Political Issues
What Is It About Oshiomhole? -By Isaac Asabor
My brother, rather than developing high blood pressure, it is expedient you become committed to how you can reach the apogee of our careers as Oshiomhole has done rather than becoming obsessed with how you can bring him down from the heights he has attained.
There is no denying the fact that differences and skirmishes are integral to democratic politics, and that heated disagreement has long been a feature of politics in Nigeria as recently witnessed in Edo State ahead of the Primary elections that were variously conducted by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on June 22, 2020 and June 25, 2020 respectively.
Incivility currently runs rampant in Edo State capital, Benin City, with politicians and rabble rousers on social media platforms alike engaging in name calling and resorting to disrespectful outbursts. Simply put, calls for greater civility abound.
As if the incivility and what is in this context referred to as political odiousness are not enough, the Judgment of the Appeal Court that upheld the suspension of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the APC unarguably exacerbated the political ether in the State, and to a large extent in other parts of the country. With the heated polity, his traducers; both offline and online; no thanks to the social media platforms, took a different, and potentially more destructive trajectory with the type of political rhetoric that has never been witnessed in Edo’s political space.
The criticisms that are being exhibited against the former labour leader, State governor and the national chairman of the ruling party were what any right thinking person will call a political maliciousness. Even as I write this piece, partisan disagreements in the State are increasingly steeped in rhetoric that portrays Oshiomhole as the enemy; an enemy that is evil and a threat to the State and to its people. Vilification against him has become a preferred mode of political rhetoric and its effects are not benign. Annoyingly, barely educated rabble rousers whose palms will become sweaty when given a pen to write their full names are the ones involved in the name calling of the man that rose from grass to grace through providence by virtue of being a national labour leader, a national party leader and a governor.
Most annoying is that those that relish in tarnishing the hard earned reputation of Oshiomhole seemed not to have realized that they have unwittingly found a new profession on the social media platform that is nothing short of rabble rousing. They have failed to realize that when people hear vilifying rhetoric, the immediate effect is heightened emotions and partisan identity, and that the broader effects involve shifts in partisan attitudes. If this writer were to be in Oshiomhole’s shoes, he will take solace in Lord Chesterfield’s quote that says that “People hate those who make them feel their own inferiority”.
Since the plan to conduct the just concluded APC primary began, there is no scintilla of hyperbole to say that he has become the butt of criticisms and lampoons from cartoonists and photos shoppers who relish in depicting him as a tailor on social media platform. If truly he was a tailor can it not be said that he has the grace of God bestowed on him? How many tailors do we know that have risen to the height Oshiomhole has reached in Nigeria’s political ranking?
Is it that difficult for Oshiomhole’s traducers and all rabble rousers that are hell bent on tarnishing his image to acknowledge the fact that he revved the political machinery of Edo state to another dimension on the 12th of November, 2008, when he became the Governor of the state? After the protracted legal battle between him as the then gubernatorial candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in Edo state, and Professor Oserhiemen Osunbor of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over the conduct of the 2007 governorship election in the state, the Appeal Court had on 11th November 2008, declared him as the authentic winner of the April 14, 2007 governorship election in the state and was subsequently sworn in on the 12th November, 2008. To some rabble rousers that delight in denigrating his person, can the foregoing feat be considered to be a piece of cake which an average tailor would literarily throw into his mouth and chew with sumptuous relish?
Why is it that many people, particularly Edolites so much exude bitterness and hatred against him? Is it because he did not play the fatherly role he accorded Governor Godwin Obaseki for the second time as he did in 2016? Or ask from another perspective, is it because he brought Pastor Ize Iyamu he once vilified to the APC? If you were in his shoes, how else would you have campaigned for a candidate you are supporting ahead of an election? Just like Upton Sinclair was credited to have said, “All art is propaganda. It is universally and inescapably propaganda; sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately, propaganda.” Do not forget that in that 2016 campaign Obaseki was promoted just to make him be ahead of his opponent in the then upcoming election.
Again, to some of the rabble rousers that think Oshiomhole performed below expectation as the national chairman of APC, do they think the politician they had in mind would have performed better than him?
At this juncture, it is germane I leave you with Socrates’ quote that are still inspiring and profoundly thought provoking in the contemporary world. The first quote says, “Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.”
The second quote says, “Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.”
If I may ask, what is it about Oshiomhole that some people are about developing high blood pressure for his sake? My brother, rather than developing high blood pressure, it is expedient you become committed to how you can reach the apogee of our careers as Oshiomhole has done rather than becoming obsessed with how you can bring him down from the heights he has attained.
