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The duo shares some striking similarities. And somehow difficult to ignore. You will marvel at their journeys of life. They started so well. So impressive as two jolly friends.
It snowballed into close political associates. They worked together harmoniously. One supporting the other. They coasted home comfortably, hitch-free. The relationship blossomed and boomed all the way.
Then the anti-climax. And they parted ways. Violently, of course, as typical of Nigerian politicians. You can’t kill the inherent greed in them. They disagreed never to agree again. They refused to see eye-to-eye ever since.
At the end. They were able to govern a South-South state one after the other. And eight unbroken years each. Aren’t they lucky? But never again have their different paths crossed. The deep gulf is widening by the second.
The characters: Adams Oshiomhole and Godwin Obaseki. Past and immediate past helmsmen of Edo State. They tragically came to the end of their cordial relationship. Transmuted into foes. And sworn enemies. Sweet memories turned bitter and sour.
That’s how far their ties could carry them. Their dissimilarities are the matters arising now. And they are being thrown to our face. Oshiomhole offers to open the old wounds. Unsolicited!
He is endowed with an uncanny nature. He talks forcefully. And he does it with all the energy he can muster. He puts in everything. All things into his actions and inactions. As if all he vomits is the gospel truth.
The exact opposite is nearly the case. He’s always dogged. Feigning he’s on top of every situation that comes his way.
You will never believe or imagine. That it’s the same old Adams Oshiomhole. That all used to want to hear him spit fire.
Remember his uncommon exploits? That fiery leader of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC)? Dreaded and feared by former President Olusegun Obasanjo! He was a painful thorn in his thick flesh. Excruciating pain in this neck. Uneasy yoke when his tenure lasted.
But that Oshiomhole is no longer the same. He has changed. He has metamorphosed. Over the past turbulent years. A lot of his water has passed under a lot of his bridges.
He willingly underwent transmutation, alteration and conversion. All at the same alarming rate. To fit fittingly into his new role. And the result: Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole! He violently jettisoned his Comrade tag.
Pity! How deep he has sunk and still sinking. Consider how awful he has degenerated. And still degenerating. He keeps on decaying and crumbling. At the speed of light. As the clock ticks, he worsens.
Guess what? He’s not in any way prepared. Not now. To watch his way. Or halt his rapid down below movement. He believes he’s enjoying the bliss of the moment. “Iwo lokan.” It’s your time. Enjoy it to the fullest. But be rest assured. The same time will tell.
He has gone viral. Singing like a troubled canary. Speaking like a strange, confused parrot. His latest jive is trending fast. His prey is the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari. And he cares less whether his target is in or out of hospital. Home or abroad.
He brazenly took him to the cleaners.
He did a critical critique of Buhari’s eight dark years. He was overwhelmed with eternal regrets. Oshiomhole sincerely wished Buhari never happened to us. But he did!
He opened what he perceived as Buhari’s can of stinking worms. The very reason we are where we are today. The All Progressives Party (APC) governors gathered in Benin, his Edo State, to hear him out:
“In the Senate, we have the record that they printed over ₦31 trillion, which they called Ways and Means.” He was once a governor. He knows their “politricks” of governance.
He surged on: “You know when the government wants to deceive the people they use jargon. They called it Ways and Means.” Oshiomhole pretended to see beyond the deceit:
“But it is a situation in which the government prints banknotes, not based on what we have earned or any resources and just print banknotes to go and share to the people to meet their money illusion.”
He dug deeper: “To understand the root cause of the present cost of living and the exchange rate regime, you must trace it and locate it in terms of the excessive amount of banknotes through so-called Ways and Means, which the past government created and which this government has eliminated.
“Nigeria was borrowing every day the way fish drink water. It has now become Tinubu’s responsibility to pay back those loans in order to guarantee the sovereignty of Nigeria.”
But, did Tinubu complain in any way? Is that not his job? He begged for it. He told us to “follow the person wey know road.” We were forced to oblige him. He snatched it. But, how far has he successfully run with it?
In essence, Oshiomhole was passing Tinubu’s buck to Buhari’s stinking table. Tinubu many times spoke profoundly about Buhari and his regime. Where was this Oshiomhole then? He was dancing, hailing Tinubu all the way.
He vowed to continue where Buhari sank and abandoned us. He’s perfectly just doing that. He has not derailed. He has not stumbled. If their greed caused them to forget what they told us, our memory would not fail us.
He forgot one vital point. It’s a huge factor in the unfolding equation. It keys into his known element with accurate precision. It didn’t occur to Oshiomhole that he was exposing the failures of the immediate past regime and present rulers.
He did not have that rare discerning heart. That Buhari and Tinubu are one, same entity. They are of the same feather. They flock together with seamless ease. They are inseparable.
Oshiomhole goofed. He behaved as if he was making any startling revelation. As if we did not know what he believed was exclusive. He thought we would jump to our feet uncontrollably.
That we would clap our hearts out for him, his co-senators. And give them a standing ovation for a job well done. They planned to use it to keep us busy. And divert our attention, engaging in nothingness and emptiness.
They erroneously missed the point. We have successfully moved up. We are no longer on that pedestrian level. Nothing more is new under the heavens. Not even in this our uncouth clime.
Oshiomhole was merely crying foul about spilled and spoilt milk. We would not be moved. It was a decoy. Not new to us in any form particular. His strenuous effort was couched in a loose skit!
We first knew this far back on Thursday, April 8, 2021. Courtesy: Godwin Obaseki. The man who governed Edo State after Oshiomhole. The two old horses spoke in the same Benin.
Obaseki simply chose to explode beyond just ordinary. He dared Buhari and his cohorts. He was sick of the murderous manner the economy was being run.
The economy was literally on its knees in the abattoir. He couldn’t stomach it anymore. He let us into his disturbed mind. And exposed the economy was being run aground.
He was honest enough. He admitted collective blame and responsibility: “With the way we run Nigeria, the country can go to sleep. At the end of the month, we just go to Abuja, collect money and we come back to spend. We are in trouble, huge financial trouble.”
He was specific and cried out: “When we got FAAC for March (2021), the Federal Government printed additional N50-N60 billion to top-up for us to share.”
Wasn’t this scandalous? It was and still it is. Our rulers are criminally-minded. Their “messiah” they forced down our dry throats in 2015. Their man of impeccable integrity. The Buhari who finally crashed us from top-to-bottom by May 29, 2023.
Obaseki was not done with us yet. He was not tired or bored. He made a spirited second coming in October 2022. It was a stronger repeat performance. He yelled to the wild wind:
“Every day, every month, they are printing money to pay salaries. When I cried out (more than a) year ago, I never knew it was as bad as this.”
You borrow to pay salaries and not to produce. Where will get money to pay back? The reason they just rolled their machine. And printed naira like leaflets.
Obaseki’s fervent prayer from the bottom of his heart: “God forbid APC comes into power, this country will break, this country will fail. APC is threatening the co-existence of this country.”
He prayed the prayer in 2022. This is 2025! Let’s hang it there.
Obaseki’s namesake was the chief printer of the banknotes. He fought back vehemently. He would not allow him go unchallenged. And he came hard on him.
He is Godwin Emefiele, Buhari’s Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). He gave Obaseki close marking. A hot chase.
He expressed his misgivings accordingly: “If you understand the concept of printing money, it’s about lending money. That is our job. To print is about lending money. There is no need putting up controversy about printing money as if we go into the factory, print the naira and start distributing on the streets.”
Then what exactly did you do?
Emefiele saw nothing wrong in churning naira like handbills. The reason naira collapsed on his head. The excess printed naira was brazenly used to mop up foreign exchange. They bought off dollars and crashed naira forever!
And see Oshiomhole sounding like one old, odd broken record these days. A noisy and lousy canary. What a confused parrot!
He was at a critical stage an active participant while Buhari reigned. Prominent partner for that matter. What ignorance is he trying to put up? Imagine the awkward singsong he’s singing.
That we didn’t know his deeds and deals? That we forgot his infamous, notorious quote: “Come to APC, and your sins are forgiven and forgotten”?
Come off it! Tell that to the marines. Or jump out of the fast-moving train if you care. Better still, let him throw himself violently under the train.
He should stop injuring our psyche. If he has run out of his shenanigans, he should just shut up. And remain so forever.
Wicked souls all. May the ilk of these wolves and hawks never come near our tents again. They are all over. They have saturated our choked space. Prowling; looking for who to destroy.
We refuse to yield to them. We won’t fall prey again!
