Tag: Adams Oshiomhole

By Abraham Ogbodo

I was saying last week that Senator Adam Oshiomhole did more than pinning down retired generals to the lucrative business of illegal mining of solid minerals in the country. He also spoke to serving military generals who had visited the Senate in search of ways and means to have more money to do their work of defending the territorial integrity of the country. In a nutshell, Oshiomhole confronted head-on the totality of the military institution. It is not a very wise thing to do in Nigeria. But he did it. I am sure some of his family members and very close friends would have told him so too. That in Nigeria, whether under civil or military rule, no ‘bloody civilian’ talks anyhow to top military brass. Instinctively, a few of them would have advised him to dissolve a while from visibility for the tension to dissipate.

It was the same way I was told to relocate to the village after my appearance on Arise TV last April. The tragic incident of the killing of 17 soldiers including four officers around Okuama, a fishing Urhobo community on the bank of the Forcados River in Delta State was on the front burner of national discourse. The sympathy, understandably, rested with the Nigerian Army. Even in real combat, such a number would be considered too high to fall in one swoop. Emotions were high. The arising commentaries were therefore more sentimental than they were logical. Every commentator, including even the President, asked for the perpetrators of the heinous crime to be fished out at all costs, surprisingly not by police men but soldiers, to face the law. It was like the C-in-C giving a wild-cat order for the army to move into the scene of crime, which had been pinned down to Okuama to do and undo.

The soldiers were in obvious rage. The desire to avenge the killing of their men and officers in their own way was strong. In the circumstance, there was inadequate processing of the events that culminated in the unfortunate killings to properly place culpability. And so, my point that the 181 Amphibious Battalion in Bomadi breached its own  operational procedure to have deployed its entire strategic team for a civil mission without adequate tactical cover and the collaboration of the political leaderships, namely the State Government and the two council areas of Bomadi and Ughelli South where the warring communities of Okoloba and Okuoma are located, came as a bolt from the blues. I emphatically stated that while the killing of servicemen under any circumstance shall forever remain condemnable, the army should be humble and sincere enough to state all the dimensions. Almost immediately, the Chief of Defence Staff, Lt. General Chris Musa emerged on national television with the angle of one General Endurance Amagbein as being the mastermind of the killing. This redirected the kinetic efforts momentarily from Okuoma to Igbomorotu in Southern Ijaw local government area in Bayelsa State where about 20 persons were reportedly killed and many houses razed by invading soldiers in search for the new target.

What am I saying? I am saying that the Armed Forces are a creation of law – the Constitution and the Armed Forces Act. This places an obligation on them to operate within the law especially under a democratic dispensation. They cannot do and undo. In a democracy, even their own special trial, called Court Marshal, is not final. It is subject to judicial review. Decisions reached in such quasi judicial set-up can only remain binding if such decisions are not further tested in a court of competent jurisdiction by affected persons. It is the reason, for instance, that Chief Femi Falana (SAN) has been neck deep in the matter regarding some 70 soldiers who were convicted of mutiny and dismissed from the army.

That is, when soldiers themselves turn victims of their own arbitrariness, they look up to civil society for help. In my days as Editor, I was inundated with requests for media assistance by, especially middle-level officers, who fell on the wrong side of military court marshal. I would detail reporters to play up the issues in the court of public opinion to assist their cases.  A moment that has remained evergreen in my memory was the day that late Admiral August Aikhomu sought frantically to speak with me. This was about 1996 or 1997. The telecom revolution called GSM had not happened in Nigeria. I was a Senior Political Correspondent.  I returned from the field to be told that Admiral Aikhomu had been calling and dropped a number with which I could reach him back. I had previously met him in his Apapa, Lagos home to propose an advertorial package to mark his 60th or so birthday anniversary.

But he was not calling to further to seal or reject the advertorial deal. His time in government had passed. Late General Sani Abacha who sat on the saddle was not pretentious as to how he wanted his own show to run. He voted to be a maximum leader and nothing less. On this day, the whole Admiral Augustus Aikhomu was persistently calling a small boy like me, as if we had become mates, because some security boys were playing hide and seek game with his Green Passport at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos. He could not fly out because he was prevented from doing so.

Until August 26, when that historic ‘step aside’ announcement was made, Admiral Aikhomu was Vice to the only Military President Nigeria has had, General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB). He was the same man that was calling me to do something in the media to redirect Abacha’s attack dogs off his back. It is all to say that the military may create its barracks, barricades and rules of engagement to enforce some advantages in the short run. But in the long run, it cannot sustain an exclusivity that will make it stand beyond reproach and a common humanity in the scheme of things.

Today, we are in a democracy where all questions, no matter how tough, are expected to be asked and answered. Accordingly, Senator Oshiomhole chose, the other day, to ask serving military officers, after finishing with their retired counter-parts, tough questions on the floor of the Senate. As I said earlier, the officers had gone to the Senate to ask for more money for the armed forces. Oshiomhole didn’t get even simple answers in return. In fact, his fellow Senators including Senate President Godswill Akpabio pretended not to have heard him. They made it seem as if Oshiomhole was talking nonsense. First, what he thought was a beautiful motion; his call for increased legislative oversight of the three branches of the armed forces – Army, Navy and Air Force – was defeated without even a debate. The motion was not actually seconded. It was dead on arrival.

But, instead of backing down, Oshiomhole switched into the comrade mode. He stood fast like the right-hand marker in a parade formation and ready to battle the soldiers with his tongue. He charged the military to do like other institutions of government and subject itself to public scrutiny. Hear his plea: ..”our Armed Forces must be made accountable. It borders on blackmail to say we don’t give more money. Since I arrived here at the Senate, we have done for the nation two appropriations; 2024 and 2023. For the Armed Forces, we have done several supplementary appropriations. And the revelation on the floor of the Senate is that they are buying the wrong equipment.”

Oshiomhole also tried to put in context, the procurement of a certain yacht that was in the news not too long ago. “It is on record that the Armed Forces are often times or sometimes procuring equipment that they really don’t need. The issue of the yacht is a shining example of complete gross misplacement (of priority). I think they spent about $6billion. Convert that to naira.” Oshiomhole recounted his engagement with former President Mohammadu Buhari on this same matter of yacht procurement. “I remember President Buhari said he never asked them to buy a yacht. Which President will go in a yacht on holiday?”

The whole issue actually was that the military didn’t want to be unnecessarily encumbered and it was asking the Senate to place it on First Line Charge so that it could do at anytime whatever it needed to do with money without having to answer too many questions from the Accountant-general of the Federation or some other meddlesome officers of the Federal Ministry of Finance. And here is how Oshiomhole saw it: “I think when you say we should move the military to first line charge, you must face the origin of the security crisis we are facing today. The only thing I will favour for first line charge is education.”

He explained: “…people who are educated or skilled are unlikely to be poor that terrorist organisations can easily recruit them. If we put all the money to defend the country and there is nothing left for education, healthcare and investment in the manufacturing sector, and those things that will ensure that our GDP grows at a reasonable pace, and at a rate higher than our population growth, our poverty will remain endemic. The super highway to criminality is hunger and starvation. So the armed forces have to understand that Nigeria doesn’t have unlimited resources.”

Let me quickly add that in this endeavour, I have tried to separate the message from the messenger. I am asking you to take the message and leave the messenger, who, you may say has not cultivated any moral high ground to stand upon to pass his message. But here is the thing. In this country, nobody has been able to tell the military that its mouth smells. Everybody tries to put up with the smell. Since I knew how to follow the presentations of annual national budgets to either Supreme Military Councils (and by whatever description) or National Assemblies, I cannot remember too many instances when allocations to defence fell below other sectorial budgets including the critical sectors of education and health. Under the military, it was a fait accompli and it had looked as if Nigeria was under constant threat of external invasion and we therefore needed to spend good money to enhance the combat readiness of the military to contain any eventuality.

The painful aspect is that when Boko Haram eventually happened about two decades ago, the decades of big defence budgets to cultivate combat capacity and capabilities failed to count. Let’s take it from 2015. One estimate puts the total defence budgets for the period at about $25 billion. This is not chicken feed. It is more than enough to create another Dangote Refinery or turn the Nigerian Defence Industries Corporation (NDIC) now Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) into a production centre for arms export. The corporation was established in 1964 as the nucleus of a projected military industrial complex.

It was meant to start with the production of ammunitions, riffles and other defence consumables and then grow into a complex for the production of military hard wares, including tanks and jet fighters. Six decades down the line, the basic hopes have remained elusive. The projected lofty dreams are completely off the discussion table. The answer to this lies in the fairly persistent budgeting pattern in the military where the ratio of recurrent expenditure to capital expenditure has been on an average of 80 percent to 20 percent. In 2020 and 2021, the defence capital expenditures were a mere 12 percent and 13.2 percent of a total budget outlay of N900 billion and N900.4 billion respctively.

This is why the military needs more money. It is also why Senator/Comrade Oshiomhole is saying the military cannot get more money. That further disbursement should be done on the basis of a proper and accountable retirement of previous disbursements. I don’t know what else to say. I will only add the military has no other enemy than itself. It must therefore work to save itself from itself. That done, the rest of society including Oshiomhole shall queue behind it in support. The honour of every military lies in its civility. I mean that content of medieval chivalry that pushes an officer to defend public good against self interest.  Honour does not lie in the propensity to rely on the power of a smoking gun to breach the rules.

First, let me state why I love Comrade Adam Oshiomhole. He knows how, when and where to say the right things to win the audience. That is, he says the right thing at the right time and at the right place. He is very good with his tongue. His is not just a mere display of oratorical prowess because he doesn’t just talk for effects. He talks to achieve a deeper purpose. He talks to create the profile of the defender of the common good. And he has been very successful in that mission.  The totality of his circumstances forms an interesting study in characterisation. He started from the very beginning, in fact, as a tailor in a garment factory according to popular accounts, and moved against the tide to very high places. He was the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), Governor of Edo State and now Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, representing Edo North in the Senate. He had made a brief stop as the National Chairman of the APC.

Clearly, Comrade Oshiomhole has worked very hard to distance his orientation from his inclination. He works so hard to forget where he is coming from to focus entirely on where he is going. This is also what makes his life story interesting and intriguing. It is the typical story of a rise from grass to grace and how the exception can become the rule if there is a corresponding determination. The man was not born great and he didn’t seem destined for greatness. His raw determination to move in an opposite direction and against the circumstances of his birth pushed him into greatness. He is the type that motivational speakers love to use to preach the virtue of determination and positive thinking. To illustrate how attitudes attain altitudes in the journey of life.

I wouldn’t know, which, between Comrade and Distinguished Senator, currently suits him better. It sounds good though to distinguish Adam Oshiomhole, except to note that nothing distinguishes the Godswill Akpabio led Senate from a gathering of hustlers. The National Assembly is symbolised by the vibrancy of the red and green colours. Oshiomhole is on the red side. In composition and character, both chambers have failed to exhibit colourful. Chromatic experts tell us that where all the colours are absent, the result is blank. Inversely, where all the colours are fused in confusing contention, the result is dark or black. Where it is blank, a tiny dark spec becomes well defined. Where it is the reverse, an otherwise negligible spark, shines like a thousand stars.

That seems the position of Adams Oshiomhole in the scheme of things. Either as a spark or dark spot on a contrasting background, the man commands good attention in the Dome House. He has a way of rising gallantly to the occasion to create a crest in the flat-flowing business of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Whether or not all of that comes with a corresponding sincerity of purpose is a matter for another day. For now, let us agree that all the memorable sound bites from the red chamber appear to have come from one Senator called Adams Oshiomhole.

His method is unique. He says with gusto what others labour to avoid. Let me start with the latest. Everybody knows in Nigeria that there is illegal mining of mineral resources by unlicensed operators. For instance, people in authority know for sure that the unending bloodbath in Zamfara State has more to do with the illegal mining of gold than it has to do with banditry in the state. In fact, the latter is a function of the former. But nobody is saying so.  It is just the same way that both government and the people have refused to understand the things that are wrong with Nigeria. Everybody feigns ignorance of the fundamental issues and hopes for things to change by themselves.

Yet, the application of cosmetics does not cure fundamental deformities. Even Bola Ahmed Tinubu who grew from a disciple to an apostle of power devolution has been pretending to be asleep after moving from the corridors to the bedroom of power. He is just cool with savouring the sweetness of presidential absolutism and doesn’t seem to remember anything about true federalism or even its cold derivative, called federal character which he once upon a time, preached about.

And so, the inspiration to say it loud and clear openly that illegal mining is not petty stealing that is done by street urchins is not ordinary. It can only come from a man with the courage, arrogance and indiscretion of a Caesar. That is, a man with a huge sanctimonious bend, who acts to cut an impression of piety. A seasoned actor, who sees every platform as a stage, to pull stunts.  And it has come from Adams Oshiomhole, who, as if protesting in the streets of Abuja as a comrade, said last week that highly placed individuals, including especially, retired military generals, are fuelling the theft of the country’s mineral resources at a scale that threatens the national economy and security. It is good he is quoted verbatim as reporting his statement might detract from its strength. I seek permission to run the long quote.

Hear him: “Those involved in illegal mining use choppers. They procure arms exactly the same way our militants were doing in the South-south…they use choppers to cart away the gold out of this country and make billions of US dollars. And the Federal Government is not doing what they should be doing.”

Senator Oshiomhole is from the South-south geo-political zone. He created a contrast to further underscore the fault lines in the Nigerian State. He said, in effect, that what happens in the house of crude oil does not happen in the house of solid minerals. Hear him again: “There is hardly any part of Nigeria where you don’t have solid minerals, even in the South-south. But what I observe is that whereas the Federal Government is ruthless with people who are doing illegal oil bunkering, and they deploy JTF (Joint Task Force) to deal with those involved in illegal oil bunkering, when it comes to illegal mining of solid minerals, the Federal Government Changes. It is like using different standards, and I am very angry about that.”

Who won’t be angry? You kill my people in the South for just taking a little of their God-given resources which you have unjustly renamed national wealth and you allow and even protect and pamper people in the North for doing exactly the same thing. I largely agree with Oshiomhole. Whereas in the Niger Delta, it is called crime, economic sabotage and other fearful names, in the North, it is called good business. He got even more frontal and direct. “They (solid minerals) are being mined by retired generals, and we know them. Yes, we know them, and nobody can pretend he doesn’t know them.”

As Chairman of the APC back then, Oshiomhole claimed to have written to former President Mohammadu Buhari to report the matter. Nothing, not surprisingly, was done. And as it was yesterday, so it is today. I dread to add the concluding phrase: ‘ever shall it be.’ But Oshiomhole is asking his fellow Senator to do something or be seen as doing something. “We shouldn’t as Senators be lamenting. As senators, we should fix the problem. We should tell the executive, ‘you must deploy exactly the same force that you deployed against illegal oil bunkering…to deal with criminals who are mining (illegally)’ ‘’.

This is real sound bite. The man has said something the people want to hear. Whether he said it from his heart or from his head is of no consequence this moment. What matters is that he has said something big. Experts can take what he has said later to the laboratory for authenticity test. The last time that a Nigerian spoke in this manner was some 20 years ago in Effurun, Delta State. Former President Olusegun had come to town to do some hard talk on oil theft in the Niger Delta. This was in the heat of the armed agitation in the oil region when everything that was wrong with oil production and by extension, the economy, was put on the heads of Niger Delta Militants.

Talk shows were frequently staged all over the place to discuss how oil could still flow amid the crisis. Warlords such as Government Tompolo, Asari Dokubo, Tom Ateke, General Boyloaf, General Shoot-At-Sigh, General Togo and others were deep in the trenches purportedly fighting to bring a better deal to the Niger Delta from the Nigerian State.  On this particular day, amid plea for peace, Obasanjo had also charged his military commanders who were combat-kitted and seated in the front row of the auditorium to rise up to the challenge of clearing the Niger Delta of oil thieves, parading as freedom fighters.

Late Chief Benjamin Okumagba, then Otota (Prime Minister) of Okere, Warri Kingdom who later became the Orosuen (king), was among the top dignitaries at that occasion. He assumed the microphone and announced that if the former President was sincere in looking for oil thieves in the Niger Delta, he should search no further. ‘’These ones sitting here are the thieves’’ he told Obasnjo, pointing sarcastically at the military officers seated in the front row. There was silence because nobody expected it to come that way. But it had come. All the same, it wasn’t a point for debate. After all, the thief knows how the goat got missing.

But to the recent allegation by Oshiomhle,  Gen. Johnson Olawumi, former Director-general of National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) has risen gallantly to the defence of his constituency, describing Senator Oshiomhole’s comments as ‘’harsh and reckless.’’ He is an interested party and therefore his verdict cannot represent justice. “As a retired general, who has faithfully served this country, I find Senator Oshiomhole’s comments not only reckless but a direct affront to my person and the legacy of my service. His insensitive generalisation has exposed retired generals like myself, to unwarranted public scorn and suspicion.”

So sorry Mr. Retired General! That is how Comrade Oshomhole talks sometimes. He does not fear people. Just bear with him. By your calling, you have worked to ensure the territorial security or integrity of the country.  But it is not only you that have worked for the country. Many other people have also faithfully served this country. They include my late parents who worked as farmers to ensure the food security of this country. Nobody accused them of illegal mining of solid minerals or crude oil theft before they passed few years ago. This is to say that perception is also reality in some cases. The most you can do, General, is to talk for yourself and not on behalf of all retired General who do not live like they retired from the same civil service where, until recently, the lowest paid worker received N30,000 a month and the highest paid took home about N500,000.

So much for the retired generals! Oshiomlole also had a word for the serving generals who went to the Senate to arrange for how they could get more money and faster too to defend the nation against bandits. But we cannot treat all the Oshiomhole’s sound bites in one outing. Let’s meet next week.