Murtala Opoola
20 November 2008
opinion
Adams Oshiomhole should be getting well ensconced at the Government House in Benin City now, having won an historic victory over Professor Osunbor as the bona fide person to govern Edo State for the next 4 years. Much has been said about the verdict validating the victory of the former labour leader by the Court of Appeal particularly against the backdrop of earlier petitions in which it ruled for candidates quite against popular expectations. This time around the Court of Appeal's verdict agreed with popular expectation.
And so Oshiomhole is governor. In him we have a governor coming straight from the working class, a point he emphasizes by his sartorial choice. Clad in khaki grey short sleeve shirt with matching trousers that reminds one of late Tai Solarin (of bless memory) whose choice of dress was a way of negating Nigerian's penchant for bulbous overflowing dresses which are garishly decorated. Tai, several times commented that our dress mode depicted all of us as unserious, fun seeking lot. All his life, rain or sunshine, not once did Tai don anything other than his khaki shirt and shorts. I wouldn't know whether Tai made any impressions on Adams, but since I have known him I have not seen him in any dress other than the workers' fatigue. If earlier forerunners like Mao Tse Dung and Fidel Castro are any guide, the dress mode is a statement that they identify with the working class, as against the "decadent and licentious" class of the oppressor. E hem! I wonder whether all this means anything much these days!
One thing is clear however, Oshoimhole would like to be identified as belonging to the working class and if all goes well, and there are no hiccups at the State Assembly, soon we will witness a torrent of progressive policies that would transform Edo State into a showpiece in Nigeria. But how prepared is he for this assignment? The editorialist at the Daily Trust of 19/11/08 was charitable to him, painting a picture of him as one who rose from the grass to grace through sheer grit and hard-headed pursuit of purpose and goal. Those in authority however, for pestering them would say he was rather too monomaniacal in his pursuits of concessions for workers and if he was bored would think nothing of gathering Edo workers to demonstrate against his own policies with himself at the vanguard! It is hoped it will not come to that, for that would be an absurdity.
Adams should have little difficulties achieving results, anyone who saw the mammoth crowd at his inauguration in Benin knows he has so much goodwill. Added to this is the blessing he received from the Oba of Benin, who was said to have prayed and beseeched the forefathers of the Benin to let Adams Oshiomhole win. A tacit royal approbation and blessings are an assurance that Adams tenure will be fruitful and bountiful. He should thank his stars for the blessing and not do anything to provoke the ire of the revered monarch, as those that have done that have had to bear imprecations and a potent one at that from the throne.
As stated earlier the victory is a rare chance for one that espouses radical and progressive sentiments. Note I did not say ideology. Not since the time of the PRP governments in Kano and Kaduna States in the late 70s and early 80s have we seen anything resembling this. Is this therefore the beginning of the shift in voters' preference for a more radical approach to governance? Does Oshiomhole's triumph therefore represent a repudiation of the staid, moribund and bankrupt way that had dominated the stage in the 10 years of democracy? Time will tell. Surely progressives and all left of centre tendencies would wish this chance is utilized well in order to bring in more administrations like this. Oshiomhole should not therefore underestimate the burden he has been called upon to bear. Whether or not people of his political persuasion get another shot at power would depend on how early and how well he brings the proverbial dividend of democracy to the door step of Edo people. One thing is sure however, he would have to outlive the image of the stormy petrel which he has cultivated in all his time at the vanguard of the labour union in Nigeria which has become second nature to him. Right now as the kingpin in Edo he would have no Bastiles (ala French Revolution) to break down; or any bungling and insensitive government to rail against. This is time to translate all those glowing idealism of the promise of the millenarian utopia for which he pined in all the years he spent in the wilderness of the labour movement both as a foot soldier and as the labour chief. God's speed, Comrade.
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