Has Adams Oshiomhole blown it?

Tunde Fagbenle

Impetuous and irascible are two words by which you could describe Adams Oshiomhole if you want to be nice to him. Tempestuous and uncouth, if not. Unfortunately, in the last week or so Adams had, in a moment of uncontrolled rage like a drunken sailor, brought the roof down on himself! If there were a cruel curse on him, say the curse of an Anenih, or something, it couldn’t be worse.

Helped immeasurably by that modern communication technology, the Internet with its fiery social media, the video of the diminutive Edo State governor heartlessly telling a widow begging for mercy to “go and die” went viral in a matter of days if not hours. No one saw the video that wasn’t shocked and repulsed by it. One really should spare the reader details of the nasty encounter especially as Adams has gone to some great and sober extent to try “undo” the deed, but there’s no dealing with the issue and the lessons to be learnt without necessarily recounting it, no matter how skimpily.

The poor young woman, probably in her thirties, who we now know to be Joy Ifije, in contravention of a new environmental sanitation law, had displayed her market wares on one of the Benin town centre roads the government is laboriously broadening and cleaning up. The “action governor” that Adams is known to be, he was personally leading his team on inspection of the roads when the woman was caught. The governor ordered the wares to be confiscated immediately. Joy Ifije, as typical in situations like that, sprawled herself at the feet of the governor, crying and begging for mercy as if her life depended on it – which apparently it did. “Have mercy upon me, please,” she cried,“I am a widow.” But if she thought her plea of mitigation would soften the heart of the rampaging governor, she was dead wrong. Adams looked down upon the wailing woman and, loud and clear, spat out those now immortal words: “you are a widow (so what?), go and die!”

In the manner the video went viral evoking the outrage of a dumbfounded world, there was no telling what could have happened had the governor not eaten the humble pie by quickly sending his search team to go and find the woman and gone public begging her for forgiveness and recompensing her in a transformative way. Not only did Adams give her a couple million naira to restore her life, he employed her as an agent of “public reformation” to join in the government’s campaign against such misdemeanour as hers. Her job? To go about saying to others, “don’t do what I did to become a millionaire, o!” And, in the words of a popular youth rap: “oriyatos’ori…” Meaning, head no be the same.

Glad Oshiomhole found and “bought over” the woman, and as quickly as he did. Had a wicked mind(say one which placed the curse on Adams for a start, were there such one), thought of the idea of quickly taking her into “protective custody” whilst the public rage spiralled, fuelled by all manner of rumours also deliberately spun on her “disappearance”, it is possible that the government would have been brought down by now, overrun by an uncontrollable mob. Such was the outrage the video provoked.

So shall we say, “all is well that ends well” for Adams and the lucky woman?And as my brother, Femi Fani-Kayode, posted on his Facebook page of it: “I am very impressed and I hope that our public officials will learn from this and display a similar amount of remorse, humility and contrition when they do something wrong. It takes a real man to apologise. Kudos to Oshiomhole and congrats to the widow.”

Anyone who knows Adams knows of his stubbornness, it is legendary. In his mind, whatever was said and done was “for the common good,” in working for a better society of higher values of cleanliness and observance of rules. And what he meant was “being a widow does not give you the right to endanger people’s lives and thereby possibly turning some others into widows!” And so only God knows the amount of work his aides and friends would have wrought on him to bring him down from such high horse. But that is not the issue: Adams has begged the woman and she has given him the understanding and pardon he had denied her in his fit of temper.

But has the unfortunate incident done permanent damage to Adams’ stature in national politics, or can the stormy petrel bounce back to the hearts of his teeming admirers, of which this writer numbers one? For how long would this sordid event haunt him? Would this clip his wings and castrate his balls (no puns intended)? I cannot imagine an Adams without his fieriness, blasting all and sundry.

I witnessed one such occasion a couple of years ago in Abuja at thepublic anniversary lecture of the Leadership newspaper. The hall broke in thunderous applause of Oshiomhole as he loudly castigated some of his colleague governors who had sauntered in late, disrupting the lecture proceeding with their pomp rather than enter quietly and apologetically as their tardiness demanded. I was impressed with Adams and wrote about it.

Then only some months ago when a group of well-meaning Nigerians formed an action group called “Kick-out Siddon Look 2015” with the aim of finding the right president for Nigeria in 2015, one with the qualities and antecedents to inspire and lead Nigerians into a truly great nation; the group, in finding such a candidate and an ideal running mate, proposed to galvanise Nigerians in the millions to back them up with the force of their numbers come 2015. During the short-lived search, only two names kept recurring more than any other in the polls: Tunde Fashola of Lagos and Adams Oshiomhole of Edo! Retired colonel DangiwaUmar of Kaduna was another.

As I said, I have been a fan of Adams Oshiomhole for a long time, taken in by his down-to-earth-ness, his populist attire and no-nonsense approach to governance to which he has brought some freshness and seriousness. There have also been substantial reports, in the media and witness accounts, of how much he has rescued Benin City and Edo State as a whole from the wretchedness and brigandage of his predecessor but one, the clueless Lucky Igbinedion. However, I must quickly add that not everyone has been “hoodwinked” by Adam’s “media-hyped performance,” as my friend Lawson Omokhodion put it, And Lawson is from Edo State and goes there often.

As gaffes go, we have them. Wasn’t there one man who once as agric minister said not until all Nigerians began to eat off dustbins would he know there was poverty in the land, and he remained politically relevant? And another who as communications minister said telephone was not meant for poor Nigerians, and he still ended up being the senate president? Nigerians are forgiving people and may yet forgive Adams that thoughtless gaffe especially if he rounds off his second term creditably well and winning over the Lawsons of his state.

Hope Oshiomhole and other leaders have learnt all lessons there are to learn in the Joy Ifije story. True leadership is about humility and humanity. And that’s saying it the way it is!