2023: Why Oshiomhole Should Run For Senate
Adams Aliu Oshiomhole, former governor of Edo State since 2015 when he completed his tenure, that’s 7yrs. Yet, his name is more recurring in political, social, and economic conversations than those of many politicians that are in government today.
The criticisms, as well as adoration that greets the mention of his name in any part of the country, is only second probably to that of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria himself, President Muhammadu Buhari. It is a two-edged sword.
However, his critics would not deny his popularity but they think, even though erroneously, that he has an overbearing presence in the politics of Edo. I sympathize with them.
In Edo State, after Oshiomhole, there has not been a governor that was successful at the polls and in governance without his express support. His approval and support made not a few governors and buoyed most of the other officeholders who have become politically powerful in Edo and elsewhere. Is this necessarily a bad thing?
Really, will an overbearing godfather succeed in politics, in an enlightened state like Edo? The man in the eye of the storm has a simple recommendation: what makes him or any political leader successful is having good feelers to know where the people’s best interest lies, and being able to articulate matching solutions and vision good enough to make the people say, “ah” we can trust you to take us there. It would be hard to find one successful politician who faults this wisdom.
State governors in the Southwest, North, East, and the rest of Nigeria are not too proud to admit to understudying political governance in the Heart Beat of the Nation. That is why progressives all over Nigeria have continued to show Oshiomhole love whenever he steps out with his party to campaign for their votes. The man, who has anointed many eventual winners all over Nigeria while waving the progressives’ broom, justifiably, is ready for Nigeria’s nod to lead. Oshiomhole should run and become President in 2023.
One cannot discuss Oshiomhole’s sterling credentials for the highest political job in the land in the narrow purview of politics, or of love or even hate. To be fair to Oshiomhole, one must leave politics and sentiments behind at some point and deal with glaring realities of the difference he has made in people’s lives, in expanding economic opportunities, in the transformation of his state’s physical infrastructure, and in steering Nigeria into a new and progressive course. His politics is better reflected in the context of his socio-economic objectives while he has excelled in tackling these noble tasks.
Oshiomhole, as governor, transformed political administration in Edo State. He employed novel measures to improve service delivery and system efficiency in the state’s public sector.
In spite of the constitutional constraints bedeviling his vision to tackle the immense energy appetite of a commercial centre state like Lagos, Tinubu acted rather than complained endlessly.
There are those who believed, once Oshiomhole finally declares his intentions to run, he should be dashed with the senatorial position.
Edo-north APC Media team