Oshiomhole’s anger vs Kanu’s rage

The senator representing Edo North is not happy. He said so himself. The Edo North man in the National Assembly is obviously well known to Nigerians. Among other things, he has a very distinguished face. He is endowed so well that he is easily recognised in a gathering. He is such a man. His name is Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole. Before being elected to the Nigerian Senate, Oshiomhole had served as governor of Edo State for two terms amounting to eight years. He had also been in office as the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the political party in power in Nigeria. So, Oshiomhole is an accomplished politician, and has been accepted as such across Edo and Nigerian political platforms. 

Before Adams Oshiomhole the politician, there was Adams Oshiomhole the labour leader. He was very popular as a labour leader who made his tenure as the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) a reference point. Oshiomhole is arguably still fresher in a lot of people’s memories as NLC president than as a former governor. DaGrin, the man who heightened the current revolution in hip-hop music in Nigerian indigenous languages, sang Oshiomhole the labour leader. In his album, C.E.O., Da Grin sang about Oshiomhole in his hit song “Pon Pon Pon”. He sang “Mi ì ni fight fún e, mi kí n she Oshiomhole…” meaning “I will not fight for you, I’m not Oshiomhole.” That line in Da Grin’s song stands as a credit to Oshiomhole. It remains an eternal testament to a man who was the voice of the Nigerian workers and by extension the ordinary people. 

He was that popular and used this currency well when he joined mainstream politics and became a politician through and through. He however was derogated following this transformation, but the aspersion wasn’t beyond the shield of the man people already knew and trusted. Oshiomhole the politician was labelled as a man who ran with the hare and hunted with the hounds. But, for a man who had enough in his repertoire of goodwill, the snide didn’t stick. It also didn’t work. It did not remove anything from him, nor did it harm his future and his ambition. Thus, Oshiomhole can be placed in the community of men who have seen it all in and about Nigeria. He has earned his flowers and deserves some accolade. 

This same man, now a serving senator from Edo State is angry about something with Nigeria. He is angry at obvious double standards he said he had seen in the country. He is angry that he has seen Nigeria from a new prism and had found that, indeed, there are dimensions to our double standards. He has also seen the foothold in unfair dealings and inequality in the affairs of the country. He said illegal miners in northern Nigeria get a slap on the wrist for their deadly activities and obvious economic sabotage. He said the sponsors of the illegal activities in the North also deal in arms, which he said was available like a common commodity. Then, he said the countries authorities do not descend on them like they do the economic saboteurs in our oil-bearing region.

Mazi Nnamdi Kanu too is angry, but the events which angered Oshiomhole are not the same as those which led Nnamdi Kanu to boil over in an open court. The two men have displayed anger at two of the many things which trigger anger, resentment and consternation among Nigerians about Nigeria. Oshiomhole’s and Kanu’s matters are not the same in their particulars but they are the same in their principles. The common denominator in their issues is the noticeable hypocrisy, dishonesty and insincerity, as well as deception in the affairs of Nigeria as a country. The anger of the two men is in dissimilar degrees. Their fury sits at different levels and is expressed in different ways.  

Nnamdi Kanu is the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). The Nigerian government labelled his IPOB as a “terrorist organisation” and promptly proscribed it. The courts ignored all arguments by IPOB that it was a non-violent organisation and banned its activities in Nigeria. The final nail in the coffin of IPOB was in 2017, after the 2015 debacle which saw Kanu in court with the federal government for the first time. Then the same government hunted Kanu with all its vigour and eventually got him after he had earlier escaped in 2015. He was rearrested in Kenya and brought to Nigeria to continue to face trial for terrorism and sundry heavy charges. Since his arrest and extradition to Nigeria, he has been only in two places: in and out of courts, and in the custody of State Security Service.

The last time he was in court, he gave the court a piece of his mind in such a dramatic way. He told the trial court off, called judges and lawyers names, asked questions and caused a scene. Through what he did, he provided another interesting twist to his long and winding route in search for justice. Kanu’s angry rants were uncalled for. That is the standard expected in the hallowed chamber which the courts are supposed to be. Only the qualified have the privilege to speak in the court of law and those expected to speak are to do so with decorum. So, the gasps that greeted Kanu’s outbursts were a sign that the court of Justice Binta Nyako had been desecrated because Kanu didn’t speak with decorum there.

But Kanu does not believe that her court deserves such decorum. He said was at Justice Nyako’s court out of sheer respect and not because he believed it was the right place to continue his quest for justice. He said the court where he was taken no longer had the jurisdiction to try him because, in September 2024, Justice Binta Nyako, had recused herself. To him, he was not in her court as a defendant but was there because he just had to come. He said: “You cannot preside over this case. Not now, not today, not ever. You stand recused and you must leave my case. I don’t need you on my case. You are biased. Tell the Chief Judge that Nnamdi Kanu said so. This is not a court of justice, it is a shrine to injustice and I will not subject myself to it.” Kanu would not have anything of the advice from the Chief Judge of the federal high court, Justice John Tsoho, that a formal application had to be filed before the judge’s recusal can be entertained. So, the ding dong continues and the fate of Kanu remains unknown as his case is adjourned indefinitely.

In his anger, he raised issues of fairness, bias, hypocrisy and inequality as it concerns his case. He asked why the “law would be turned upside down” when matters get to Nnamdi Kanu. Has he got the locus standi to warrant an examination of his claims? As he vehemently argued, is the recusal by Justice Nyako valid? If it is, why wouldn’t the federal high court reassign his case as he has pleaded? Kanu and his team had lost confidence in the trial court and the presiding judge. Can they be forced to remain in the same court for their matter? Kanu also believes that by now, a political solution should have been found to his case and he had, over time, shown preparedness to take that alternative route to achieve a solution. He might be seeing brick walls at every turn. This can be really frustrating and debilitating. 

It’s possible that the powers that be might want to use Kanu’s matter to gain political currency when the right time comes. That is what seems to be appearing in the distant horizon. Otherwise, what would it profit a government to keep Kanu in detention indefinitely and further lose the goodwill and trust of a considerable section of his fanatical people? Maybe it’s because they do not matter…? But right now, the North is already showing its hands of divisive politics. Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and some others are the front men. So, if the North goes completely a different way in the coming dispensation, Tinubu might need a little from the North plus a South East won over through the Kanu politics. This will keep the re-election green and unperturbed. 

Kanu and Oshiomhole are saying the same thing in different ways. We have our differing reactions to them. That’s fine. But we all know that some things are not just sitting well.

READ ALSO: Oshiomhole’s sound bites from the Senate