Oshiomhole Stages Comeback Bid

BRIEFINGNOTES

 Nearly two years after his controversial exit from office, which threatened his political career, a former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, staged a comeback last week to confront his traditional and emerging political foes with a declaration of his intention to contest for Edo North senatorial seat, write Ejiofor Alike and Vanessa Obioha

The glorious reign of a former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, ended under a controversial circumstance when President Muhammadu Buhari called for the dissolution of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling party at a controversial virtual National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party held in June 2020.

Though the majority of the NWC members had opposed the NEC meeting, insisting that it was wrongly called by Mr. Victor Giadom, whom they said was not competent to call the meeting, Buhari had declared support for the meeting, saying “the law is on the side of Victor Giadom as Acting National Chairman.”

“The issues currently confronting our party at this time are such that should worry every party member. At the moment, our great party is faced with internal wrangling; there are on-going litigations amongst some party members and we cannot clearly ascertain the status of certain National Working Committee (NWC) members,” Buhari had reportedly said, and then proposed the dissolution of the NWC as one of the ways to resolve the party’s crisis.

“The meeting may adopt the developed resolution as contained in the agenda and pass resolutions including approving the immediate discontinuation of all pending litigations involving the party and its members; ratifying the primary election conducted in Edo State; dissolving the current National Working Committee, and appointing caretaker/Extra-ordinary Convention Planning committee for the party,” the president had said.

Oshiomhole lost out when the emergency NEC meeting adopted all the recommendations by President Buhari, and appointed the Governor of Yobe State, Mai Buni, as Caretaker National Chairman, while Senator John Akpanudoede was designated Caretaker National Secretary.

The travails of the former Governor of Edo State started when Justice Danlami Senchi, of the High Court of FCT sitting in Abuja, ruled in March 2020 that it was wrong of the APC to have kept him as national chairman after he was suspended by the state chapter of the party. An attempt to get him back into office failed in June 2020 after the Appeal Court ruled that there was no justifiable basis for an appeal against the court ruling suspending him.

After he fell out with Governor Godwin Obaseki, the APC executive committee in his ward in Etsako West Local Government Area had suspended him, while the APC chairmen in the 18 LGAs of the state also passed a vote of no confidence on him.

As if his sack as the APC chairman was not enough humiliation, he was also dislodged in Edo State, which he governed from 2008 to 2016, after his candidate, Pastor Osazie Ize-Iyamu of the APC, lost to Obaseki of the PDP, in the September 16, 2020 governorship election in the state. Obaseki had boasted to his supporters in Oredo LGA at the closing of his campaigns that having dealt with Oshiomhole at the national level of APC, the next target was to bury him politically.

“This election is a contest with Oshiomhole. We have dealt with him at the national level, we will bury him politically in this election,” Obaseki was quoted as saying.

Oshiomhole’s party lost the election, forcing him to disappear from the political scene. But after nearly two years in political doldrums and after several months of speculations over his rumoured political ambition, Oshiomhole, last week declared his intention to contest election for the Edo North senatorial seat at the National Assembly.

He made the declaration at his 70th birthday celebration held at his Iyamoh residence in Etsako West LGA, which had several leaders of the APC in attendance.

In a celebratory mood, Oshiomhole told his guests that: “It is true that for quite some time, many of our people have asked me why don’t you contest for the Senate. And I said first APC has a crisis; let us fix the crisis; let there be convention because you cannot begin to discuss what kind of baby you are going to have when you are not married.

 “We have done what needs to be done and I am inspired by the position of the new leadership for us to do what we need to do to retain power in 2023. I am therefore convinced that this is the time to proceed to the next step of the conversation which is about who lead the great people of Edo North in the senate by 2023.

 “After all consultations, you must be convinced that you can do it and improve on it. These times that people have been asking me, I have also been examining myself because I do not want to go to the senate and sit down, listen to motions and collect salaries at the end of the month. I do not believe that I need to go to the senate to take a sabbatical, to take a rest because that is an important institution where men and women are elected by their people to contribute to affairs that affect their people, how funds are allocated and to ensure that the people of Nigeria have value for their resources and money,” he explained.

 Giving reasons why he wants to contest for the Senate seat, the former governor said he is vying for Edo North senatorial seat in the 2023 general election to give the people better representation and contribute to Nigeria’s development. Having declared his ambition, Oshiomhole is set to go back to the trenches with his political foes, Obaseki and his PDP. Even the current senator representing the zone, Francis Alimikhena of the APC,  whom many analysts had thought was nominated for the seat in trust for Oshiomhole any time he wanted to return to politics after the expiration of his tenure as national chairman, is now set to challenge his supposed principal.

Alimikhena had a few days ago declared for a third term in the Senate. He made this known at the Etsako East LGA’s APC secretariat during an enlarged gathering of APC chieftains, leaders, and ward executives of the party in the council. He told the party faithful that a very sensitive position in the Senate would be zoned to the South-south, pointing out that Edo North, would only stand the chance of clinching the position if he returned to the Senate.

“I have done it before and I am set to do much more. I am here to seek your support and your votes in the forthcoming APC Primary election. I was fortunate to be a principal officer in my first tenure in the Senate as Deputy Chief which because I was the only elected APC Senator in the entire South-south zone in the 2015 general election and returning to the Senate now will be in the best interest of all of us in Edo North,” he had added.

No senator from Edo North has ever served a third term, but Alimikhena seemed to be nudged by supporters and chieftains to run for the Senate seat. Apparently referring to Oshiomhole, he had argued that a first-term senator would be denied the top position zoned to the South-south in the next dispensation.

So, apart from contending with his traditional political foes, Obaseki and his PDP, the former Edo State chairman will face a new political enemy within his APC. Is he going to face the same humiliation he faced in the September 19, 2020 governorship election or will he triumph over his enemies? Events of the coming weeks will reveal.