Mariam Mariam
This week, the Nigerian people savoured the sweet taste of victory with the confirmation of Adams Oshiomhole as the governor of Edo State. It was a fitting riposte to the delusions which issue forth regularly from Maurice Iwu, the electoral czar, who refuses to accept that he superintended over the worst elections in the nation’s history. The Court of Appeal upheld the judgment of the Edo State electoral panel. The Nigerian people can rightly celebrate, because Adam’s victory is one which truly belongs to the people. It is the story of a man of very humble background who devoted a lifetime to working for the common people. It is the combination of origin and effort, which also explain why expectations will also be sky-high! I have reproduced today, are-edited version my piece of March 27, 2008, which was in response to the original judgment.
Adams Oshiomhole one victory for the people
I shouted myself hoarse last Thursday, as the electoral panel of Edo State, gave their veridict: Adams Oshiomhole won the governoship election held last year. But as was done around most of Nigeria, the PDP, in connivance with the Independent Electoral Commission, subverted the mandate of the Edo people. But Comrade Adams was not daunted in the search for justice, and that was earned last week, Thursday!
Edo state has by all accounts, been one of the most unlucky states in Nigeria, since 1999. It had the ill-luck of being governored by one of the most incompetent governors of the new dispensation in Nigeria, Lucky Igbinedion. With apologies, but I think there must be something absolutely worng with the Nigerian political elite to have thrown up a governor like Lucky Igbinedion; the bushy mustache which give the classic appearance of a Mafiosi; a bulging mid section like an over-fed African toad, betrays the tell-tale signs of over-indulgence in food and wine. But Lucky seemed to be far worse than his appearance conveyed.
He ran Edo State back into stone age, presiding over the systematic spoliation of a state that used to be a pace setter in so many things in Nigeria’s golden past; from construction to sporting excellence. By the end of 2002, it was already clear to all, that a disaster had been visited upon Edo State, by the choice of Lucky as governor, in 1999; a young man whose only distinguishing factor, was that he was the son of a maverick millionaire with delusions of grandeur of his own. So fed up were the people with Lucky’s incompetence, buffoonery and kleptocratic ways, that if a genuinely democratic system had been in place, he would not have even been given a look-in, for a second term. That was when his father was said to have come with the sickening tale of a student who failed an examination and needed a repeat to achieve the requisite pass. Lucky Igbinedion got a second term, after the massive rigging that characterized the 2003 elections!
Over the next four years, 2003 to 2007, that man consolidated the underdevelopment of Edo state; the roads within Benin City, were a study in the shape of pot holes; he “privatized” the account of the state to indulge in the vulgar taste for all manners of luxury: Edo was the heart of trafficking of young women into prostitution; Lucky sold state firms to himself and cronies and made Edo a typical Hobbersian jungle for all its people.
Another feature of Edo’s politics was the stranglehold on its politics by the political godfathers; from Tony Anenih through to Samuel Ogbemudia. These political dinosaurs instituted a spoils and boss system, which hacked back to the traditional political system of the area, but unlike the traditional system the godfathers had no legitimacy to speak of, because there was no organic link between the control they wielded and the genuine aspiration of the people. As a classic study in prebendal politics, in its most crude incarnation, the strongest tendencies the poverty of the mass of the people and open-ended banditry. In Edo state, under the PDP Lucky Igbinedion, we saw the worst manifestation of gangster politics and garrison democracy!
There is no honour amongst thieves, especially those in Edo state. The flight for control of state power, the spoils system pitted groups of god fathers against themselves, in the run up to the nomination of candidates for the PDP in 2007. On the other hand, there was the yearning for change amongst the people in Edo State. They saw how an incompetent governor, worsened their conditions of existence, for eight years. They were determined that their vote was going to count and would be counted in 2007. This was however discountenanced by the PDP elite, who chose to rely on the time-tested practices of stealing ballot boxes; using the security forces and thugs to intimidate the electorate while INEC to declare a fake result!
This is the point that Adams Oshiomohole entered the picture; the historical moment found its corresponding historical personality. There was something fateful abdut the emergence of Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomohole on the national scene. He emerged as President of the NLC, at a point when the movement was renewing itself, after undergoing the severe repression it suffered under military dictatorship. But the new civilian regime of President, Olusegun Obasanjo, was sworn to the implementation of policies, whose fine details attack the economic positions of the working people and the poor. The working class provided the best platform to build resistance to those neoliberal policies. Where neo-colonial policies thrive on division and manipulation, the trade unions unite and provide a national platform of struggle for all the working people.
It was within this movement and at its head, that Adams Oshiomhole led titanic battles against the assult on the right of the Nigeria working people and the poor. Adams became the symbol of resistance and of hope, and he became a household name around Nigeria. He symbolized compete response against the rapacity of a Nigerian state whose policies pauperized the majority of the people of Nigeria. When his tenure ended, the NLC organised a smooth and democratic transition, at a time when the political elite was locked into the dictational antics of garrison democracy!
When Adams Oshiomhole signified his intention to run for governor of Edo state, the people saw in his candidature, the expression of their determination to effect change; they chose to give their mandate to an individual who has a track record of always fighting for the interest of the people. In a master class of political enlightenement, the people of Edo voted for change, for a life away from the corruption and incompetence in voting for comrade Adams Oshiomhole. They knew he was from a minority ethnic background, that he has a Muslim background, but those were not the issues! He is a symbol of the change they desired and they gave him their vote. But the PDP and INEC had different idea.
They hijacked the people’s victory announced a colouless impostor, as governor. The people retreated to lick their wounds at first. But Adams Oshiomhole would not be who he is, if he was unable to whip the people back into a state of optimism that the bare-faced robbery of the people’s mandate, would not be allowed to stand! The court house became a new arena of struggle in a dialectical interconnect with the mass mobilization of the people on the street. The people’s show of support and solidarity told an emotional story of where their feeling truly lied! Not even the mass mobilization of armed policemen and the cordoning-off of streets would deter the people, until the courts finally declared Adams Oshiomhole, rightfully elected governor of Edo state!
The return of Adams as Edo State Govenor, offers a beach head for the development of a more pregressive approach to politicking in Nigeria. If Adams can provide a different type of leadership (and I think he can!), which truly works for the people of Edo State in particular, and Nigeria in general, we can open an apertune for the replication of the progressive and more pro-people political tendency in Nigeria. Of course there are issues of experience in governance; the level of expectations; the rear guard action of those who will lose privileges with the departure which Adams will represent; there is also the problem of raising a team able to worl with the dedication and sincerity which a pro-people project will require: the delicate balance of the contradictions with Edo society, which might not appear clearly until the levers of power have been won, the personal idiosyncrasies of Adams himself, such as translating from agitator to administrator and politician plus other unforeseen issues! These are not idle questions, and they must be frontally attacked. I expect that Adams Oshiomhole will build on alliances and traditions he was cultured within in the trade union movement to work for the people of Edo State; he must also work out an eloaborate project of governance to help root out the elaborate edifice of theft, corruption and poverty which is the legacy of the PDP regime. What Adams Oshiomhole makes of his four-year tenure will have a far-reaching implication into the future.
Comrade Adams Oshiomhole will quickly learn that the cloak-and-dagger world of politics can often derail very lofty principles, as often merciless circumstances, lead to uncomfortable compromises which might have serious consequences for actions. It is also very important to think through, and hit the ground running in respect of the expectations of the people who would expect quick fixes for their problems. It is the disappointment which trails in the wake of a slow rhythm of work which often alienates the electorate from individuals that they see as symbols of hope. This has been the problem of liberation politics in Africa, from Angola, Guinea Bissau through to Zimbabwe. It is therefore important, that no matter what alliance he builds, no matter the nature of compromises that circumstances force upon Adams in the process of governance, he must never lose touch with the people. That is the only strength he can claim.
But who can deny that Adams Oshiomhole’s victory is one genuinely for the people? He has four years to prove that politics can truly work for the people.
