Adams Oshiomhole: To God be the glory!
November 20, 2008 by 
JOACHIM EZEJI
By
Joachim Ibeziako Ezeji
As a Roman Catholic I reckon with the words of Saint Justin Martyr that “the greatest grace God can give someone is to send him a trial he cannot bear with his own powers- and then sustain him with his grace so he may endure to the end and be saved”.
Writing for the Punch Newspaper from Benin City, Mr. Fidelis Soriwei had posited that “Perhaps, the only consolation for Oshiomhole and his supporters was that the PDP became devastated by a costly intra-party dispute which painted Osunbor as a man leading an army of grumbling soldiers into a crucial war. But the situation in Edo would not allow the victory of Don Quixote charging at the Wind mills. Like a tragic hero, he failed to forge a united front within the PDP and exploit the vast influence of the party in pursuing his desire to cling onto power”
That, no doubt may be true and also contributory to the Oshiomhole victory, but one thing was very clear in the titanic battle that Oshiomhole passed through; he is not a money bag and never pretended to be one; and as a result never had the funds to either influence justice or exploit anything to his favour. But those who had money, also had disunity and were further disappointed to contend with a courageous and incorrigible judiciary. For Adams it was abundance of goodwill, charisma and intelligence; which of course all the money in the central bank of Nigeria cannot buy; but which are very necessary to survive hard and most difficult times. These I believe were the grace accorded him by God (according to Saint Justin Martyr) to enable him to clinch the glory that is today not only his’ but the joy of all lovers of justice and true democracy all over the country.
Nothing could better allude to this fact than Oshiomohle’s comments that “ I am like a little fish in an ocean in which you have big, big sharks which have been feeding on the little fishes. They thought I was one of those they would easily swallow. But so far, God has helped me that these sharks are unable to find me. The more they open their mouth; they just see every other thing except me. I believe God is at work”.
No matter your side of the divide, one thing remains sacrosanct; and that is the fact that we all suffer bad governance irrespective of where we come from or our beliefs. The fruits of good governance or what it should be holds constant across all barriers be it race, region, religion and class etc.
These were to me the aspirations I saw on the faces of the hundreds of thousands of people who thronged to the streets to celebrate the victory of Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole last Tuesday, 11th November 2008 when the court delivered justice.
Prior to this time, Oshiomhole had in an interview said…….” I am not. I can’t be jittery. Even during the electioneering, I was not jittery, because we were convinced that the people were on our side. After the rigging and the wrongful declaration of Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor (the ousted Edo State governor), we expressed our anger. We put over a million people on the streets and thereafter, we agreed to submit to the judicial process. We have confidence that the judiciary will do justice and it has done justice. They (Osunbor) have now appealed (against it), and we are praying and trusting that we have a compelling case, which even at the level of the Court of Appeal will be in our favour”.
It was American President-elect Barack Obama who in the prologue of his book ‘The audacity of Hope’, said “Every man is trying to either live up to his father’s expectations or make up for his father’s mistakes”. For Oshiomhole, either case could hold true because he had a dream that was propelled by a burning desire to make a statement of service to the people of his state based on perennial flaws of poor governance over the years. According to him “If we do not fight that battle, our Children will travel through this road again and they will blame us. I am very happy that God is using some of us as small as we have been wrestling with godfathers and their products. We have dealt with them and they would never recover again. By the grace of God, we will chase them out of government house”.
His unimpeachable pedigree as an accomplished labor leader who devoted his tenure as the President of the Nigeria Labor Congress to the service of an endangered Nigerian citizenry underscored the streak of getting it right and making governance a desired service rather than oppression.
As the president of the NLC, even The Punch Newspaper, in one of its editorials, made a commentary on his person captioned ‘Adamant Adams.’ He was called the unofficial leader of the opposition. That is opposition to the Federal Government. In a civilized setting, the man who is in the opposition, when the government falls, the opposition takes over. Nobody is better prepared to take over governance than those who have engaged those in government over the past nine years.
Adams Oshiomhole had been privileged to be at the helm of that effort. So, there is nothing closer. In any case, the strength of the massive support he enjoys in the state is informed by two things. First, by his own analysis of the challenges, Edo people realized that he knew what the problem was, so he had a very credible message. And in addition to that, the messenger is also credible - and that is Adams Oshiomhole himself.
He has no illusions about the great expectations of the people and in his own words had said “ I know that most Nigerians will look at Edo State, if I am there, to say, let’s see what difference he is going to make. I am very conscious of that. I am also very conscious of the fact that I represent a particular tendency. And therefore, what is at stake is not just my name, but the entire tendency, so we cannot afford to fail. People will look up to Edo as a model. And the media, I know, will be particularly critical in evaluating what we are going to do. That was why when some people told me to go for the presidency, I said, ‘no, I will go for the governorship.’ Because it is about where I believe, everything considered, I can make an impact. So, we are anxious, we are ready and I know the Edo people can’t wait to have us in”.
In congratulating Oshiomhole, I also congratulate his amiable wife and children for persevering this far. I have no illusion about what it must have cost this man of modest means to overcome the devastating intrigues and troubles of achieving the ultimate political victory from the courts. It is a great relief that after 19 months of a niggling wait that Edo State now finally have Oshiomhole in as their governor.
To God be the glory!
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