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Tag: Oshiomhole

  • Blame Buhari for current economic crisis – Oshiomhole

    Blame Buhari for current economic crisis – Oshiomhole

    The biting economic hardship facing Nigerians is due to the ”reckless policies” of former President Muhammadu Buhari, Senator Adams Oshiomhole (Edo North) has argued. 

    He recalled he opposed several of the policies, claiming they were intended to dehumanise the already suffering populace.

    He spoke on Channels Television Politics Today at the weekend.

    The former All Progressives National National Chairman said: “My first loyalty is to Nigeria. At some point, before the last President left office, I lamented loudly what I saw as reckless policies that were designed to dehumanise the population that was already in pain.

    “I felt that it was not what the then-president promised. I dissociated myself from those policies and I’m happy that I was not the only one.

    “There were Governors who approached the court to denounce some of those policies. It is the long-term consequences of those policies that we are still grappling with now.”

    Read Also: APC NWC to meet with Oshiomole, Iyamu, others today

    The former Edo Governor stated President Bola Tinubu shouldn’t be held accountable for the actions taken by the outgoing administration.

    “Yes, it is our party platform. Like Tinubu also said, he was not a minister or adviser. He never took a contract in that government and he cannot be held responsible for what the government did right or wrong,” he said.

  • Edo APC: Oshiomhole not imposing preferred governorship aspirant

    Edo APC: Oshiomhole not imposing preferred governorship aspirant

    The Assistant Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Victor Osehobo, has said former National Chairman of the party, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, is not endorsing or imposing a preferred governorship aspirant, ahead of the February 17 primary election.

    Osehobo spoke yesterday in Benin. He described Oshiomhole as a lover of democracy and due process.

    He said: “The many paid articles in mushroom publications about Edo APC reveals a laughable lack of understanding of the transparent process through which a candidate emerges. Allegations of Sen. Oshiomhole endorsing and imposing a preferred governorship aspirant are baseless, considering the direct primary process yet to take place.

    “The absurdity of claiming secret meetings with former Commissioners Kassim Afegbua and Mika Amanokha, orchestrated by Oshiomhole, is beyond belief. Where and when did this alleged gathering occur? The accessibility of Afegbua and Amanokha raises questions about why they were not directly approached for clarification.”

    “The faceless Edo North Local Government chairman peddling the rumours only adds to the ludicrous nature of the supposed tension. What type of local government chairman is being referred to? The lack of specific undermines the credibility of the claim.

    Read Also: Edo Guber: Oshiomhole has no anointed candidate – Ikhine

    “Accusing Sen. Oshiomhole of urging the spread of endorsements from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Vice- President Kashim Shettima and National Chairman of APC, Abdullahi Ganduje, is a desperate attempt to create chaos. With the primary screening starting today (yesterday), the timing of these allegations raises suspicion.

    “The defiance of other aspirants like Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Charles Airhiavbere, Lucky Imasuen, Blessing Agbonmere and Col. David Imuse (rtd.) against any imposition, underscores the unity within the party, against unfounded rumours.”

    Osehobo said attempting to paint the party as a divided house, heading for the September 21 governorship election, was a feeble tactic.

    He said: “APC has consistently communicated the transparent process for selecting a candidate, but it seems these facts elude those intent on sowing seed of discord.

    “The entire narrative lacks substance and credibility. Accusations of endorsement and imposition are nothing more than a poorly-constructed fiction that fails to withstand even the slightest scrutiny.”

    Osehobo said it was time for the few persons, who were spreading baseless rumours, to focus on facts and engage in constructive discourse, rather than resorting to sensationalism.

  • Edo Guber: Oshiomhole has no anointed candidate – Ikhine

    Edo Guber: Oshiomhole has no anointed candidate – Ikhine

    An All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant in Edo State Engr. Gideon Ikhine has ruled out insinuations that Comrade Adams Oshiomole has an anointed candidate, insisting that there is no favoured candidate for the party’s February 17 shadow election in the state.

    Ikhine distanced the former governor from anointing any of the 12 aspirants jostling for the party’s ticket shortly after submitting his expression of interest and nomination forms at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja on Friday.

    The governorship hopeful warned those peddling such rumours of Oshiomole anointing an aspirant to desist from doing so.

    Admitting a cordial political and working relationship with the former labour leader, Ikhine maintained that he remains the most acceptable and competent aspirant of the party.

    “Any child that abuses his father, don’t you know he will not go too far in life? He is our father in the state. I can never have any frosty relationship with him,” he said.

    “There is what we call a will. Even God will not temper with your will. I am not sure you are quoting him correctly. He has never on any occasion come out to say I have an anointed candidate. Please don’t misrepresent my leader.”

    Concerned by the huge debt profile of the state, Ikhine promised to utilise the potential of the state to turn around its fortunes.

    According to him, “Talking about Edo State, are we where we are supposed to be? Are we challenged by the situation in the country? The answer is yes. It is good to have ambition. It is good to have a dream. It is good to have personal drive but above all, what is more important is the interest of the people.

    Read Also: Oshiomhole has no anointed candidate for Edo Gov poll – Ikhine

    “What drives me in Edo State is the vision of transforming Edo State into a destination of first choice for any person coming to Africa. Somebody might say this is quite laudable. But I want to tell you about his achievements and it is achievable. Edo State today is situated geographically in one of the best zones in Africa.

    “Edo State is like a hub. You cannot go to the East, West and North without passing through Edo State. If you have such a state and you pass by and you look at the present situation you can start from the human capital. The average citizen in Edo State today is barely existing.

    “They are not living. We must give these people hope. We must give them a life. When we christen our campaign the beacon of hope, there is a reason we christened it the beacon of hope. We need to reestablish the beckon that made it what it was.

    “Today, are we where we are supposed to be, no. What is the value we have as a state? The value we have today as a name is the Benin Kingdom. How have we been able to take advantage of the name? To transform it into socioeconomic value for the people? We have not done that. These are some of the things we want to do. Focusing on tourism and rebuilding our infrastructure.”

  • Oshiomhole has no anointed candidate for Edo Gov poll – Ikhine

    Oshiomhole has no anointed candidate for Edo Gov poll – Ikhine

    An All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant in Edo State Engr. Gideon Ikhine has dismissed the insinuation that Comrade Adams Oshiomole has an anointed candidate. 

    He insisted that there is no favoured candidate for the party’s February 17 shadow election in the State.

    Ikhine distanced the former Governor from anointing any of the 12 aspirants jostling for the party’s ticket shortly after submitting his expression of interest and nomination forms at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja on Friday.

    The governorship hopeful warned those peddling such rumours of Oshiomole anointing an aspirant to desist.

    Admitting a cordial political and working relationship with the former labour leader, Ikhine maintained that he remains the most acceptable and competent aspirant of the party.

    Read Also: Oshiomhole and battle for strong political parties

    “Any child that abuses his father don’t you know he will not go too far in life?  He is our father in the State. I can never have any frosty relationship with him,” he said.

    “There is what we call a will. Even God will not tamper with your will. I am. not sure you are quoting him rightly. He has never on any occasion come out to say I have an anointed candidate. Please don’t misrepresent my leader.” 

    Concerned by the huge debt profile of the State, Ikhine promised to utilise the potential of the State to turn around its fortunes.

    According to him: “Edo State is like a hub. You cannot go to the East, West and North without passing through Edo State. If you have such a state and you pass by and you look at the present situation you can start from the human capital. The average citizen in Edo State today is barely existing. 

    “They are not living. We must give this people a hope. We must give them a life. When we christen our campaign the beckon of hope, there is a reason we christened it the beckon of hope. We need to reestablish the beckon that made it what it was.

    “Today, are we where we are supposed to be, no. What is the value we have as a state? The value we have today as a name is the Benin Kingdom. How have we been able to take advantage of the name? To transform it into socio-economic value for the people? We have not done that. These are some of the things we want to do. Focusing on tourism and rebuilding our infrastructure.”

  • Oshiomhole and battle for strong political parties

    Oshiomhole and battle for strong political parties

    Adams Oshiomhole during last week’s launching of a book “APC and Transition Politics”, authored by Salihu Lukman, spoke of how he was illegally removed from office by APC Governors’ Forum led by Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, aided by Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State and Rochas Okorocha of Imo State among others who were aggrieved over his valiant efforts to enforce party supremacy as obtains in most parliamentary democracies.

    Amosun, who deserted ANPP when the party lost and has been behaving like a woman with five husbands since finding himself in ACN and APC, in an effort to obfuscate the serious issue of party supremacy had claimed Oshiomhole was the architect of his own misfortune for conducting what he termed “one of the worst party primaries in the history of Nigeria’s contemporary politics.”

    But I think he can save his breath as Nigerians who saw his attempt to impose his successor, the speaker and all the members of Ogun State House of Assembly and how he betrayed the party when his efforts failed can see beyond his subterfuge.  Amosun who along some southwest governors were promised consensus candidature once Tinubu was disqualified, was believed to have worked with the likes of Okorocha who was also prevented from imposing his in-law as successor, to illegally remove Oshiomhole who they thought was sympathetic to Tinubu out of office. To change that narrative, he needs more than the mischievous attempt to set Oshiomhole against former President Buhari who by his treatment of Oshiomhole confirmed the fears of some Nigerians that Buhari  who saw political party only as a vehicle to acquire power, loves only Buhari.

    Sadly, what has come to define the party system of the fourth republic is governors’ illusion that they own the political parties by virtue of their spending their state monies to fund them.  That was why in 2013, seven aggrieved PDP governors during what was described as PDP family quarrel, often over sharing of resources wrecked their party.  It was for the same reason Nyesom Wike, who has continued to hold his party to ransom, in 2023 joined his other four PDP colleagues to exploit leadership deficit in PDP to prolong the party’s agony. And that was why APC governors despite the claim by Oshiomhole that not a dime was taken from them towards running the party thought they could illegally oust their chairman from office. What saved APC was Tinubu’s political brinksmanship that earned him the trust of northern governors despite betrayal by some of his southwest governors.

    But political parties are never owned by sitting governors but by a democratic oligarchy often made up of founders, former office holders, current office holders and aspiring office seekers and others with interest which could be economic, cultural or sectional.

    That the West had over two century’s head start because of institutionalization of political parties as modernization agents does not mean that in terms of philosophy and political ideas, Africans are inferior. For instance, the thoughts of Socrates, the greatest influence on Plato’s philosophical development according to late Professor Sophie Oluwole, was in no way superior to that of Orunmila, the father of Ifa divination, both of whom never wrote anything; the political realism of Machiavelli, the so-called apostle of naked force who believes ‘the end justifies the means’, finds parallel in Yoruba “afoba je l’oba npa”( the first victims of a new king is the king maker); liberalism, described as the West dominant ideology,  finds parallel in Yoruba tales of the tortoise to celebrate principle of gradualism in the development process, and democracy and legitimacy as consent of the people and rule of law finds parallel in the check and balance’ provided by the Ogboni cult in the Yoruba traditional administrative system.

    And of course, once we decided to acculturate the best of imported cultures, we are hardly left behind. It was only in 1923 that Nigeria embraced political parties as modernizing agents but by independence in 1960, Nigeria, because of the giant strides of Action Group, NPC and NCNC, Nigeria was being compared with Canada and Japan. The Western Region through the exploits of Action Group had the first television in Africa (WNTV) ahead of some European nations.

    Again we must know where the rain started to beat us.

    The military after destroying our party system, out of self- delusion offered to teach Nigeria what the nation had perfected 70 years earlier. Ibrahim Babangida came with his decreed two-parties, the NRC and SDP, headed by Tom Ikimi and Tony Anenih respectively. This was followed by Abacha’s five parties viz: the UNCP, CNC, NCPN, DPN and GDM which late Bola Ige described as ‘five fingers of a leprous hand’. The PDP, dominated by retired Generals and their contractors, described by John Campbell, a former US envoy to Nigeria as “an elite cartel at the centre of power in Nigeria, a political party that came together with no ideological or programmatic basis, but simply as essentially a club of elites for sharing of oil rents and political spoils’, was midwifed by Abdulsalami Abubakar in 1998.

    The party between 1999 and 2015 went on to validate Campbell’s thesis with its leaders and their siblings stealing N1.7 trillion through the fuel subsidy scam, selling to themselves Nigeria’s total investment of about $100b for a paltry $1.5b through privatization policy and in the name of monetization policy sold to themselves inherited properties dating back to colonial period, kept in their custody for our children.

    Read Also: Nigeria is in good hands, Tinubu assures citizens

    It was against this backdrop that with the inauguration of APC, this column on these pages on January 31, 2023 said “What Nigerians want from Buhari and Tinubu is inauguration of a modernizing party in line with what obtained in the first republic and elsewhere in the developed democracies. The challenge before the two and their colleagues is to replace the current political parties moulded in the military image, with garrison commanders as party leaders…. What these times call for are men with eyes on history; men who would emulate the federalists Hamilton and Adams, the Republicans Jefferson and Madison of USA of the 1790s, the British enlightened elite of 1832, their French counterparts after French revolution of 1789 and the Japanese  and their Meiji Restoration of 1867.”

    Unfortunately, Buhari did not see a political party beyond instrument for acquiring power. Egged on by those who claimed he won the election on his own merit without the party, he ignored APC until the eve of 2019 election when Tinubu and Oshiomhole came out to salvage the situation. No sooner had he won the election than he sold Oshiomhole to APC governors opposed to his battle for party supremacy.

    The difference between Buhari’s APC and PDP was that of six and half a dozen. Both have been adjudged corrupt, unable to dream dreams and total embarrassment even in the routine art of governance.

    Bishop Kukah in his Christmas Homilies few days ago said Tinubu has no excuse for failure.  He has had opportunity to study the Action Group and Unity Party of Nigeria of the first and second republic respectively. He was a part of AD before forming ACN with Afenifere Renewal Group as new investors and was the moving force behind the formation of APC.

    Tinubu also understands that there can be no social change without an elite consensus and there can be no elite consensus without strong political parties. If he therefore wants to succeed and be remembered by history, he knows the supremacy of the party must be enshrined not only in APC but also in PDP and other opposition parties.

  • Oshiomhole’s reminiscences whet appetite

    Oshiomhole’s reminiscences whet appetite

    Senator Adams Oshiomhole (Edo North, APC) a former party chairman and governor, has always been bold and candid. Forged between the hammer of trade unionism and the anvil of politics, he has grown from a nondescript and unexposed trade unionist to an almost permanent and salutary fixture in Nigerian public life. Speaking at a book launch in Abuja last Tuesday, the Edo senator erupted in the perplexed faces of his audience with candid expositions on the roles some of those present at the occasion played in his dethronement as party chairman in 2020. Former national vice chairman (Northwest) of the party, Salihu Lukman, author of the book titled “APC and Transition Politics”, was himself not spared from the boiling oil ladled out by the senator who is famous countrywide for thinking on his feet.  

    Sen Oshiomhole should be working on his political memoir. If so, his eruptions last Tuesday should whet public appetite about impending and more incendiary disclosures relating to overrated Nigerian politicians and their foibles. On Tuesday, the principal targets were former governors Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti and Sen Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun, both Yoruba politicians who benefited from President Bola Tinubu’s help in their political careers but did their worst to undermine his presidential bid many years later. The Edo senator was unsparing. Speaking for over 50 minutes, according to some estimates, the senator spoke about how the two Southwest politicians conspired with other persons and forces, including the author of the book himself, the mercurial Mr Lukman, to displace the Edo senator from party leadership. According to him, they had suggested, without evidence, that as party chairman between 2018 and 2020, he was preoccupied with facilitating the emergence of former governor Tinubu as APC presidential candidate in 2022. They were probably right that he was more loyal to Asiwaju Tinubu than they were, a very unflattering revelation that has finally come to light; but the Edo senator argued that his preoccupation then was the restoration of party supremacy since the presidential primary was still years away.

    Dr Fayemi has not responded to Sen Oshiomhole’s diatribe, and it is doubtful whether any response from him would not open a can of worms. But Sen Amosun has refused to let bad enough alone. The Ogun senator’s response was cheeky, fiery but empty. He abused Sen Oshiomhole, describing him as poorly educated and dangerous to party politics in Nigeria for organising the worst primaries ever. Yet, he said absolutely nothing about how, despite being Yoruba, he allegedly turned coat and joined forces against Asiwaju Tinubu. More than that, said the Edo senator, the former Lagos governor facilitated Sen Amosun’s return to the dominant party in the Southwest. Indeed, at the book launch, it turned out that Sen Oshiomhole said only little about how both Dr Fayemi and Sen Amosun orchestrated his removal as chairman, and virtually nothing about how they ensured that the APC candidate Osagie Ize-Iyamu lost the 2020 governorship election to Governor Godwin Obaseki. Neither Dr Fayemi nor Sen Amosun appears prepared to talk about how they influenced the election in Edo State, especially since Sen Oshiomhole himself did not delve into that topic. Nor will they talk about how they dominated and tyrannise the ruling party in their states, with the former Ogun governor riding roughshod over the 2019 party primaries and daring aggrieved aspirants to head to Abuja to lodge complaints. It was an inglorious era exemplified by so-called progressive governors who betrayed the party and scandalised its rules and regulations, an era the Edo senator tried valiantly to reform.

    Read Also; 3,413 inmates currently on death row, says NCoS boss

    Indeed, the value of Sen Oshiomhole’s reminiscences is not so much about who played what ignoble role in the 2019 general election and onwards, but about his own candour and the unspoken conclusion that Dr Fayemi and Sen Amosun typified the short-sightedness and haughtiness bedeviling Nigerian politics. His phrasing of the role played by some political personalities in that period remains fascinating and revelatory. Here is one example: “Lukman was there when I wrote a letter inviting the governors for a meeting to discuss the guidelines for conducting primaries; this was to help me know the thinking of the various interest groups. I had discussed it with the president; and I needed to discuss it with the governors so that once the guidelines were out, the party could claim ownership of it because it had been debated. I wrote to the governors for a meeting. The governors said no, I should come to Imo House, not the APC office. He (Lukman, author of the book) was in there where they were holding the meeting. He did not see anything wrong with that. It felt as though I was in a military barrack.” The senator noted that the governors were combative and rebellious, thus prompting him to also lose his cool. In his words, he had shot back: “None of you can lecture me about the power of a governor, because I have been governor twice. Eight years uninterrupted. At a point, I told Fayemi, ‘You did a resit. You were elected, and by the second term, you lost. That means you failed.’ I did not do a resit, and you are lecturing me about power…”

    In contrast to the misjudgement of the two Yoruba politicians and their fading influence, Sen Oshiomhole has improved his moral and intellectual substance and kept his verve and relevance. It is not clear whether he deliberately plotted that relevance beforehand, or whether providence lent him a helping hand. What is undisputed is that since his trade union days, and notwithstanding his modest and unassuming background, Sen Oshiomhole has become an exemplification of grass to grace story, a politician whom heaven enthusiastically paved his road to fame and relevance. That road was undoubtedly full of thorns; but it was also festooned on both sides with white and red roses. No one can explain why Sen Amosun could not resist making jest of Sen Oshiomhole’s modest beginnings, but by his perspicacity, humility, sound judgement, and generally equanimous disposition to intrigues and wicked schemings, the Edo senator has demonstrated far more enduring strength of character, moral superiority and purer appreciation of politics in the most quintessential sense than the former Ogun governor and the other traducers.  

  • Amosun, Oshiomhole exchange salvos over APC tussle

    Amosun, Oshiomhole exchange salvos over APC tussle

    Former National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator Adams Oshiomhole and ex-Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun yesterday exchanged salvos over the circumstances that led to Oshiomhole’s removal from the top party office in 2020. 

    Amosun, a two-term governor of the Gateway State, said the two-term Edo State governor was the architect of his own misfortune.

    He said Oshiomhole was fond making reckless allegations against people. 

    Amosun was reacting to Oshiomhole’s comments at the presentation of a book on Tuesday in Abuja that APC governors, including him, plotted his removal as party chairman. 

    The book  was written by former APC National Vice Chairman (Northwest) Salihu Lukman.

    The book presentation was well attended by top party leaders, including National Chairman Abdullahi Ganduje, former governors, ex-party leaders and former public officials.

    Oshimhole explained that the governors constituted themselves as Generals, who the party should defer to, during the moment of critical decision making. 

    He accused Amosun of disloyalty, saying that he abandoned his leader, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, in the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and defected to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

    Oshiomhole also accused the former Ogun governor of saying that he would have left the APC if Buhari had not deterred him.

    Read Also: Be hopeful of better tomorrow, Abiodun urges Nigerians

    Following the protracted conflicts between Oshiomhole and the governors, three of them-Amosu, Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo) and Rochas Okorocha (Imo) were suspended from the ruling party. 

    Later, the heat was turned on Oshiomhole,  who was unceremoniously during the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party in June, 2020 to pave the way for a national caretaker committee headed by Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State. 

    Rejecting Oshiomhole’s allegations, Amosun said Oshiomhole was responsible for his exit as chairman. 

    Amosun, in a statement titled: “Amuse Yourself, Not the Public,” accused the former chairman of conducting “one of the worst primaries in the history of Nigeria’s contemporary politics and ended up shopping his enemies, leading to his eventual removal as Chairman of our party.”

    He reminded the former labour leader of his invitation by the Department of State Services  “to clarify certain grave allegations.”

    Amosun advised Oshiohmole to soberly take stock of his past to serve as a guide for him in his future public utterances rather than dragging the names of innocent people into a needless controversy.

    The statement reads: “It’s been a struggle since yesterday (Tuesday)  on what to make of the ‘tales by moonlight’ that Senator Adams Oshiomhole treated the audience of Dr Salihu Lukman to at his book launch, “APC and Transition Politics”, in Abuja.

    “This apparent struggle was not for lack of a proportional response to his deliberate drivel, but because not only was his story fraught with lies but also because he did not boast the requisite integrity to say the truth.

    “Besides, it is not in my character to join issues with people I consider qualified enough to be referred to as both leaders of our party, the APC, and of this great country, Nigeria, to which I believe Senator Oshiomhole belongs.

    “However, given his antecedents and penchant for careless and, most times, baseless and unverified public statements, and also considering my duty to the country and the public in particular, it will be uncharitable if I fail to put the records straight.

    “What Senator Oshiomhole was alleged to have said, apart from being far from the truth, is a calculated attempt to present water while drinking wine.

    The Yoruba adage says, “If you let a madman bury his mom the way it pleases him, he could roast her for a meal.” At that point, the community is to blame for his choice.

    “Indeed, listening to him yesterday, his utterances represent some inherent inadequacy, which he vented not just at inauspicious times but without basis and predicated only on lies to hoodwink the unsuspecting.

    “It is not in doubt that I have participated fully in the formation and sustenance of our party, the APC, and I can boldly say that the party under

    “Nigerians should not be in a hurry to forget the allegations that preceded the conduct of those primaries and his eventual invitation by the Department of State Service, DSS, to clarify certain grave allegations.

    “If anyone was in doubt that Senator Oshiomhole posed the biggest and most destructive threat to the existence of the APC at that time, and the party’s best bet was to dispose of the canon folder that he was and unfortunately still is, his utterances and grandstanding yesterday at an occasion to find solutions to our democratic and party challenges would have cleared such a mindset.

    “If he wanted to insult our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, he could have come out boldly to do so. But his subtle attempt to pass snide remarks at him failed the simple test of loyalty because the former president also his party to merge with other like-minded people to form the APC.

    “Also, if he is seeking favour from the presidency, why not come out and do so? But to tell barefaced lies like, “You are working for your paymaster in Lagos, your paymaster in Bourdillon,” is cheap but typical of an individual who suddenly found himself where he never dreamt of, despite his obvious limitations—education and exposure.

    “If the public will remember, soon after Senator Oshiomhole was sworn in as a Senator, he allegedly said members of the 9th Senate had vandalised their offices before leaving, only for him to eat the humble pie and made to apologise later when it was obvious that the allegations were baseless.

    “My honest advice to him is to carefully and soberly sit down to take stock of his past so that it will continue to serve as a guide for him in his future public utterances rather than dragging the names of innocent people into a needless controversy because in Africa, age and leadership are associated with wisdom.

    “This is also why I have consistently brushed aside and intentionally scoffed at his tongue-in-cheek apology, which he had extended to me several times. I am now convinced it was not genuine. In the final analysis, background matters.”

    Amosun is down, says Oshiomhole 

    Oshiomhole yesterday reacted to Amosun’s statement.

    The former labour leader said the former governor is a pathological liar.

    He recalled that Amosun supported a governorship candidate on the platform of an opposition party when he was Ogun APC leader. 

    However, he denied disrespecting former President Buhari, saying that he supported him as party chairman.

    In a statement in Abuja, Oshiomhole who took exception to Amosun’s remark that he found himself in too public positions, saying: “I don’t think I need to comment on that because you can’t fight with pigs in the mud water.”

    The statement reads: “The first thing is that I did not in any way say anything that was meant or that can be interpreted to mean an attack on the person of (former) President Muhammadu Buhari. Not at all. On the contrary, he is one of those who made it possible for me to be National chairman of APC.

    “He contributed a lot for me to be chairman, so I have no reason to say anything against him.

    “For over a period of a year, they were planning the removal but they were not able to get it and not once or twice did the President (Buhari) warn them that those who want to take any decision, that was the way he put it, who want to remove anybody, they should follow the constitution.

    “The President said so on record and net. So I have no grievance whatsoever for my removal. However, the problem is, people like Amosun  who believed personal relationship keeps boasting. People like Amosun were the ones who dropped  the name of the president as cover for them not to follow the party’s constitution and there is no secret about it.

    “Number one, that he defied the rules of the party and floated another party and encouraged his loyalist to contest governorship election on another party platform called the APM.

    “We queried him and subsequently we suspended him as a member of the party. Again, this is not a secret.

    “Why he hypocritically sponsored people on APM’s platform is because he knew he didn’t have the political weight and he contested his own Senatorial election on APC’s platform. So, what is not true about this?

    “Number two, that he contested governorship on the ANPP platform and lost. On the primary election we conducted in Ogun State, he went to the Federal High Court and the court of appeal and his objection was dismissed because it is on record that he disobeyed the rules of the party. He did not participate in a lawful primary and therefore he had no Locus Standi to question what happened in those primaries.

    “He relied heavily on his closeness to power to disobey the rules of the party and God gave me the courage and we suspended him.

    “He also knew he told me that but for the president, he will not conduct primary. He said had no right to ask to supervise his primary.

    “He did not behave like Senator Tejuoso also from Ogun State who contested for senatorial election like Amosun and lost but he did not leave the ANPP to join us in ACN like Amosun and it is on record.

    “He also lobbied Tinubu to give him ACN’s ticket. By then I was a governor. So I was part of this process and we supported him financially and logistically for him to win the election. So I was also his pay master.

    “We keep records including any other presidential election. But the whole story is both that because he had an ambition which like other ambitions died in his womb,  to contest for presidential election which form he obtained. This is not a secret.

    “I am grateful to ex-President Buhari because he stood by me, it is just that at the point when he was about to work, he allowed the governors, not all the governors, to have their way.  Majority of the governors were on my side.

    “The result was that those of them who were against me, who were holding meetings, plotting and calculating tried to use the judiciary.

    “If they had the power, they didn’t need to use the court. They should have used the democratic means. That is ridiculous. But the fact is that I have no bitterness whatsoever, but we must record history.

    “We need to document history and not  allow people to get away from certain behaviour. It is important that whatever we do is recorded for or against us.

    “That was the only thing I mentioned. It makes no difference. In any case, if they claim that my people didn’t like me, I have since won a senatorial election.

    “Well, I don’t think I need to comment on that because you can’t fight with pigs in the mud water.

    “Whatever he says, today I am a sitting Senator. I led the entire workforce of Nigeria as NLC President. So he has nothing about his credentials, powers or position that he can compare himself to me.

    “So, he is entitled to his opinion. But I didn’t get any of those positions through godfatherism. I fought my way to where I am.

    “So,  I think the conclusion is don’t forget how he vowed that I would not leave the stadium alive when we went to campaign there.

    “He arranged boys who went to the rally who were throwing stones and sticks at us. It was also on national television, it was covered live.

    “They were throwing water and stones at us at the podium and they nearly stoned the President who had to jump to prevent one of the missiles from hitting the president.

    “Again, this was on national television. And like I told him the day he called me with the president from the villa, he is just a pathological liar. And I’m happy that he has or I hope that he has learnt his lesson. All these things I have said, I can say them on oath.”

  • Amosun to Oshiomhole: you are responsible for your removal as APC chairman

    Amosun to Oshiomhole: you are responsible for your removal as APC chairman

    The immediate past governor of Ogun state, Ibikunle Amosun, has told the former Edo state governor, Senator Adams Oshiomhole not to blame anybody for his removal from office as the national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

    He accused the former labour leader of being responsible for his exit from office.

    The former national chairman at a book launch in Abuja on Tuesday, December 20, blamed his removal from office on governors of the party.

    Oshiomhole, who spoke publicly about his exit from office for the first time accused former President Muhamnadu Buhari of not coming to his aid when the governors ganged up against him, resulting in his unceremonial removal at the National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party in June, 2020

    Reacting in a statement on Wednesday, December 20, titled, “Amuse Yourself, Not the Public,” Amosun insisted that Oshiomhole was the architect of his political travails as APC national chairman.

    He accused the former national chairman of conducting “one of the worst primaries in the history of Nigeria’s contemporary politics and ended up shopping his enemies, leading to his eventual removal as chairman of our party.”

    Amosun, in the statement, reminded the former labour leader of his arrest by the Department of State Services” to clarify certain grave allegations.”

    He then advised Oshiohmole to carefully and soberly sit down to take stock of his past so that it will continue to serve as a guide for him in his future public utterances rather than dragging the names of innocent people into a needless controversy.

    Amosun said: “It’s been a struggle since yesterday on what to make of the ‘tales by moonlight’ that Senator Adams Oshiomhole treated the audience of Dr Salihu Lukman to at his book launch, “APC and Transition Politics”, in Abuja.

    “This apparent struggle was not for lack of a proportional response to his deliberate drivel, but because not only was his story fraught with lies but also because he did not boast the requisite integrity to say the truth.

    “Besides, it is not in my character to join issues with people I consider qualified enough to be referred to as both leaders of our party, the APC, and of this great country, Nigeria, to which I believe Senator Oshiomhole belongs.

    “However, given his antecedents and penchant for careless and, most times, baseless and unverified public statements, and also considering my duty to the country and the public in particular, it will be uncharitable if I fail to put the records straight.

    “What Senator Oshiomhole was alleged to have said, apart from being far from the truth, is a calculated attempt to present water while drinking wine.

    The Yoruba adage says, “If you let a madman bury his mom the way it pleases him, he could roast her for a meal.” At that point, the community is to blame for his choice.

    “Indeed, listening to him yesterday, his utterances represent some inherent inadequacy, which he vented not just at inauspicious times but without basis and predicated only on lies to hoodwink the unsuspecting.

    “It is not in doubt that I have participated fully in the formation and sustenance of our party, the APC, and I can boldly say that the party under Adams Oshiomhole conducted one of the worst primaries in the history of Nigeria’s contemporary politics and ended up shopping his enemies, leading to his eventual removal as Chairman of our party.

    Nigerians should not be in a hurry to forget the allegations that preceded the conduct of those primaries and his eventual invitation by the Department of State Service, DSS, to clarify certain grave allegations.

    “If anyone was in doubt that Senator Oshiomhole posed the biggest and most destructive threat to the existence of the APC at that time, and the party’s best bet was to dispose of the canon folder that he was and unfortunately still is, his utterances and grandstanding yesterday at an occasion to find solutions to our democratic and party challenges would have cleared such a mindset.

    “If he wanted to insult our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, he could have come out boldly to do so. But his subtle attempt to pass snide remarks at him failed the simple test of loyalty because the former president also his party to merge with other like-minded people to form the APC.

    Read Also: Oshiomhole and foreign criminals as labourers

    “Also, if he is seeking favour from the presidency, why not come out and do so? But to tell barefaced lies like, “You are working for your paymaster in Lagos, your paymaster in Bourdillon,” is cheap but typical of an individual who suddenly found himself where he never dreamt of, despite his obvious limitations—education and exposure.

    “If the public will remember, soon after Senator Oshiomhole was sworn in as a Senator, he allegedly said members of the 9th Senate had vandalised their offices before leaving, only for him to eat the humble pie and made to apologise later when it was obvious that the allegations were baseless.

    “My honest advice to him is to carefully and soberly sit down to take stock of his past so that it will continue to serve as a guide for him in his future public utterances rather than dragging the names of innocent people into a needless controversy because in Africa, age and leadership are associated with wisdom.

    “This is also why I have consistently brushed aside and intentionally scoffed at his tongue-in-cheek apology, which he had extended to me several times. I am now convinced it was not genuine.

    “In the final analysis, background matters!”

  • Oshiomhole and foreign criminals as labourers

    Oshiomhole and foreign criminals as labourers

    Last week, Senator Adams Oshiomhole’s heartache was about some “Foreign Prisoners Working on Nigerian Construction Sites”. He has threatened to disclose their names. I think he should save his breath. Nigerian government and the media cannot pretend to be unaware of a decade old conspiracy against Nigerian unskilled workers.

    It has long been established that we all suffer from cultural imperialism by believing everything foreign, including religion, culture, and even the foreign media, are superior. The new addition is that we are now also saying foreign criminals condemned in their country are better than our jobless Nigerians. These foreign condemned criminals are housed in decent hotels, ferried by luxurious buses to their site every day and paid in foreign currency to do digging of ground which should ordinarily be the exclusive preserve of Nigerian unskilled workers.

    Read Also: Oshiomhole to NLC: advocate N35,000 minimum wage for all workers

    The truth is that for contracts awarded to foreign firms,  almost  80% of the cost of such contracts are repatriated back to foreign land from where funds, machineries, equipment and, experts and consultants implementing such projects originated from. The only 20% that get to us in form of daily wages for those who dig the ground is what those who issue expatriate quotas visas have now passed back to foreign condemned criminals.

    Unfortunately both our unskilled and skilled workers are not treated any better by our indigenous owners of mega banks and telecommunication companies whose annual profit will make investors in Europe and America green with envy.  It will be a big relief if Oshiomhole can bring succour to these contract staff many of whom in the absence of hope are escaping in droves to foreign land.  As for foreign criminal workers, Nigerians are aware of those involved in expatriate quota visa racketeering to bring condemned criminals from China and the beneficiaries.  Oshiomhole should just do the needful.

  • Oshiomhole to NLC: advocate N35,000 minimum wage for all workers

    Oshiomhole to NLC: advocate N35,000 minimum wage for all workers

    Senator Adams Oshiomhole has urged organised labour to ensure that all workers in Nigeria are paid N35,000 wage awards to cushion the effect of the petrol subsidy removal before Christmas.

    The former president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) spoke at the 8th Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the Non-Academics Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) in Abuja.

    He emphasised that the money must be paid to workers whether public or private failing which, the employers both public and private sectors must not be allowed to enjoy a peaceful Christmas celebration.

    Oshiomhole: “NLC threatened strike or something like that because that was not exactly the way we used to do it. Now N35,000 was approved but I don’t know what NLC demanded because it was not exposed to the Nigerian people. The tradition is the National Working Committee and National Executive Council would meet, debate and say based on this increase, this is the minimum without which we would not accept.

    Read Also: Oshiomhole knocks govts forborrowing from N11tr pension funds

    “So, with that decision, it is not the decision of the president. It must be the decision of an organ of NLC which NASU is a prominent member. When we formed LASCO, the Labour Civil Society Coalition, we did it for a purpose. Don’t lament the situation.

    “Now that you have N35,000, there are workers from different states, are all the state governments implementing it? The answer is no. Why should it be no and why are they at peace? Your members are not at peace in the states. It should not be a selective application. The N35,000 must affect all workers. It has to go round all workers in Nigeria whether public or private, that is the logic of nationwide strike.

    “The truth is, that demand must affect every worker whether private or public. That is the logic of the demand. Once you have an agreement, it has to be obeyed at all levels.

    “Please tell the NLC President that those are the issues that they must solve, so that this December, nobody goes home without that N35,000. Whether such a worker is working for the federal, state, local government or the private sector, that N35,000 must be paid. If you don’t pay, there would be no Christmas for you as an employer whether public or private sector.”