Oshiomhole: I want to be remembered for destroying Edo godfathers

Why did you meet the president?

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, developments, what we have accomplished. We are also inviting him to the state to come and see what we are doing not just in Benin city but in the three senatorial districts so that he can come and commission them. There are outstanding projects that I believe deserve Presidential commissioning.

After eight years, how do you feel as you are about bowing out and what will you want to 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 to confront the most vicious, the most feared political godfathers that completely monopolized the politics of Edo State. And against that background that I came on the platform of a new political party, posing that part of my mission is 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; such that as a precondition for dealing with developmental issues such as infrastructure whether social or physical.

What will be your response to the allegations that you rigged the last elections despite the fact that you benefitted from a free and fair election in 2012?

Who are those complaining? The PDP? In your honest evaluation of Nigeria’s political history, after 1999 election that was 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 a 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, you create a problem in the minds of readers. 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; where ancestors come out to vote and return to the grave.
What will be your response to those who will laugh off the fact that your claim to have defeated godfathers but you have also brought in somebody whom you are godfather to. 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 four million Edo people. So his obligation and his loyalty should be to the people of Edo State. 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 of office will include ‘I shall not betray my predecessor’ because I have no interest to be betrayed.

For me, I have presided over Nigeria Labour Congress for eight years and I had a successor, there was no story of me having conflict with my predecessor. This is because conflict only arise 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 picks the negatives from the mouth 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 ask who is complaining? Did the electorates complain?”.

Source: Sun