Nature has been very magnanimous with Nigeria. In our nation we have in abundance, men and women of talents of all shades and colours in all ramifications of human endeavour.
At the educational, political, economic, cultural, musical, and sociaI sectors we have been privileged to see men and women gifted with talents and leading the way and making waves across the world.
Among these leaders is Adams Oshomole, the National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) who made his debut on the national landscape of this great nation, as a labour leader, indeed after the time of Nigeria’s Labour leader 1, Late Michael Imodu.
Nigerians were mesmerized with Oshomole’s eloquence and audacity when he was leading the Trade Union Congress (TUC) of Nigeria.
The neglected and oppressed workers of Nigeria, who are the monkeys that work for the baboons to feed fat, heaved a sigh of relief when Adams Oshomole took over the Trade Unionism leadership with hope of finding lasting solution to the lingering problems of Nigerian workers.
Anybody who had the opportunity of hearing Adams Oshomole in those days at the labour Union platform concluded that at last the salvation the workers were seeking had finally come, because Adams spoke convincingly, assuring the workers that remedy had finally come to correct the problems besetting the labour force. Even governments and private employers of labour tremble any time Oshomole spoke for the workers.
But at a time Nigerian workers were still enjoying his charismatic leadership he sort of abandoned them for politics.
He contested for the governorship position of Edo State and won, thus became Edo State governor for eight years.
To-day Oshomole is the Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) - the party in the Central Government of Nigeria. He ousted John Odigie Oyegun who was vilified for his inability to give the party cohesion and order. Oyegun was blamed for bad leadership and the internal rumblings in the party leadership.
At the height of the APC internal crisis Oshomole maneuvered himself into power and assumed the national leadership of the party.
I had a singular opportunity of meeting John Odigie Oyegun in Abuja after his ousting from leadership. I visited a longtime friend of mine, who is currently serving as a Minister in the current administration, when Oyegun showed up in the Minister’s office.
While I was sitting, waiting for my turn to speak with the Minister, I overheard the discussions Oyegun was having with his host. I was impressed with the spirit of equanimity and fortitude exuding from Oyegun which, to me, spoke volumes of a man of honour who had seen it all. A man who had gone through thick and thin, yet appeared unhurt. I doff my hat for John Oyegun.
With what is happening in the APC to-day, I am sure that John Odigie Oyegun wherever he may be, must be thanking God like our former president Dr, Goodluck Ebelle Jonathan, who let go, as Oyegun did for peace to reign.
Recently, I watched Adams Oshomole on the telly where he was berating some APC governors whom he accused of ganging up against his leadership. It is true that some stakeholders in the party including some governors, have expressed serious concerns over the way the party is being run under Adams Oshopmole’s leadership. And these are among the group in the party routing for the removal of Oshomole.
From very reliable sources, about 15 out of 21 governors of the All Progressives Party are now collecting signatures to force Oshomole out of office perhaps with the collaboration of the National Executive Committee of the Party.
Those angling for the removal of Oshomole from the Chairmanship of the APC have even risen in number with a coalition of other APC Presidential aspirants and aspirants from various political levels within the party. The crisis arose as a result of primaries which were adjudged a failure by many party loyalists.
Oshomole has been accused of extortion and fraud; that he has become “a cancer” to the APC since assuming office of national chairman; that he was behaving like Adolf Hitler, the German Second World War Mastermind.
I can still remember very vividly, when Oshomole as Chairman of APC, lambasted a sitting Minister of the Federal Republic, threatening the Minister with sanction.
Watching Oshomole at very close range, one can see a leader with a brand of ideological and political purity displaying ostentatiously his track record of loquacious labour leadership trait.
The leadership of Adams Oshomole of the APC has recently been subjected to re-examination by a number of party members particularly some of the issues raised by the mother of the nation, Mrs. lsha Buhari.
My own view of Adams Oshomole, is that despite his undoubted qualities of leadership, he is unsuited by temperament, ideology, and judgement for the position of high command in APC which he currently occupies.
The cases of Zamfara, Edo and Rivers State were attributable at least in part to Adams errors of judgement and his refusal to face reality.
All of us in leadership positions some time make serious errors of judgement as humans, but we must stand alone to confront or even acknowledge the consequences of our actions instead of passing the blame to others.
Politics is a game of numbers and to be able to muster and harness great number of people, leadership must be extremely accommodating and caring.
Leadership is a process, not a position. Merely because one holds a title or position does not mean leadership, because leadership involves something which happens as a result of the interaction between a leader and his followers. The result of that interaction either for good or bad depends on the very leader.
Oshomole should have provided a level-playing ground to meet the diverse needs and aspirations of the teeming members of his party by adopting a reconciliatory posture, which would have gone a long way to douse tension and resolve all the differences and schisms in the party.
The extravagant showman- like leadership that is inherent in labour unionism with its fashionable French suit, with speeches which are usually padded with strong elements of knock about farce, is not acceptable and workable in politics. Such postures, with their hilarious vulgarity do not appeal to politicians and cannot work in politics with its multiple interests.
Oshomole should quickly go back to the drawing board, and perhaps without self inflation and adulatory reach out to his followers so that he would be able to empathize with the aggrieved party members to be able to win their loyalty and support.
And unless this happens, he would be unable to muster necessary human and material resources within the competing interests that have polarized the party to achieve successful outcome, come 2019.
Pride and arrogance should be put aside, so that he can build a consensus, needed in the party, that would be capable of healing the divisive wounds already very visible in the party.
Politics is a very serious and expensive game. It involves the destiny of the nation, the people and their resources. It is not a union affair like the labour unionism, that panders to only a minority interest.
Those extravagant showman- like leadership, peculiar with the labour union activity, is not an attractive strategy for political game.
How Oshomole manages APC for victory or failure in 2019 would determine his place in leadership. And history would be the best judge at the end of the day.
http://thebeaconewsnigeria.com/2018/11/leadership-oshomole-and-history/