to mobilize to shut down the country. We didn’t know he was playing to the gallery and this is where aunty Remi comes in,” narrated Mr. Richard Akinnola, pro democracy activist and journalist noted few days ago.

Akinnola alleged that during the Obasanjo presidency when Oshiomhole was NLC President, he would blow hot in the media, but secretly visit Obasanjo in the villa to reach compromises as confirmed by Obasanjo’s then spokesperson, Oluremi Oyo.

“Aunty Remi would tell some of us -‘nothing would happen tomorrow. Adams just left the Villa. Eyin kon se aluta lo, a ti pari ise pelu oga yin. (you people are just doing Aluta. We have sorted out everything with your leader),” Akinnola wrote.
“Just as aunty Remi said, the next thing we would hear next morning was that the strike and protest had been suspended. Aunty Remi knew what usually transpired at the Villa’s nocturnal meetings. Reason she had no respect for Adams till she passed on.”

Akinnola went on, “So, since Adams is in the mood of apologia as he did yesterday in Benin, kneeling, purportedly apologising to Benin Chiefs for bringing Obaseki as governor instead of Ize-Iyamu, when is he going to apologize to us for goading us for strike and protests, only to compromise the action at the dying minutes?
“When is he going to apologise to the widows of Chima Ubani and Tunji Oyeleru, who both died along Maiduguri-Potiskum road in Adam’s official land cruiser SUV number “NLC 1”?

“Chima was the Executive Director of Civil Liberties Organization, CLO, while Tunji was the photo Editor of Vanguard. They had accompanied Adams in a mobilisation tour of the Northern parts of the country in September 2005. When they were through in Maiduguri, they had boarded a Chachangi plane en-route Lagos. Adams entered last but he had no seat. Chima offered his seat and chose to go by road with Tunji. They died in an accident on September 23, 2005.

“Chima died Adams death and despite this, Adams abandoned the widows of Chima and Tunji. He did not even have the decency to attend their burials. When is he going to apologise to their widows, not just to Benin Chiefs for cheap political capital?” he wondered.

A former TUC treasure, Hajia Halima Mohammed, also recounted how Adams was collecting N300 million for several years from Obasanjo for every May Day celebration for the Labour unions without informing the TUC before it finally blew open. “You can’t believe our shock when this was revealed; he had no apologies but said that it was a breakdown in communication between the government and his leadership. He is a shameless and very corrupt person”, she said with disgust.

Regardless, there cannot be any denying the fact that Oshiomhole has done well for himself. From losing his job in Arewa Textiles Company which he joined after secondary school, to taking up street to street sewing of torn clothes, he has walked his way to the very top by sheer determination.

He went from street sewer to labour unionism during the Shehu Shagari presidency. And was in 1982, appointed General Secretary of the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, from where he became NLC president and eventually venturing into politics.