“The quality of our lives depends not on whether or not we have conflicts, but on how we respond to them.”
—Thomas Crum, author
By Enyeribe Ejiogu
Senator Adams Oshiomhole, former governor of Edo State, is a notable son of Edo North, which he represents in the 10th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Love him or hate him, he does not give a damn. One thing you cannot do is pocket him. His carriage and lexical command of the English Language give him a presence. When he is in his elements, his voice booms and dominates the room. Though he is a ‘senior brother’ to Mallam Nasir el-Rufai in the height department, both have a connection to Kaduna, the political capital of the old Northern Region.
It was in Kaduna that Oshiomhole cut his activism teeth in the labour movement when in 1982, he was appointed the General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, which had over 75,000 members at the time. He was working as a staff of Arewa Textiles Nigeria Limited in Kaduna. When he rose to the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, he became a veritable thorn in the flesh of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, during which time he led the labour unions to challenge anti-people policies of the two administrations.
Oshiomhole wears controversy like an outfit, the same way he adorns his trademark short-sleeve French suits. He has never been shy to engage in controversial interventions on issues that impinge on important national matters and welfare of the people. People have supported him for calling out organizations in the power and petroleum sectors for actions and practices detrimental to the economy and welfare of the populace.
However, his recent brush with Air Peace did not exactly win him friends among Nigerians, both at the domestic terminal of Lagos airport and on the social media.
Niger Delta gadfly, Asari Dokubo, is credited to have coined the popular saying, “If you do anyhow, you see anyhow.” That was exactly what netizens served up on social media when video recordings began circulating on X (formerly Twitter) and shared on WhatsApp groups. One of the viral videos showed Oshiomhole displaying less-than-honourable conduct which many disgusted Nigerians felt should not be associated with a person of his rank and status, having been a former state governor for eight years, former national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and is currently the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Interior.
Hundreds of other netizens like JossyJake and OriBadBoi quickly reached back into digital archives and dug up records of his past public brushes with a cross section of very ordinary people, notable Nigerians, corporate bodies and public sector agencies.
They recalled the particular case of the widow he encountered roasting corn by the roadside while he was inspecting a road project, when he was Edo State governor. Despite the woman’s pathetic story, he callously said to her “Go and die.”
Expectedly, this caused umbrage across the country and among Nigerians in the Diaspora who pilloried and hammered him in the mainstream newspapers, radio, television and on the Internet. He ended up inviting the hapless widow to the Government House, to apologise and drink tea with her. He also gave her a reasonable cash gift to enable her to get a shop and support her corn business.
Following an initial statement by the airline in which it complained about the disruption of the passenger check-in operations of itself and other airlines and the release of the video of the incident on social media by an aggrieved Nigerian, both of which went viral, Senator Oshiomhole spoke to journalists and made his case to the public.
He accused Air Peace of preventing passengers from boarding while allegedly reselling seats at inflated prices to others on the spot.
In his statement to the media, Oshiomhole said: “I booked Air Peace. They delayed the flight for over five hours. In the end, they announced a cancellation. I had to get another ticket. Yesterday, I booked a flight for 6:30 a.m., which is their first flight today (Wednesday). I booked and asked them to check me in online, which I did, along with two other Ghanaians who met me in Lagos. We checked in online just to avoid the last-minute issues I’ve had with them a couple of times.
“I got there at about five minutes past six. They told me the counter was closed. I told them, ‘No, I’ve already checked in.’ I showed them the evidence of my online check-in. Even before then, they had asked if I had checked in, and I told them yes, and that I had no luggage. They looked at it but still said the gate had been closed. I noticed they were still taking other people in.
“Meanwhile, the airline was selling tickets on the spot for between N200,000 and N300,000. To take advantage of the situation, they discouraged those who had bought tickets online at lower rates and sold to people willing to pay more.”
When Oshiomhole’s allegations that Air Peace extorted its passengers hit the social media, the airline bristled and fired off a hot rebuttal while doubling down on its previous statement that the senator missed his flight due to late arrival for final onsite check-in formalities that are in line with global practices.
In the subsequent statement, Air Peace said Oshiomhole “lied blatantly” and “deliberately peddled falsehood” by accusing it of extorting its passengers.
“We challenge Senator Oshiomhole to bring one piece of evidence of a passenger that was extorted. None of our staff ever extorted passengers. In fact, no ticket was sold after the closure of check-in on that flight. Everyone who flew bought their ticket prior to the flight closure.
Again, our flight was never overbooked as some of his videos alleged. In fact, the aircraft took off with over 30 empty seats. It would have been in our interest to carry Oshiomhole and those others who missed their flights for lateness on this flight, instead of flying many empty seats; but we will never sacrifice our strict on-time performance for monetary gains.
“It’s absolutely false that he was offered preferential treatment and that he was fighting for others. Senator Oshiomhole was not fighting for anyone. He came to the airport late and was told that he was late. He then began to foment trouble. He jumped on the baggage conveyor belt preventing the check-in process of other flights. He also barricaded the entrance gate and prevented access to the terminal. While he was doing all these, he also deliberately instigated other passengers against the Airline.
“We call on the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to release the CCTV coverage starting from the time Senator Oshiomhole entered the airport, for Nigerians to see. His accusation of extortion is very defamatory. His conduct was very violent, unbecoming, unfortunate and above all, shameful.”
It is settled wisdom that two wrongs cannot make a right opined several netizens. One of them, Jesse Web3 Guy, an IT consultant, argued that Senator Oshiomhole could have handled his disapproval of the airline’s alleged action of “preventing him from boarding the flight despite initiating the process online” in an elegant manner, through the lawful means of having his battery of lawyers write and jointly sign a strongly worded letter to Air Peace, to demand an apology from the airline for the alleged inconvenience caused to him and his travel companions.
Adding his voice, Joseph Ibezim, a marketing strategist and perception management consultant, who is advising the promoters of a new media group said: “By his theatrics and the alleged disruption of flight operations of both Air Peace and other domestic airlines, done in the presence of his Ghanaian guests, Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole demarketed Nigeria. Instead, he resorted to self help not befitting a ‘Distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’ as members of the Red Chamber of the National Assembly love to be described.”