BARRING any major upset, political pundits can predict with absolute certainty that the former governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole will emerge as the next national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). With the unflinching support of President Muhammadu Buhari, majority of the governors and other party heavyweights, when broom-waving party faithful from the 36 states converge in the federal capital, Abuja, on Saturday, June 23, it will be more of a coronation of the veteran labour leader. Against the backdrop of internal squabbles among the feuding factions, finding a way on the unwinding path for the party will, for sure, not be a tea party.
Oshiomhole who spoke in the Edo State capital of Benin City recently dispelled the belief held tenaciously by his nemesis that as party boss, he will be a stern and authoritarian taskmaster who will brook no opposition. The great issues of the day will be ironed out through negotiations, persuations and by the speeches and resolutions of the majority, he said seriously.
The ex-President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) pledged that he would not resort to dictatorial tendencies and armtwisting if elected as the national chairman of the APC in the forthcoming convention.
Oshiomhole vehemently denied being a dictator as being painted in some quarters. He says he is a democrat who will rely on his negotiation skills honed during his stint as labour leader to salvage the party.
He said: “Some of the things I learnt in the labour union is negotiation. I am never dictatorial because even though I was the president of the NLC, I couldn’t even control my deputy because he was voted the same manner I was elected. In the NLC, you must listen to everybody, unlike in government where as an executive you can dictate decisions.”
He said that his background as a unionist prepared him for the task as APC chairman and that he would listen, noting that is why at every fora, he kept emphasising that in contestation, disputes are not dysfunctional if one has the skills to manage divergences.
“I have never exercised dictatorial powers. I have always exercised persuasive powers, negotiation skills and those are my skills. And when I negotiate with and persuade you, and you accept, you will feel obliged to do what you have to do.
“But if I dictate to you, when I am not watching, you will follow your heart. So, I am not capable of being a dictator by the very nature of my background,” he said.
Buoyed by the overwhelming support of the majority of APC governors, Oshiomhole said that they are behind his aspiration because they understand his person.
He predicted that he would emerge through a consensus leadership, and that his loyalty would be to the party, promising to exercise his persuasive powers and negotiation skills in resolving the crisis in the party and save it from implosion.
“But let me also say that what is also qualitatively different about this support is that there is no question about what is influencing this support because, conventionally, in our political environment, we hear that those who have the deepest pocket tends to buy the support. But is support is being offered from people who cannot be bought over which tells you it is flowing from the knowledge of my person,” he added.
Four years down the road and in line with the provisions of the party’s constitution, the APC and the constitution of the country, the party is obliged to have an elective convention and one of the positions that are being contested for is that of the National Chairman, insisting that he was convinced that he has what it takes to provide leadership and build on the foundation laid by the first chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, who he said did a marvelous job.
He said, “I think for a political party that is determined to be in power, you need a solid structure to achieve it, and God used Bisi Akande and other leaders such as President Buhari, Asiwaju and others to achieve that. After that, Chief Oyegun came in to contribute his own quota to build on that foundation.
Four years later, we have the opportunity to contest for that office believing that we can help to reinvent and re-focus the party in a way that it will be a strong pillar to support governments elected on its platform at both the local, state and federal levels, and also help to ensuring that the definition and essence of progressive politics is one that is clear to all members and leaders of the party to form the basis of the contract to our people as entrenched in our party constitution.”
His lookout, he emphasized, is to help the members not only to understand the essence of progressive politics, the ideology that it represents but start the process of building a party that in the very nearest future, Nigerians should be able to stop the debate about whether or not there is a difference between one party and the others.
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Oshiomhole admitted that it is a huge challenge for people to make the distinction, as most of them don’t really know the differences between the different parties. He noted that noting that the ease with which people defect from one party to the other also raises the issue of whether there are really fundamental ideological differences between the parties.
The APC national chairmanship hopeful conceded that religion is important in the lives of people to guide their values and create a sense of fairness, justice and, above all, the fear of God without which people can’t make progress. It can, however, become dysfunctional if conversation and friendship is driven exclusively by these ethnic and religious sentiments.
The unionist promised that instead of victimising radicals, they will be accommodated and given comfort in the house, rather than having a situation in which if one is not comfortable, he or she walks to the door and if it doesn’t open, the aggrieved person jumps out through the window and look, for another house.
“We want to be able to provide a leadership style that will challenge other political parties to get serious. In the beginning, it was like that; people knew the differences between Aminu Kano’s party and other political parties. We knew the differences between the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) and the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). So, it will help the public know which party to belong to. If you look at the June 12 election, people voted, based on ideology for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC). That is why you saw that Abiola won in Kano. Nothing has changed today; same Nigeria, same people. I think what has changed is that there is a huge deficit of the capacity of the political elites to put issues on the table and for ease of defense, people resort to ethnic sentiments when their stewardship comes into evaluation,” he noted.
He lashed out at politicians who seek support from the people but in the absence of a coherent message to persuade the people conveniently resort to the cheaper option of religion.
He vehemently disagreed that APC is at the verge of implosion following the numerous crises that lately bedeviled it, insisting that in the house of APC, there are many defectors from the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) right after its formation in 2014 and even after the last elections.
He said: “I think we have lost a few but we have also gained more and I believe there are many who will come, maybe after I assume office, God willing, if I win. At least, based on my conversation with people. I know people across all the divide.
However, that does not mean that we don’t have a problem.”
The former governor was displeased about the PDP insisting that the present generation of Nigerians will never forgive the former ruling party for all the evil they committed in this country.
He likened what happened as regards the feud to a chemical reaction but what the members got was a physical reaction. While the reaction would have led to a bonding of all the various elements into one organic whole, but unfortunately the physical reaction where the various parts are, are dangling and trying to hang onto the centre.
“When there is a party decision, everybody abides by it and you need this to happen by holding meetings. The truth is that even when we resolve matters today, it does not mean that another one will not rear its head tomorrow. The capacity to intervene has to be constant. It is not once and for all. It is a process; and unless you have the capacity to deal with the issues as they arise, you should not have been there to lead the party. I did all of that when I was president of the NLC.
“We had nationwide support because through dialogue, we found solutions at the Labour House and everybody had that sense of ownership. So we can bridge the gap between the executive and the legislature and bring the full benefit of our majority in the parliament as well as our control of the executive.
“I am clear what the tasks are and all of these can be fixed. I don’t need eight months to fix 16 years problem; what I need is a level of clarity and, above all, a sense of fairness that people can see that they should trust me and I will accept the advice they will offer. It will not be a question of one drug curing all ailments. Your solution has to be formed by the specifics of each of the problems that you find along the way.”
How he manages the fortunes of the party will no doubt save it from an impending implosion. It is not for nothing that they say that a party divided against itself is bound to scatter. The acid test will be how he calms the nerves of the renegades who are threatening to jump out through the window. Ahead of the 2019 election, Oshiomhole will, for sure, have an uphill battle saving the fall of the house of APC should he emerge victorious next Saturday.
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