Oshiomhole: With love from Taraba by Emmanuel Bello

PC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole (right) receiving a congratulatory card from the Minister for Women Affairs, Sen. Aisha Alhassan who led a delegation of Party Leaders from Taraba State a solidarity visit to Oshiomhole at the Party’s National Secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday.

 

The new National Chairman of the APC, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, seems to have a viral fixation with Taraba state. And it appears he came to power with just his Taraba agenda in mind. I mean, he has mentioned our state in his pronouncements over ten times now like a broken gramophone. When he is not saying the party would take the state in 2019, he is announcing that the PDP did not win in 2015. He is wrong on both counts. APC can not take Taraba in 2019 and it didn’t win in 2015! His latest outburst took place when two separate delegation of his party in Taraba visited him in his glass house. If I were Oshobaba, as he is well known, I should have discerned the very earliest sign of defeat in the two visits. A divided house can’t stand. It would take a celestial being to ever reconcile his tattered party in Taraba.

 

Gov. Dairus Ishaku of Taraba State

But if he had failed to grasp the glaring signal, then Oshobaba should thus advisedly note the following as he begins his wilderness journey. Number one, Taraba is not like his beleaguered Edo state where he came in hurricane like and “won” or hoodwink the people years ago with his rock star mesmerizing charisma. Taraba is a much more poliically sophisticated sphere where his likes won’t make it pass round one. What’s more, this latest version of Oshimhole we are all seeing is NOT the same dude who captured the imagination of Nigerians in those heady years. Back then, Edo, and indeed the rest of Nigeria, was captivated by the spectre of a dashing labour leader who fearlessly told truth to power. We were all enthralled by the ascetic maverick who defied fear and reeled out reality. That was the man Edo people fell in love with and voted for. Eight years on, Oshimhole lost the shine and has since become like all mortal with his mystified status eroded by acts of indiscretion in public office. His theatrics and antics have further unmasked him like a masquerade whom everyone in the village now knows the real face. That’s the current version of Oshimhole who is going into war with all the baggages that compromise can confer. This latter day Oshiomhole doesn’t hold any fascination not just to Nigerians but particularly for us in Taraba state. And how a man who came into power undemocratically can sell democracy to anyone is one.if the new wonders we are waiting to see.

Secondly, Taraba is tradionally and culturally a PDP state. The party is in our DNA. This simple fact ought to hit Oshiomhole like a pack of bricks on the head. What this means is that the foundations of the party is so solid that it would take a miracle to shake it one inch from its place. With a heavy presence in each of the local governments, Osho should be aware that all his predecessors had never even dreamt of winning parts of the state, let alone the number one seat. It is an illusion to even contemplate it.

A third home truth is that the opposition APC is in ruins in the North Eastern state to the point they can’t organise themselves to win any kind of elections from even the ward level. Where would Osho start from? Apart from the presence of their two vibrant factions, there is practically no youth or women groups ready to identify with the APC here. And what these factions did not kill off, the summersaults of the APC at the centre finally put in the final nail. Today, almost everyone in Taraba is a victim of Buharinomics like the rest of Nigerians. Taraba’s only saving grace is that it has a PDP governor, Arc.Darius Dickson Ishaku, who is doing his best to keep the state afloat. The misgovernance at the centre is so alarming that the APC is easily seen as a harbinger of sorts. Demarketed and demotivated, Taraba people are wary and have made up their minds not to be drawn into the cesspit called APC.

Osho should note that Taraba state voted overwhelmingly for the PDP in the last general poll. This was Waterloo for the APC as Buhari scored or suffered a disappointing outing here. It was the Goodluck state, literally. And that at a time the entire nation was swooning over the candidature of Buhari and when the retired general was very popular like the pied piper. Even at that time, Taraba people saw through the charade and rejected the Daura man. Not now that everyone else has seen through all the facade and are turned off. If Taraba rejected him then at the peak of his popularity, they sure would resist him now more.

Let me stop here. But Osho would continue to find out in the coming weeks that he has no fans out here is God’s gift to the nation as we like to call our state. We are the lighthouse for all resistance against oppression and domination. We are currently resisting the onslaught of evil roaming the nation like a plague. Our vibrant youths don’t sleep to ensure rampaging evil doesn’t take over. Our vigilant leaders are bound by the common commitment to reject any invasion. We have survived thus far. And we are set to keep the flag flying till the end.

*Bello, a communication ethusiast and senior media aide to Governor Darius, contributed this piece from Abuja.

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