As Adams Oshiomole Plays The Devil’s Advocate | By: Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu

The Governor of Edo state Adams Oshiomole has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. Not only has he become  notorious for making all kinds of spurious allegations none of which he has ever provided any proof of, he has also veered off into playing the devil’s advocate and defending the indefensible.
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This much is evident in his unsolicited defence of Buhari’s unprecedented sectional appointments that received knocks from all people of good will and conscience across a broad spectrum of the Nigerian society with the convoluted argument that the appointments were based on merit. Curiously his advocacy was coming at time even the president himself, through his spokesman Femi Adesina had accepted that his appointments were indeed sectional, promising to correct it  in subsequent appointments. The APC had also likewise expressed their reservations over the appointments and declared their intention to be involved in subsequent appointments to make sure the principle of federal character is respected.
Against this backdrop,  one is left to wonder what Adam’s Oshiomole was trying to achieve in his overzealous rush to issue a press release justifying what those who stood accused had already accepted as wrongs. In making the argument for exclusion and return to the old order of nepotism on the basis of merit, Adams Oshiomole like all those who make such patently flawed arguments failed to explain the criteria or basis with which the merit was arrived at.
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Was it education? Because if it is; then the South would be better placed to access those appointments as even the large disparity in the cut-off  marks/IQ tests  for unity schools between the South and the North (as high as 139/200 for Anambra state and as low as 2/200 for Yobe state) has pretty much established. Was it experience and exposure? Because again if it is; then the South would obviously have more candidates who both schooled and worked at home and abroad in the merit driven private sector. These two criteria’s would constitute the most standard global requisites for merit and in both the South will clearly stand out. These stark realities perhaps explain why Adams Oshiomole and his co, travellers have shied away from explaining the criteria with which their strange concept of merit was arrived at.
Some have suggested that since his tenure as governor would soon terminate, his noisemaking gambit and nuisance value is premised on creating a relevance that might make the president accommodate him subsequently in his cabinet. Oshiomole was after all a Labour union comrade who used the same noise making and pretences of being on the side of the common man to market himself for the governorship of Edo state. His later admonishing of a widow trading by the roadside “to go and die if indeed she is a widow” as claimed, caught on camera, put a lie to his pretences of being on the side of the masses. But this is Nigeria, so he rode out the storm and here he is again on another gambit for relevance this time by playing the devil’s advocate.
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The last time I checked, Adam’s Oshiomole who is from Edo North has not packed his cabinet exclusively with people from Edo North (even though there is no constitutional requirement for federal character in states of the federation) on the flawed logic of merit, yet he is goading on Buhari to continue the politics of exclusion that he has not dared to do in Edo state. And this is in spite of the constitutional requirement for federal character at the centre. In other words, Adams Oshiomole is actively encouraging the president to violate the very constitution that brought him to power.
I hope Oshiomole realises that without respect for the constitution or the rule of law, society degrades to anarchy and tyranny. So those of them like himself who because of selfish interests would stand logic on its head should be careful what they justify. Merit is not an exclusive preserve of any group and the continuing attempt by his likes to justify the exclusion of sections of the country on that fraudulent, illegal and immoral premise amounts to foisting an Apartheid system on Nigerians.
Oshiomole by his logic might as well have defended Apartheid South Africa in it’s hey days.  All geo-political zones in Nigeria are awash with highly qualified persons and if Oshiomole can find qualified persons across his state to achieve a balancing and spread of appointments in his cabinet, I wonder why he believes Buhari cannot or should not do same at the centre where there are far more availability of persons of all persuasions.
The trending themes across the globe are inclusion and equality without which good governance cannot be achieved. In the 21st century it is abhorrent and an assault on humanity for anyone to justify exclusion, discrimination or inequality on whatever premise. Racism, Apartheid, nepotism, colonialism and all ideological premises for discrimination and exclusion have been rejected the world over. Only the Adam’s Oshiomole’s of this world and some irrational and self serving individuals still cling onto such inhumane absurdities.
Given Nigeria’s fragile state, it is obvious Oshiomole’s advocacy is not intended to serve any good and anyone who listens to him does so at his own peril. As if to put a final lie to the laughable claims of merit bandied by Oshiomole and his fellow enablers of injustice, Buhari has in the course of a recent interview with the BBC confessed that his appointments were based on kinship and nothing else. So much for the lie the Adams Oshiomole’s of this world have been trying to sell.
Lawrence Chinedu Nwobu can be reached via [email protected]

Godsday Orubebe calls Oshiomole an ingrate and sycophant. The Edo Governor fires back.

If you followed the trend of political events from January to this time, you would certainly agree that we’ve had a very interesting year. The war of words between Ex Niger Delta minister, Godsday Orubebe and Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomole was started by the former. 
Orubebe prodded the hornets’ nest when he told newsmen in Abuja yesterday that the Edo Governor was an ingrate and popular villa sycophant following the Oshiomole’s recent criticisms of the Goodluck Jonathan administration. 
“Oshiomhole is an ingrate and a popular villa sycophant who is quick to switch allegiance to whomever is in power. Human memory is short. It’s unfortunate that Oshiomhole who should talk like a governor is today, biting the fingers (Jonathan) that fed him and seems to have forgotten in a hurry that he once cried around the former president for assistance and recognition” he said.‎
Governor Adams Oshiomhole in his reaction described Orubebe a disgrace who is afraid of probe. A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Peter Okhiria reads below.
“Our attention has been drawn to the latest outburst of one clown called Godsday Orubebe in his attempt to taint the image of the Governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
“It is no surprise that the former president, Goodluck Jonathan failed woefully because he surrounded himself with such charlatans as Godsday Orubebe, whose only credential is his ethnic origin and the large size of his bowler hat.
“Here was a man whose un-ministerial conduct at the election nearly plunged the nation into an avoidable crisis. Does Orubebe really think Nigerians are fools, does he truly believe Nigerians have forgotten so soon the ignoble role he played in his attempt to truncate the release of the election results and announcement of the eventual winner of that election, a move which could have plunged the nation into another civil war?
“Is it not a shame that Orubebe who should be cooling off his heel in jail for that failed plot to truncate democracy has now found a convoluted voice?
“We are not surprised at the timing of Orubebe’s latest outburst. It is no doubt unconnected with the planned probe by President Muhammadu Buhari of the billions of naira allocated to the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, even as the East-West road remains in bad shape and the probe of the fleecing of amnesty funds under his watch.
“We are aware that Orubebe, the perpetual noise maker has raised the decibel of his noise a notch higher so that he would have a ready-made defence of witch-hunting if he is indicted in the planned probe of Amnesty funds.  
“Orubebe is a yesterday’s man. We could have chosen to ignore him like his Delta brother, Mr. Sunny Onuesoke, an unknown entity who doesn’t know the arithmetics of financing, but decided to delve into a matter of a World Bank loan, something completely beyond his mental and intellectual capacity, but we simply can’t let Orubebe have the last say.
“We are not unaware that it has now become the fad for drowning and neophyte politicians to take cheap shots at the impeccable character of the Comrade Governor just to gain cheap publicity. However, Orubebe’s image, as he himself knows, is beyond redemption. 
“Is it not laughable that Orubebe, the clown, accused Oshiomhole of biting the fingers that fed him? Pray, how did Jonathan feed Oshiomhole? Did he feed Oshiomhole by supervising over a government that fleeced the nation of trillions of naira, thereby denying Edo State her rightful share of funds for development? Or did he feed Oshiomhole by canvassing votes for him!
“Our candid advice is for Orubebe, a perpetual failed Governorship aspirant, to go to his family and apologise for the irreparable damage done to the family name with his infamous outburst beamed live to the whole world, before coming forward to confront Governor Adams Oshiomhole who is not in any way in the same class as him.
“It is no wonder that Nigeria was at a state of near collapse until President Muhammdu Buhari came on a rescue mission and rendered people like Orubebe irrelevant.
“Never again will characters like Orubebe take us on the path of Golgotha; never again will they hold sway in the affairs of Nigeria and ruin the collective aspiration of the people.”‎

Oshiomole is afflicted with numerical diarrhoea – Okonjo-Iweala

Ex finance minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has claimed that Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo state is suffering from numerical diarrhoea after he alleged that she took $1billion to fund the re-election bid of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
In a statement issued by her media adviser, Paul C Nwabuikwu, Okonjo-Iweala, he described Oshiomhole’s accusations as another false, baseless allegation.
“The allegation by Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State that former Minister of Finance Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala spent $1 billion out of the Excess Crude Account to fund the re-election bid of former President Jonathan is the kind of ludicrously false statement that has unfortunately become a trademark of the Governor in his public campaign of falsehood against Dr Okonjo-Iweala,” the statement said.

“The statement is just another example of the numerical diarrhea that seems to have afflicted His Excellency in recent times in his effort to damage the reputation of the former Minister.

“He has, within the last few months, asked Dr Okonjo-Iweala to explain all kinds of totally wild and unsubstantiated figures, ranging from $30 billion, $20 billion, $2.1 billion, N720 billion and now $1 billion.”
“Governor Oshiomhole’s published comments also contain other falsehoods. For instance, he quoted Dr Okonjo-Iweala as saying that she and the Finance Commissioners of the 36 states approved the spending of $2.1 billion out of the Excess Crude Account, adding that the Commissioners had disowned the statement. This is also a complete distortion.
“Dr Okonjo-Iweala never said the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) approved spending out of the ECA. Rather as the Commissioners themselves stated, the former Minister of State Finance informed them that former President Jonathan approved the expenditure to end the debilitating fuel queues across the country.
“As Nigerians know, the Finance Ministry under Okonjo-Iweala regularly published details of revenue allocations from the ECA in national media. So Oshiomhole’s tortured “calculations” based on his “four figure tables” are mere political numbers conjured to achieve a political purpose. Nigerians can see through the elaborate antics.
“Governor Oshiomhole’s latest statement, like earlier ones, labours to give the impression that the entire FAAC process which involves the Federal Government and the 36 states of the Federation is a personal monopoly of Dr Okonjo-Iweala.
“This is, of course not true. FAAC is a long standing national platform for allocating revenues chaired by the Minister of State Finance. The governor’s insistence on pushing this clearly fictional narrative underscores his desperation.
“It is instructive that Governor Oshiomhole is a key member of the committee set up by the National Economic Council to investigate the ECA spending. His continuing attacks against Dr Okonjo-Iweala seem to suggest that he has lost confidence in this platform which he deployed to make some of his initial false and baseless allegations. The Governor does not seem to appreciate that he is undermining the very credibility of the committee.‎
“Once again, we ask: why are Oshiomhole and his cohorts so ready to sacrifice truth, precedent and decency in this political witch hunt against Dr Okonjo-Iweala? We are confident that they will fail because truth will triumph,” the statement read.‎

"I advised my son not to marry a Nigerian woman" -Oshiomole's mum

Hajia Aishetu Oshiomhole the mother of Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomole has debunked claims that she wasn’t in support of his marriage to his Cape Verdean wife, Iara Fortes.
Recall that the Governor tied the knot with the beautiful lawyer last Friday after mourning his late wife, Clara who died of cancer, for 5 years.
In an interview with Vanguard Newspapers, Hajia said she advised his son not to get married to Nigerian women because they are materialistic and could destroy the family over his acquisitions.

“I supported him to marry a foreigner so that the relationship between my son and his children will remain cordial. Our Nigerian women will go and destroy the family just because they want property.  That was the main reason I supported him to marry a foreigner when he told me about it. So I am happy about it. Besides, the new wife is a very good woman. She behaves like Comrades late wife.

She is very accommodating, understanding and hard working. And you know my son travels a lot as a governor. He needs a woman who understands his work and that is the kind of wife he married. She is just like Clara. Normally, people spend two years or less before they marry again but Comrade decided to wait for five years due to the love he had for his late wife. 
And Clara was a good person, very lovely and nice to all of us. So we supported Comrade for taking time to re-marry because we loved Clara. Comrade and the former wife lived very happily, there was no quarrel, nothing at all and that was why he mourned for five years. I am happy that he brought a wife that will bring him and the children together”.

"My new wife is caring and understands my weaknesses"- Governor Adams Oshiomole

Governor Adams Oshiomole who exchanged marital vows with Iara Fortes, a cape verdean model and lawyer yesterday has described his wife as caring and humble woman who also understands his weaknesses.
The former labour leader while fielding questions from journalists about his big day yesterday described the occasion as a very special one and also appreciated friends who came from all walks of life to celebrate with him.
“This is something that one is happy about. I am also happy that 
I have friends across all political divide. The occasion reminds me that across all divides, we have friends and well-wishers.”
Asked about his new wife, Oshiomole said “She is very humble and She appreciates the nature of my job and life that I return home late, some times 3am
She understands my weaknesses, she is more or less the mother of the house, the one that has accepted to be the mother of my children.
“I am happy that all my children
 are at home with her and accept her as their mother even though she is not old enough to be their mother. She has accepted to fill that gap.”
Present at the occasion were top dignitaries; President-elect, General Buhari, Prof Yemi Osibanjo and his wife Dolapo, Yakubu Gowo, Jim Ovia, Raymond Dokpesi, Liyel Imoke, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Dr Samuel Ogbemudia, Peter Obi, Femi Otedola, Chief Tom Ikimi, Gen. Alhaji Aliko-Dangote and many others. The Governor’s children Steve, Adams, Jane and two of his grandchildren
were also present.
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