Oshiomhole, Foes Ponder Moves After Forced Truce

By Chuks Ekpeneru

Godwin Obaseki and his close associates in Edo State are pondering their next move after Adams Oshiomhole came in from the cold at the last minute to stem the move to bury him politically.

Monday’s Court of Appeal order for a stay of execution of the order suspending Oshiomhole as national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC was preceded by the last-minute intervention of President Muhammdau Buhari that led to the indefinite postponement of the National Executive Committee, NEC meeting.

That meeting had been called for by Oshiomhole’s leading enemies. Remarkably, it was to have held last Tuesday in Oshiomhole’s absence.

Not only would have his head have been shaved in his absence, the head would have been cut off with his probable removal as chairman.

Recall that a day to the aborted NEC meeting that posters and insignia of Oshiomhole’s were removed from the party’s secretariat.

Oshiomhole has following the reprieve moved on to effect a reconciliation with his traducers in the National Working Committee, NWC.

However, many subsisting issues, particularly at home in Edo remain.

Even if for the sake of his survival that Oshiomhole decides to unbend towards Obaseki’s second term aspiration, it would kill his followership in Edo State.

If he does that he would could become irrelevant with his followers and also not be esteemed in the Obaseki camp given the level of vitriol that has flowed in recent times.

The implication of the Appeal Court ruling is that Oshiomole remains the party chairman and may likely preside over the primaries to get APC candidate for the forthcoming Edo Governorship election if he goes on to win other judicial cases at hand.

As it is Obaseki and the anti-Oshiomole governors with their supporters may watch Oshiomhole with suspicion because they know his political capacity.

Oshiomhole on his part buoyed by the Appeal Court decision, may decide to go for the kill with the backing of a South-west leader of the party who sees 2023 as his opportunity to clinch the presidency.

However, political pundits believe that this is the time for Obaseki to deepen his relationship with his fellow governors who also want to be part of post-2023 calculations or he will be consumed in the coming political war.

The Oshiomole-Obaseki tangle has reached a point where one of them will experience a political death. This was evident as both camps on ground in Edo remain dogged in the trenches against one another.

Unlike the Bola Tinubu camp which stood its ground against a second term for Akiwunmi Ambode in Lagos in 2019, the Oshiomhole camp in reality does not have the luxury of state and individual loyalties that Tinubu effortlessly used against Ambode’s second term.

With that, the prediction for the Oshiomhole’s camp remains scary.

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