Oshiomhole and the price of arrogance

In the long list of “political casualties” of the thunderbolt of the just concluded Edo State Governorship election, former Governor of the State and immediate past National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole deserves a special mention. Having made the contest much about himself than Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu whom he backed this time, it was going to be so, and perhaps, understandably.

A victory for Ize-Iyamu would have helped to salvage something for his fastly diminishing political relevance both at home and in the national scene, all of which hung on the thread at the ballot. Alas, it was not to be, and perhaps no word captures the situation of the diminutive former labour leader all things considered, than humiliation!

The story of Oshiomhole’s unravelling and eventual fall from grace is the vintage story of unmitigated arrogance and superciliousness which is known to be the death knell of too many a great men. But if there was one man whom such shouldn’t be spoken of, it was Oshiomhole.

On many levels his ascent to the upper crust of the Nigerian political class was the product of sheer providence. Having had a great outing in labour activism as the president of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) at a time when Nigeria’s labour relations was much worse than they are today, the national popularity and appeal he gained on the back of that, was to come in handy in 2007 when he sought to lead the people of his State. Whereas that did not immediately happen at the ballot, his mandate would be restored in 2008 by a judgement of the Court of Appeal that declared him the winner of the election as against Professor Osarheimen Osunbor who had been returned by the electoral commission — another testament of the hands of unseen spirits on his way to the top. But Oshiomhole would be everything but humble, in return, as admonished in the famous Igbo proverb but rather.  Granted he had a fairly successful 8-year stint as two time governor of the State, those years would also help to unearth the personality flaw of the man and set the stage for his eventual defenestration as we are witnessing today.

In a telling irony of the human situation, despite having publicly declared the end of godfatherism in the State on the 28th September, 2016 with the defeat of Ize-Iyamu by his then imposed candidate, Godwin Obaseki, Oshiomhole would make a volt face on that declaration and try to become a godfather himself as he tried to define how his successor governed the state. “I have made a promise to myself that the day I leave office, I’ll never interfere or distract whoever governs afterwards” he had declared with magisterial authority. But those words as it turned out were as good as shit. It is the hard-talking Obaseki’s refusal to be stage-managed, and rightly so, that would set in motion a rollercoaster of events that morphed into a fight to the finish for which there are no prizes for guessing the victor between the two.

With the benefit of hindsight, the political feud between Oshiomhole and Obaseki was as ridiculous as it was needless and lacked any ideological rigour enough to interest objective watchers. On the contrary it was the offshoot of one man’s obsession for power simply for the sake of it.

By resorting to the joker of deploying his influence as National Chairman to deny Obaseki the ticket of the APC with the lame certificate yarn, Oshiomole yet again proved how petty he can be and how low he had sank in the pit of conceit. How does a man who openly supported a candidate four years ago turn around to tell the world he lacks the academic qualifications to vie for the same office four years afterwards? And if that is not ridiculous enough, how does the same man stand before the same crowd to sell a candidate he had openly de-marketed four years earlier, like a dog going back to its feaces? Nothing explains it more than the hubris complex often associated with characters like Oshiomhole. But like the proverbial man in the hole, he continued, not knowing when to stop digging despite all entreaties to the contrary and appeal for reason. It was clear that nemesis was calling and he was not going to stop dancing naked in the political market square like a man marked for elimination by the gods.

His reign as governor was not short of the same personality crisis. He had infamously told a poor woman whose only sin was fending for her daily bread, to “go and die” as if in mockery of her widowhood.  And as chairman of the APC, probably the worst in the short history of the political party, his trademark abrasive and highhanded leadership style was not in short supply. He had barely become the chairman of the party before calls for his resignation dominated the polity. The ugly legacies of that controversy-filled era are today writ large in several States, notably Adamawa, Zamfara, Rivers, Oyo and until the intervention of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, albeit in controversial circumstances, Imo State. That he would be subsequently suspended at his Etsako ward 10, even as National Chairman is perhaps telling of the misadventure of his short-lived reign.

Irrespective of whether the courts had intervened, it was clear that his time as chairman of the party was up as his continuous superintendence of the party was a disaster the party hierarchy couldn’t put up with any more. Either way, something had to give. Taking the humble pie and calling it quits at a duty he had gone about like a bull in a China shop seemed the best option. It would put an end to any form of relevance and consideration he enjoyed in the larger scheme of things in the party structure. The only thing that could have earned him leverage was an Ize-Iyamu victory. But what a costly fantasy that was, as reality struck the other day leaving the tail wagging the dog!

From all angles, Oshiomhole is the biggest loser from the recent turn out of events in Edo. Not Ize-Iyamu. Even more hurtful is the fact that he is the very architect of his misfortune when properly interrogated. Quite characteristic of him, he had boasted in a TV programme in the build up to the election that he was a “political lion” and vowed to devour Governor Obaseki whom he derogatorily described as a “political lizard”, at the scheduled elections. Whereas lizards stand no chance against lions assuming they ever engage in a duel, we’re learning that the contrary is plausible in politics with the comprehensive defeat of Ize-Iyamu and Oshiomhole by Obaseki at Saturday’s election in Edo. How the future mocks at human foresight, and how steep the price of arrogance!

Sacked as APC chairman, a position he went about like a Tin God with Feet of Clay, dethroned from the Edo political hierarchy, Oshiomole’s political career may not be over just yet, but it has no doubt hit rock bottom and would take the combination of metaphysical forces and a seismic shift in the current political dynamics in the State to find any lease of life in the near future.

The circumstances of his execrable fall from grace teaches one very familiar lesson: pride and arrogance goes before a fall. Yet, there may be some positives to his current state of political orphanhood-attention to his family. Ever since he became a Governor, much of his life has been lived in the public domain with little or no attention given  to his family, back in Iyamho particularly his  “imported” wife, Lara Fontes who is rumoured to have left him.

This occasion affords that opportunity howsoever unplanned. In any event, at 68, it can be said that he has played his part in nation building and no one would dispute that. His intervention in Nigeria’s modern political history would be told for a long time, but it would be punctuated by the shameful and humiliating manner he was made to vacate the public scene without notice.

Raymond Nkannebe is a legal practitioner and public interest commentator. He tweets @raynkah