By Levinus Nwabughingu
It may as well be his last major  media interview before he  bows out as governor of Edo State in another two weeks, after serving two terms. Comrade Adams Oshiomhole spoke to journalists at Aso Rock Presidential Villa, last week, after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

How was the meeting with Buhari?

My meeting with Mr. President was a privileged one, one-on-one just to update him on what we are doing. It was a routine thing to give him report on progress, events, development, what we have accomplished. We are also inviting him to the state to see what we are doing not just in Benin  City but  also  in the three senatorial districts so that he can   commission them. There are outstanding projects that I believe deserve  Presidential commissioning.

How do you feel after  eight  years as governor and what will you be remembered for?

I want to be remembered as a factory worker who worked and laboured as a daily paid worker in the most subordinated position in the textile mills, rising to become the leader of the textile union and eventually spending eight years as the President of the largest mass-driven, mass-funded non-governmental organization which the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, represents. And moving from there back home  I  confronted  the most  feared political godfathers that completely monopolized the politics of Edo State.

Adams Oshiomhole

And against the background that I came on the platform of a new political party, that part of  my mission was to purge the state of godfathers which is the pre-condition for liberal democracy to thrive and to create a new political environment that is sufficiently liberal such that the people, not the godfathers, determine who becomes what in the politics of our state.

Edo became a laughing stock in the comity of states. All that you will hear about our state was that armed robbers had  taken over, examinations  were cancelled because our parents were using miracle centers for examinations. Everything reported about Edo  was negative and I committed myself to addressing all of that.

How did you take that?

I remember this meeting I had with some  editors  in Lagos to inform them of my intention to contest the governorship of Edo. And they were unanimous that it will be mission impossible and they took time to lecture me about the power of godfathers, that Edo had unfair concentration of the most  aggressive of these godfathers. They had money, influence, connection. And they didn’t think that, with my background, equipped only with my mouth and a level of courage and without money, it will be possible for me to engage those forces. But I also told them that  I am a product of the struggle against everything  that is wrong with society, every unblessed power that dominates, harasses, intimidates, exploits, subjugates society. It will flourish only to the extent that the victims of that order accept not to question or that they are intimidated to submit to it and wallow in self-pity believing that only God gives.

I said from my experience from the trade union, from the day I wrote the letter of employment in which I promised to obey all rules and regulations, including the ones I never knew what there were about and not a party to, having gotten a job, I rose to fight that order and create a new order in which rules were to be negotiated, which we call collective agreement. I realized that every unjust order can be overthrown when victims of that order have resolved to fight, challenge and to organise rather than agonise. And that the godfathers can be defeated and they would be defeated. 

If you look at the billboards erected during my campaigns, they were not just speaking to infrastructure or whatever there are that government will do if we win, but that we can defeat rigging, dismantle rigging and dismantle the godfathers.

Now eight, years on the job, looking back, I believe I have noting more to proof. I have defeated the godfathers, all of them even in this last election. In my election in 2012, we defeated them. The  one that was a  foreign minister who boasted that he created his local government, we don’t dispute that he created it but we disputed that he is the owner and we defeated him in the last election and in the last  House of Assembly election. The other one that has a powerful TV station  we defeated him even in the last election. It is clear that they are all down and, by the special grace of God, I’m the only one standing. To that extent, I feel fulfilled.

The second thing in terms of what has changed as a result of this is that, the resources that would have been used to service them (the godfathers), we have channelled  creatively to deal with those critical infrastructure, a situation that  has made a difference in the quality of life of Edo people. I mean if you go to Benin  City today, there is no question,  even our critics ride on our roads with comfort. If you go to Edo  Central, you will find that we have constructed roads linking all the local government areas. We have rebuilt our schools such that from 32nd position in WAEC and NECO in the past, we came second last year. And recall my engagement and interrogation with teachers? That has translated to result. As a result of that, we can now say that Edo  has truly, free basic education. When a state says it has basic education and the children are not in school or learning under the tree, that is not education. Today, our schools are much more appealing to our students than the average private school. And in all the competitions they have participated in  children from Edo public schools, not private, won. Our children won mathematics competition including the one organised in the USA. This shows how much has changed not just in terms of quantity but quality.

I was just telling the President that one of the projects he is coming to commission is a five-star hospital. It is one that I had a challenge between rebuilding an  old  Government House that was built during the Midwest Region and  occupied by the first premier, Osadebe, which is why we call it Osadebe Avenue, and building a five-star no hospital for the use of the average Edo person.

For those of you who have visited Benin  City, there was no single drainage, no sidewalk, no single street light but now if you go to Benin, night life has returned.  And there is no better proof of the confidence that the people has reposed  in us than the fact that not only did I win my re-election but also  the last election.

What is your response to the allegation that you rigged the last (2016) election  despite the fact that you benefited from a free and fair election in 2012?

Who are those complaining, the PDP? In your honest evaluation of Nigeria’s political history, since after the  1999 elections  conducted by the military, which political party has been known to wallow in rigging, perfecting the architecture of rigging in Nigeria? It is the PDP. Who did the court find guilty of rigging me out in election? It is the PDP. You recall that even when I won in the 18 local government areas, they went to court to say that I didn’t attend  primary school. And I said ‘praise the Lord that I didn’t attend primary school but I can speak without reading’. Those who went to school cannot even speak.

You know my pain when I look at the way the media, permit me to use the word, recklessly parrot the views of armed robbers, because then you create a problem in the minds of readers on which weight to place on responsible people when they talk and armed robbers who are notorious for crime. So, if armed robbers rush to your station to say there is robbery going on, they will mislead you to carry your camera out so they can rob successfully around you without your knowing it.

When elections are rigged, you can see. When PDP rigged election in the  South, you will find that even periwinkles came out to vote when they recorded 99 per cent of voters turn out. And the ancestors came out to vote and returned  to the grave.

You said PDP said we rigged. If you must report, you must hear all. In an election in which everyone said the turn out was low, they even said our National  Chairman lost his unit, If we were rigging the election, so we won’t  rig for out National  Chairman to win his unit? Does that make sense? A party that is set out to write result   couldn’t write the result of the polling unit of its National Chairman? It doesn’t make sense. 

The truth is PDP simply doesn’t have what it takes, they don’t have the skill  to mobilize. They don’t know how to talk because, before I came in, they were used to shouting on the people and writing  election result. Now, what makes politics is who commands the ears of ordinary persons and what credibility they bring to bear. Now just list any of them and say what they have done.

In Ikimi’s  village I have connected all the roads leading to Ikwebe and today Ikwebe is a center. I have modern schools there. I have provided water which they never had. The same thing goes for Igbinedion . What were they going to campaign with? Who among them could say ‘my people, because of what I have done for you, do this for me’.

Everywhere I went to campaign, we had two faces. The first was for the governor coming to say ‘this is what I am going to do’. Meanwhile, I told the people, ‘do you know why you must trust him (Obaseki, governor-elect and then, APC governorship candidate)?  He is part of this family. We have done xyz here, when you want to vote this is our record, when they come to you, ask them for their records, afterall they were here for 10 years and I have only done eight’. The PDP candidate unfortunately for them could not disclaim his party because he was the Secretary to the State Government where 98 per cent of Edo people believe that that government failed. Even his father admitted that his son failed. His only argument was that if a child fails, he is entitled to repeat. And then they rigged it and he got a resit but as a child who was destined to fail, he failed again.

So how could you think in a decent society people like that would have won?

But some people will laugh off the fact that you claimed to have defeated godfathers and, at the same time, brought in your successor. What confidence do you have that he will not betray you tomorrow?

That is very important if you say he will disappoint me. I am not the state? I am only one out of about 4 million Edo people. So, his obligation and his loyalty should be to the people of Edo. The oath of office he is going to subscribe to says that he will defend the Constitution of Nigeria. He will do everything to uplift the quality of life of Edo people. Nothing in his oath office will include ‘I shall not betray my predecessor’ because I have no interest to be betrayed. I have presided over Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, for eight years and I had a successor. There was no story of me having conflict with my predecessor. Because conflict only arises when you refuse to accept that when your tenure is over, it is over.

As for the campaign, and this is the problem, the media picked the negatives from the mouths  of those who are the least competent. That I campaigned for him, I was this, I was that. That is the way it should be. Look at what is going on in the US. Is Obama not vigorously campaigning for Clinton? Is Obama’s wife, the First Lady of US, not as vigorous, perhaps much more than Bill Clinton in campaigning for her husband’s successor?   When I deployed my skills, it troubles them. But these are skills I acquired from short floor which they will never acquire. I am a product of the struggle as a result of my many years of being exploited fighting the oppressors. I deployed those skills and I defeated them. At a point they said I should allow the man to talk, and I asked, ‘who is complaining? Does the electorate  complain?’.

Eight years down the lane, any regrets?

Going forward, I’m just being honest with you, from the age of 17 I have never had the benefit of one month holiday. Because I joined this trade union thing out of harassment. Since then, as they say, a child who says his mother shall not sleep, the child must also remain awake. Trying to speak truth to power, whether in a private firm and later at the federal level, I had to also get myself engaged in a street fight across the country.

I went to Edo as a governor but as a governor fighting the godfathers every day, every minute. So, I have never really rested. So, right now, I’m over 60. I think it is time I rest and  be a good husband because I am newly married. I need to spend some quality time. Because a lot of Nigerian men do not understand that the real victims of men being in political office are  their wives. They just become absentee-husband. Even though they are not physically absent, they are mentally absent and to be a good husband you need to have both present. 

I hope that now that I would be handing over to a very competent hand, more competent than myself, I have every reason now to enjoy the rest of my life and spend time with my wife, my kids and tell stories. I will try to write my own memoirs and I enjoin  all you Christians and Muslims to pray for me because I am an example of the infinite powers of God, a true miracle to make a factory worker the governor of the most troubled state and to succeed after eight years. 

I have no regrets. There are a couple of things if I have to do them over again, I will do them exactly the same way. With a bit of hindsight, there are  things one would have wished were done differently but overal God has been merciful. I knew I wasn’t going to be perfect but I was determined I wasn’t going to be a failure. If you are to mark my scripts, I don’t know how much marks you were going to give me but you won’t fail me.

How do you feel being the first civilian and first Edo indigenous governor to hand over the staff of office to the Oba of Benin?

To tell you the truth I’m humbled. For us in Edo, every Edo son and daughter sees the Oba Benin  as  the paramount traditional ruler. In my case, I had a very privileged relationship with the late Oba. I’m perhaps the only person, based on what I have heard and what I know, that doing  my first courtesy visit to the Oba as the NLC President, the Oba of Benin gave me money and other gifts. By convention, it is the person that comes to pay homage that brings gifts to the royal majesty. So I have had that privileged relationship with the Oba. As a governor, he was always there for me. You will recall, during my visit in 2012, how the PDP came visiting and somebody was left staring at an empty throne. 

The new king is somebody I had opportunity of relating with as an ambassador and even before he was an ambassador. He is a great man of a sound mind. He has also experienced the rigors of life which was why during the coronation, his majesty had to trek a distance spanning several kilometers on foot. So that in that process, and this is the tradition, he will experience the hardship the people go through so that, as a king, when a poor man comes before him, he knows where he is coming from, he knows the meaning of frustration and pain even as he superintends as the paramount traditional ruler of our great state.

So, to  me, the presentation of the staff of office to the Oba of Benin is the most significant next only to my signing the oath of office as governor of Edo in 2008. I remain ever grateful, it just shows that God’s powers are awesome. He just  chooses who He uses for certain things. We all hope and pray that under the reign of the Oba, Benin will grow from strength to strength.