It was blunders all the way as master of oratory prowess, the gadfly of Nigeria’s politics and until now the infant terrible of Edo politics began his quest to unseat Obaseki from Osadebey House. At the first public appearance in Iyamho, Oshiomole was at his unrepentant best, vocal, displaying his undisputed oriental command of the “oyingbo” language. He tried to dribble his audience with long tales of the moonlight, saying particularly nothing but brimming with false pride. The man who was once the darling of the people was a shadow of his former self; he tried to put up bravado, but no amount of dramatics could assuage the crowd from even giving ears to his quantum of lies. On this day, in his loquacious best—they all know that as a talkative—he wasn’t going to say anything productive. For example, on Obaseki, he said he came to eat food that had already been cooked; secondly, that Obaseki was a snake that should be killed; thirdly, that Obaseki was an impostor caught red-handed; fourthly, he said Obaseki ran away from the APC house they built and took refuge in another house; he said though he was sacked as APC chairman, he did not run away like Obaseki; therefore, Obaseki was a coward who did not wait to fight the battle to conclusive end; according to him, Obaseki should have waited like a man so that he could be crushed; he assured the hungry crowd that nevertheless, he was now home to ensure the job is finished! He then apologised to the people for making that horrible mistake of selling Obaseki to them in the first place; for that reason, he then ordered the crowd to jointly hunt and flush him out of that Osadebey House where he is believed to be hiding– even in PDP! He then resurrected the former “thief” he caught in 2016 in place of Obaseki the new “thief” he discovered in 2019! Who knows? Oshiomole may have reasoned that those he was addressing were not human beings. However, back to reality; Oshiomole forgot that the people were there to listen to what government was bringing on the table; They would have loved to know why the Okene-Okpella highway is not yet fit for government attention; why banditry, kidnapping, herdsmen have taken over the streets; Oshiomole did not tell the unemployed youths why he did not assist them with employment letters while he was the APC—the ruling party of Nigeria—national chairman, second only to the president. Instead he was there peddling lies, quantum of lies, lies and lies! Oshiomole did not tell them how his party would assist to reduce the tears, blood that flows in the streets; neither did he tell them why there is hunger, strife, poverty, starvation in the streets. Many of them who came to listen to him wanted to hear a different thing from what he said in 2012, 2016. This is 2020 and he is still singing the same boring tune despite the corona pandemic. His attitude is the height of mindless and spineless leadership—leadership of the stomach. What image is he painting with his jungle style politics when Nigeria is obviously in a democracy? Will he ever learn? Why is he not telling them what happened to the Benin Central Hospital under his care? Sometimes we need to draw a line and say it is enough. It is better someone tells him this: He is about to join the ranks of the former godfathers for Obaseki will surely defeat him a second time—as he did in Abuja.
