FIRST, let me state why I love Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. He knows how, when and where to say the right things to win the audience. That is, he says the right thing at the right time and at the right place. He is very good with his tongue.
His is not just a mere display of oratorical prowess because he doesn’t just talk for effects. He talks to achieve a deeper purpose. He talks to create the profile of the defender of the common good. And he has been very successful in that mission.
The totality of his circumstances forms an interesting study in characterisation. He started from the very beginning, in fact, as a tailor in a garment factory according to popular accounts, and moved against the tide to very high places. He was the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Governor of Edo State and now Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, representing Edo North in the Senate.
He had made a brief stop as the National Chairman of the APC.
Clearly, Comrade Oshiomhole has worked very hard to distance his orientation from his inclination. He works so hard to forget where he is coming from to focus entirely on where he is going. This is also what makes his life story interesting and intriguing. It is the typical story of a rise from grass to grace and how the exception can become the rule if there is a corresponding determination. The man was not born great and he didn’t seem destined for greatness. His raw determination to move in an opposite direction and against the circumstances of his birth pushed him into greatness. He is the type that motivational speakers love to use to preach the virtue of determination and positive thinking. To illustrate how attitudes attain altitudes in the journey of life.
I wouldn’t know, which, between Comrade and Distinguished Senator, currently suits him better. It sounds good though to distinguish Adams Oshiomhole, except to note that nothing distinguishes the Godswill Akpabio-led Senate from a gathering of hustlers. The National Assembly is symbolised by the vibrancy of the red and green colours. Oshiomhole is on the red side. In composition and character, both chambers have failed to exhibit colour.
Chromatic experts tell us that where all the colours are absent, the result is blank.
Inversely, where all the colours are fused in confusing contention, the result is dark or black. Where it is blank, a tiny dark spec becomes well defined. Where it is the reverse, an otherwise negligible spark, shines like a thousand stars.
That seems the position of Adams Oshiomhole in the scheme of things. Either as a spark or dark spot on a contrasting background, the man commands good attention in the Dome House. He has a way of rising gallantly to the occasion to create a crest in the flat-flowing business of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Whether or not all of that comes with a corresponding sincerity of purpose is a matter for another day. For now, let us agree that all the memorable sound bites from the red chamber appear to have come from one Senator called Adams Oshiomhole.
His method is unique. He says with gusto what others labour to avoid. Let me start with the latest. Everybody knows in Nigeria that there is illegal mining of mineral resources by unlicensed operators. For in-stance, people in authority know for sure that the unending bloodbath in Zamfara State has more to do with the illegal mining of gold than it has to do with banditry in the state. In fact, the latter is a function of the former. But nobody is saying so. It is just the same way that both government and the people have refused to understand the things that are wrong with Nigeria. Everybody feigns ignorance of the fundamental issues and hopes for things to change by themselves.
Yet, the application of cosmetics does not cure fundamental deformities. Even Bola Ahmed Tinubu who grew from a disciple to an apostle of power devolution has been pretending to be asleep after moving from the corridors to the bedroom of power. He is just cool with savouring the sweetness of presidential absolutism and doesn’t seem to remember anything about true federalism or even its cold de-rivative, called federal character which he once upon a time, preached about.
And so, the inspiration to say it loud and clear openly that illegal mining is not petty stealing that is done by street urchins is not ordinary. It can only come from a man with the courage, arrogance and indiscretion of a Caesar. That is, a man with a huge sanctimonious bend, who acts to cut an impression of piety. A seasoned actor, who sees every platform as a stage, to pull stunts. And it has come from Adams Oshiomhole, who, as if protesting in the streets of Abuja as a comrade, said last week that highly placed individuals, including especially, retired military gener-als, are fuelling the theft of the country’s mineral resources at a scale that threatens the national economy and security. It is good he is quoted verbatim as reporting his statement might detract from its strength. I seek permission to run the long quote.
Hear him: “Those involved in illegal mining use choppers. They procure arms exactly the same way our militants were doing in the South-south…they use choppers to cart away the gold out of this country and make billions of US dollars. And the Federal Government is not doing what
Senator Oshiomhole is from the South-south geo-political zone. He created a contrast to further underscore the fault lines in the Nigerian State. He said, in effect, that what happens in the house of crude oil does not happen in the house of solid minerals. Hear him again: “There is hardly any part of Nigeria where you don’t have solid minerals, even in the South-south. But what I observe is that whereas the Federal Government is ruthless with people who are doing illegal oil bunker-ing, and they deploy JTF (Joint Task Force) to deal with those involved in illegal oil bunkering, when it comes to illegal mining of solid minerals, the Federal Government changes. It is like using different stan-dards, and I am very angry about that.”
“Who won’t be angry? You kill my people in the South for just taking a little of their God-given resources which you have unjustly renamed national wealth and you allow and even protect and pamper people in the North for doing exactly the same thing.” | largely agree with Oshiomhole. Whereas in the Niger Delta, it is called crime, economic sabotage and other fearful names, in the North, it is called good business. He got even more frontal and direct. “They (solid minerals) are being mined by retired generals, and we know them. Yes, we know them, and nobody can pretend he doesn’t know them.”
As Chairman of the APC back then, Oshiomhole claimed to have written to former President Mohammadu Buhari to report the matter. Nothing, not surprisingly, was done. And as it was yesterday, so it is today.
I dread to add the concluding phrase: ‘ever shall it be.’ But Oshiomhole is asking his fellow Senator to do something or be seen as doing something. “We shouldn’t as Senators be lamenting.
As senators, we should fix the problem. We should tell the executive, ‘you must deploy exactly the same force that you deployed against illegal oil bunkering…to deal with criminals who are mining (illegally)’ “
This is real sound bite. The man has said something the people want to hear.
Whether he said it from his heart or from his head is of no consequence this mo-ment. What matters is that he has said something big.
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Experts can take what he has said later to the laboratory for authenticity test.
The last time that a Nigerian spoke in this manner was some 20 years ago in Effurun, Delta State. Former President Olusegun had come to town to do some hard talk on oil theft in the Niger Delta. This was in the heat of the armed agitation in the oil region when everything that was wrong with oil production and by extension, the economy, was put on the heads of Niger Delta Militants.
Talk shows were frequently staged all over the place to discuss how oil could still flow amid the crisis. Warlords such as Government Tompolo, Asari Dokubo, Tom Ateke, General Boyloaf, General Shoot-At-Sigh, General Togo and others were deep in the trenches purportedly fighting to bring a better deal to the Niger Delta from the Nigerian State.
On this particular day, amid plea for peace, Obasanjo had also charged his military commanders who were combat-kitted and seated in the front row of the auditorium to rise up to the challenge of clearing the Niger Delta of oil thieves, parading as freedom fighters.
Late Chief Benjamin Oku-magba, then Otota (Prime Minister) of Okere, Warri Kingdom who later became the Orosuen (king), was among the top dignitaries at that occasion. He assumed the microphone and announced that if the former President was sincere in looking for oil thieves in the Niger Delta, he should search no further. “These ones sitting here are the thieves” he told Obasanjo, pointing sarcastically at the military officers seated in the front row. There was silence because nobody expected it to come that way.
But it had come. All the same, it wasn’t a point for debate. After all, the thief knows how the goat got missing.
But to the recent allegation by Oshiomhole, Gen. Johnson Olawunmi,
former Director-general of National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) has risen gallantly to the defence of his constituency, describing Senator Oshiomhole’s comments as “harsh and reckless.” He is an interested party and therefore his verdict cannot represent justice. “As a retired general, who has faithfully served this country, I find Senator Oshiomhole’s comments not only reckless but a direct affront to my person and the legacy of my service. His insensitive generalisation has exposed retired generals like myself, to unwarranted public scorn and suspicion.”
So sorry Mr. Retired General! That is how Comrade Oshomhole talks some-times. He does not fear people. Just bear with him. By your calling, you have worked to ensure the territorial security or integrity of the country. But it is not only you that have worked for the country.
Many other people have also faithfully served this country. They include my late parents who worked as farmers to ensure the food security of this coun-try. Nobody accused them of illegal mining of solid minerals or crude oil theft before they passed few years ago. This is to say that perception is also reality in some cases. The most you can do, General, is to talk for yourself and not on behalf of all retired General who do not live like they retired from the same civil service where, until recently, the lowest paid worker received N30,000 a month and the highest paid took home about N500,000.
So much for the retired generals! Oshiomlole also had a word for the serving generals who went to the Senate to arrange for how they could get more money and faster too to defend the nation against bandits.
But we cannot treat all the Oshiomhole’s sound bites in one outing. Let’s meet next week.
