APC, DIRECT PRIMARIES, AND THE CRUCIFIXION OF ADAM OSHIOMHOLE

Of Direct Primary, APC Stakeholders, and the Crucifixion of Adam Oshiomhole: When the Wrong Guy is a Harbinger of the Right Message.

As you read, Comrade Adam Oshiomhole, the newly installed Chairman of APC is cascading precariously towards extinction for the wrong reasons. His impending doom, instigated by the APC Governors is least connected with accusations of anti-party activities within and outside of the party. His sin was for unilaterally incubating and championing a novel primary model (Direct Primary) that tends to take the shines away from the stakeholders, mostly serving and about to go Governors of APC. 

Mr. Oshiomhole, for emphasis, wanted to create a level playing field for every potential aspirant, by eliminating the graft-prone delegates system (Indirect Primary) that glorifies nepotism, godfatherism, and abuse of powers and privileges. But the Governors are saying NO to the Direct Primaries. 

According to the aggrieved Governors, they know their candidates, but Abuja doesn't. Therefore, Oshiomhole can't lecture them regarding credibility questions or electability credentials of their chosen candidates. 

Oshiomhole, on his part, remains adamant, insisting that the electorate on the street knows the candidates better than the stakeholders. Therefore, regular guys should participate directly in the Primary process. And that's the Oshiomhole's sin before a select council of elders populated by adversarial forces, ready and poised to pass a guilty judgment on him by any means necessary. 

Now the unanswered question: must they succeed? They shouldn't. I will explain. But first ...

Like every Oshiomhole's antagonist, I have reasonable grounds to call for his ouster and crucifixion, if necessary. But I won't.

I am an Esan man by ethnic identity and Comrade Adam Oshiomhole doesn't like us one bit. Besides, he has what belongs to the Idegbe clan.

With disdain and vengeful take, uncharacteristic of one holding himself out as a comrade, he orchestrated the marginalization of the Edo State Central Senatorial District (the Esan tribal region) in the Edo State politics. And didn't look back.

Before we proceed, just take a look at the Edo State current power structure: Governor, Deputy Governor, SSG, Speaker of the State Assembly, Chief of Staff to the Governor, and Press Secretary to the Governor, Edo North, and Edo South Senatorial Districts cornered all of them, leaving Edo Central (the Esan region) at the mercy of God. 

Whereas it was the turn of Edo Central to produce the next Governor after his eight years in office, Comrade Adam Oshiomhole uses his incumbency power to thwart the evolution of that historic natural political equation. A dastardly legacy, which Governor Obaseki inherited and has taken to the unprecedented level unknown in the history of the creation of Mid-Western Region since 1963. 

Worst of all his sins: the abandonment of Great PBGS - Pilgrim Baptist Grammar School Ewohimi, my alma mater. He awarded the contract for the resuscitation of the Grammar School. Mobilization fee was paid, and the contractor proceeded to the cite and demolished the old structures and disappeared. And that was the end of the story. 

Governor Oshiomhole simply looked the other way until he left the office. He went to all the major and not so major towns in Esan region during the last gubernatorial election to the campaign. He didn't step his foot on Ewohimi, the third-largest town in Esan land.

This man, Comrade Adam Oshiomhole, knowingly hijacked and appropriated the remains of my late cousin, Mrs. Clara Oshiomhole, the former First Lady of Edo State, contrary to Esan culture and tradition. He flagrantly refused to return her remains to her ancestral family home at Ukpughe-Idegbe, Idumhankhilemhen Quarter, Idumhango Okaigben Ewohimi for a befitting burial. And so the spirit mourns.

Yes, I have reasonable excuses to applaud his crucifixion, but I won't. 

That the spirit of PBGS will continue to harass him and all the contractors and political leaders who collaborated with him in the truncation of the renaissance of the famed PBGS is a foregone conclusion. It shall remain so with them in all their engagements (public and private) until the day of their atonement and resuscitation of PBGS.  

And that's by the way.

Indeed, I have credible excuses to join hands with his accusers, but I won't for the following reasons. 

Adam Oshiomhole is an ex-Governor, and he knows the dictatorial role he played in the imposition of candidates on the electorates through fraudulent primaries for the eight years he was the Governor of Edo State. 

He is not alone and he wasn't alone. It is a nationwide tradition. Imagine how a masquerade like Amaechi became a Governor if not for the intrigues of Odili. These are candidates, with no electoral values or a modicum of credibility. 

They are highly deficient in leadership attributes, exhibiting no quantum of honor. Yet, they are clothed in an oversized and ill-fitted garment of honorable. 

About 99% of these candidates, on their own, cannot win a primary election even in their own Ward, if the process is opened to the general public. 

Historically, the candidates Nigerian Governors and stakeholders imposed on their political parties and the Nigerian electorates, in general, are not the kind of leaders the people really desired to have. That is the major anomaly that the Direct Model is set out to eliminate.

In other words, it is the culture of unpopular choices vintage the delegates system (indirect primary) that Comrade Adam Oshiomhole wanted to eradicate by the new formula via open participation. 

Because once installed or elected, the now Honorable Okoro Fabiyi Adamu's goal is how to meet the interests of his godfather. The expectations of the electorates are in the periphery in the ladder of priorities. The mechanism underlying his success at the poll is obvious and the custodian of his allegiance is certain. And certainly, not the people - the electorates.

Unfortunately, the stakeholders, majority of them being serving Governors as I said earlier, want a perpetuation of the old - the illegality, and the abuse of power and the celebration of nepotism inherent in the indirect primary. 

Now the surprise. Here is the major reason I am writing this essay or sharing this opinion, referred to as the thesis.

Given the enormity of the influence of money and godfatherism in Naija politics, and the strident condemnations and rejections of them by most Nigerian political and public affairs commentators, aspiring political leaders, and the youths, one would have thought that these groups of people would enthusiastically rally to the support of the Chairman of a political party who called for the elimination of the culture of imposition of candidates through the process of selling and buying of delegates. It didn't happen. 

Disturbingly, no solidarity songs heralding the potential exit of a Comrade, whose sin was fighting to create a level playing field for every potential aspirant to elective office in Nigeria. And that is an indictment of the Nigerian academic community and the generality of the public affairs commentators professing to hold the conscience of the nation. 

Indicted, because it is your responsibility to agitate and market real change in our electoral system to the electorates. Especially an emerging pragmatic change parked with the potentials to eliminate the power of money and undue influence in our leadership selection process. Sad too, you guys failed Nigerian voters.

Rather, your pleasure is in populating the social media with Chief John Oyegun's alleged warning of Oshiomhole's apocalypse. Give me a break! What sin did he commit? Why not address the sin instead of dwelling on his arrogance and Chief Oyegun's alleged warning.

If the message is good, why not separate it from the bearer of the message, no matter the scale of the repugnancy his antagonist attaches to his looks and antecedents. Yes, there is a sense in the separation. Therefore, I respectfully call on all APC members to stand with Adam Oshiomhole on Direct Primaries. It's good for the party and it is good for our democracy. On Direct Primary, I Stand. 

I take this position and share this essay, believing that Adam Oshiomhole's performance in the just-concluded Primaries and those coming up in the future are conducted consistent with the textbook meaning of Direct Primary, with a view to overcoming the ills associated with the Indirect Primaries, and meeting the expectations of every aspiring candidate for elective office in Nigeria. I beg to conclude.

Alex Aidaghese.