As soon as he emerged as chairman of the ruling party, his first mission was to try to persuade aggrieved members who were threatening to leave the party not do so. Speaking of the challenges within the APC on the day he was elected chairman of the party, Oshiomhole said they shall overcome.
“As things stand now, we have no other party than the APC. Let us strengthen it so that it can provide comfort to every member irrespective of ethnic or religious background,” he said, admitting that “I am aware there are challenges here and there but the team that has just been elected has the capacity to address those challenges.”
And that was what he sought to do – address the challenges by appealing to prominent members not to defect. He lavished praises on Senate President, Bukola Saraki and other party bigwigs saying that without them, APC would not have won the elections in 2015.
Likewise, on the July 19, 2018, Oshiomhole showered encomiums on Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom. While addressing journalists at the party’s secretariat in Abuja, shortly after his meeting with Ortom, Oshiomhole described the governor as one of the star performers of the APC. He also described Governor Ortom as an honourable man.
Oshiomhole went further to state that the party would do everything to keep the Benue State governor within its fold “like a highly valued diamond and not let him defect to another party,” stressing that “Governor Ortom is not going anywhere. He is a very prominent member of our party. We appreciate his leadership in Benue and we will do everything possible to help those who have issues to have those issues resolved.” But one week later, the story changed as Ortom dumped the ruling party. The party chairman who had earlier showered praises on him, turned round and berated the governor in an unprecedented manner for leaving the party.
Surprisingly, Oshiomhole expressed relief over the defection of Ortom. While addressing pressmen at the APC national secretariat in Abuja, he said: “I am relieved as a national chairman and I believe that the leadership of the party in Benue State is also relieved that Ortom has left the party and returned to the club he belongs to. A club whose philosophy is to share the money and not develop communities.”
Ortom, who was not pleased with Oshiomhole’s remark fired back at him, advising him to learn the difference between being party chairman and union leader. Speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Terver Akase, Governor Ortom stated that Oshiomhole’s recent diatribe against him has revealed the plot hatched by APC leaders within and outside Benue to throw the state into political crisis ahead of the 2019 elections.
“We were shocked when a few days later after Ortom’s defection from APC, we read Comrade Oshiomhole making 180 degrees turn to launch verbal attacks on the governor,” Akase said.
According to him, the APC National Chairman’s sudden aggression towards Governor Ortom has revealed among other things, the true oppressive intentions of the ruling party against Nigerians.
He further stated that: “A man of supposed high political stature like Oshiomhole should rather be out to court the sympathy of the very few key actors still left in the APC even in the face of unprecedented frustration by anomalies in the party instead of launching laughable verbal assaults on those who can no longer stand the strange happenings within the party.”
Oshiomohle’s highhandedness is not limited to those who just left his party. It has been extended to some cabinet members of President Muhammadu Buhari. He threatened to sack Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige after accusing the minister of failing to inaugurate boards of parastatals under his ministry as directed by the president several months after.
A bitter Ngige had told Oshiomhole that he would not hurriedly inaugurate the board of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) because of a pending N40 billion corruption case involving the former board. Oshiomhole concluded that Ngige’s conduct constitutes a lack of respect for the president and the party and could lead to his dismissal from the party and his position.
He said: “If the minister refuses, we will suspend him from the party. For me, it is the height of mischief for any minister. You cannot purport to be an honourable minister and you act dishonorably and nobody is greater than the party.” Taking a swipe at President Buhari, the former Edo State governor also said: “And if the President condones disrespect for his office, I will not condone disrespect for the party. And when we expel the minister, we will prevail on the president that he can’t keep him in his cabinet; people who have neither respect for his own decisions nor have respect for the party without which they would not have been ministers.”
Not done yet, Oshiomhole also extended the dismissal threat to Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, who he alleged has also failed to inaugurate some boards under his ministry. For some people who may still wonder where Oshiomole is coming from, he was president of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, from 1999 to 2007. He was known for his doggedness. Many are of the view that if he does not change his ways, it may have a grave consequence on the fortunes of the party.
In a thought provoking manner, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Lasun Yusuff, lent his voice to the many voices that have condemned the way and manner the former labour leader is going about his chairmanship of the party.
He warned that Oshiomohle will destroy the party. Speaking at an event last week, Yusuff said: “I hope the chairman will wake up. That chairman is going to destroy that party. The chairman of that party is going to destroy it. Let me be specific, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole is going to destroy APC. I will not leave the party. I am going to stay right inside it, if the party is going to collapse, let it collapse on all of us. If it is going to survive, we are going to survive in it together.”
On the impeachment notice served on Governor Ortom by eight lawmakers in the state, the Deputy Speaker lamented that: “What is going on in Benue is sickening. It is not constitutional. It is not reasonable. It is not morally right and it can never be supported by anyone. I still don’t believe people can still go back to that kind of level where in a 30-member House, eight will seat and serve an impeachment notice on a serving governor. They are not covered by the constitution.”
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Speaking with The Next Edition in a telephone chat, Okunade Sijuade, a member of the APC in Lagos State said: “The man has not realized that he is the national chairman of a party and not governor of Edo State. He has to be subtle in going about his business. His predecessor was not perfect but he did not go around harassing members of his party like this. For instance, the manner in which he is challenging a respectable member of the party like Chief Ngige is wrong.”
It would be recalled that a former PDP chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, was also accused of destroying the party ahead of the 2015 general elections. Some prominent members of the PDP dumped the party for the APC then, due to what they viewed as Tukur’s dictatorial ways. Some political pundits are of the view that if Oshiomhole does not desist from his ways, more members may leave the ruling party. Then, history would have repeated itself.