It is turning out to be much more an entertaining comedy of errors and ego-tripping than a desire to up the ante of national discourse as the brick-bats flying between the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and Rivers State Governor, Barrister Nyesom Wike, continued into the weekend.
\nCombative Wike, who recently just ended a war of words with former Governor of Bayelsa State, Seriake Dickson, has picked a new sparring partner in Oshiomhole. He was responding to the APC Chief’s description of him as a tortoise seeking to compete with him, who is an antelope.
\nLivid, Wike tore at the former Edo Governor in an interview in the Rivers Government House: \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that Oshiomhole will use that word to say a tortoise challenging an antelope. Its like saying in a country where Chimpanzee can be anything. How can Oshiomhole compare himself to me. I\u2019m well read. I am lawyer. I am a life bencher. I have my first degree in Political Science and my second degree in Law and I went to the Nigerian law school and I passed very well, Let Oshiomhole tell me which university he attended.
\n\u201cAs a unionist, he enriched himself. How did he become the Governor of Edo State, who doesn\u2019t know? It\u2019s just the country that we are in people who cannot boast of any certificate can be National Chairman.
\n\u201cLet Oshiomhole tell me one university he attended. I attended the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State University and served in old Gongola State.
\n\u201cHow dare he open his mouth and called himself an antelope. Oshiomhole has become an Antelope because he is the National Chairman of a ruling party, Its now a ruling party because they told Nigerian lies.
\n\u201cLet Oshiomhole come out and tell us his background except that he became a Governor through a dubious way and that was what led to the amendment of the electoral act that says Governorship matter in terms of the election will not end at the Court of Appeal but will get to the Supreme court.
\n\u201cI have become a Local Government Chairman, Chief of Staff, a Minister and a Governor and by the Grace of God a second time serving Governor.
\n“This is a country where you see people who\u00a0 do not have character. Today they sing a song, tomorrow they sing another song. I think Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress PC is not a character that anybody should associate with.
\n\u201cFirst of all I have never been violent and I will never be violent. However, when you see an armed robber come to your house, will you plead with the armed robber and say please I beg you leave my house.
\n\u201cPeople think that armed robbers are only those who cart away people\u2019s money. The worst form of armed robbery is when you steal peoples mandate and just like what Oshiomhole is noted for. He thinks because he\u2019s in the ruling party, he can use security to steal the mandate of the people.
\n“He was taught a lesson, a bitter lesson and I want to repeat, if you come to steal our mandate, the people will respond accordingly. They will oppose your stealing of their mandate and so Oshiomhole thinks that because he is in the ruling party nobody should say anything or do anything.
\n“Stealing is not only when you go to rob a bank. The worse form of armed robbery is when you steal the mandate of the people.
\n\u201cWhen Jonathan made sure the election was free and fair,\u00a0 Oshiomhole came to the Villa and thanked Jonathan. When Jonathan left office, one of the reasons why I stopped going to NEC meeting when Oshiomhole was governor is because of Oshiomhole.
\n\u201cWhen Jonathan left, there was no day at the NEC meeting Oshiomhole will not bring Jonathan down.\u00a0 Meanwhile,\u00a0 that was the same man Oshiomhole went to praise\u00a0 for allowing one-man, one-vote.\u00a0 But when the man left, Oshiomhole changed. That is his character,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cNigerians know one matter that led to the amendment of the electoral act where Governorship election has to go to the Supreme Court is because of the Oshiomhole matter.
\n\u201cSo he cannot come out and say he was clean in terms of electoral process. That will be very bad.
\n\u201cOshiomhole said he fought godfatherism and the same time he wants to install himself as a godfather in Edo state. Why is he fighting Obaseki, because the man doesn\u2019t take instructions from him.\u00a0 He preaches what he doesn\u2019t practice. ….
\n“I will not be a member of their party, I have\u00a0 always\u00a0 been\u00a0 a member\u00a0 of\u00a0 PDP and they know that.\u00a0 Oshiomhole knows that his party does not even score up to 25 percent in my state. He cannot not tell me that. There is a saying in\u00a0 my place, \u201csomebody who\u00a0 has nothing to say, he says \u2018see how you are\u2019 \u201c. So Oshiomhole has nothing to say about me. And I want to tell him that\u00a0 his party is probing him about the so called hospital he says he built. I am not the one.
\n\u201cSo he\u00a0 should face his problems but \u00a0shame should be on him that at the end of the day that the PDP candidate has been sworn in as the governor of Bayelsa state. You can\u2019t come out and open your mouth and say it will never happen. Now it has happened.
\n\u201cIf I were him I will resign, I will leave.\u00a0 I am not his friend, so he cannot say my friend.
\n“How can I be a friend to somebody\u00a0 who will say one thing today, tomorrow he says another thing.\u00a0 In the night he visits so so person, that\u2019s not me. When I want to see you,\u00a0 I see you in the day time. Oshiomhole visits people at night. It is very very unfortunate for him and I pity him.\u00a0 All his efforts to regain his chairmanship has failed.
\n\u201cAll he is doing today is because the governors and some leaders of the party are saying that this man cannot lead our party. Oshiomhole has failed. He is a man who opens his mouth anyhow. And this should be his last time, the moment he goes further then he will know that Rivers state is not what he thinks it is.\u00a0\u00a0We will tell him where he belongs. I will tell him where he goes in the night, and where he goes in the day time….
\n\u201cOshiomhole claimed he was a unionist. He said he worked in the textile industry. Mention one man who works in the textile industry and is as rich as Oshiomhole today. He used to wear ordinary Khaki, today he wears Safari with diamond buttons.\u00a0 Simply because I said Oshiomhole cannot destabilize this country, who the hell is Oshiomhole to say that nobody can be sworn in when the Supreme\u00a0 Court court\u00a0 has made a pronouncement whether good or bad. \u201c
\n\u201cOshiomhole has the audacity to say nobody will be sworn in in Bayelsa state causing crisis in the country and nobody wants to call him to order but for people like us in Rivers State.
\n\u201cBecause of people like Oshiomhole and his style of leadership,\u00a0 his party lost so many areas they ought not to have lost.
\n\u201cWhat made them not to have candidates in Rivers State and Zamfara, its because of Oshiomhole.
\n\u201cOshiomhole led to the problem they have in Bayelsa. Oshiomhole takes from two sides. He is not a man of integrity and nobody should take him serious
\n\u201cIt is not my position to say it is right or wrong but Oshiomhole cannot open his wide mouth to say it cannot never happen and now it has happened what will he do? Don\u2019t destabilize the country. Don\u2019t cause crisis for this country. You may be closer to the President and that is not the way to retain your position as Chairman of the party because Oshiomhole doesn\u2019t have the support of most of the Governors because of his style of leadership and it is very clear so Oshiomhole doesn\u2019t have the right to tell me that I am a man of violence.
\n“Oshiomhole came from the background of an armed robber to steal the vote of Rivers people and we defended our vote and Oshiomhole is ashamed that we defended our vote and we still defend our vote\u00a0till tomorrow. Rivers State is not like his State Edo where he can talk to anybody the way he likes.
\n\u201cThis should be the last time Oshiomhole should open his mouth and talk to anybody in Rivers State, we are not at the same level in terms of education.
\n\u201cRivers State is not like Edo state where you bring down a sitting Governor because he wants to install another\u00a0Governor.\u00a0It\u00a0depends on the people of Edo State to allow that, but for Rivers State, we not allow anybody who wants to be a godfather.\u201d
\nRecall that while protesting the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to award the Governorship ticket to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) Duoye Diri, Oshiomhole threw a back-handed barb so Wike.
\nTurning to Wike, who cautioned him not to bring violence to the Niger Delta, following his (Oshiomhole\u2019s) remarks on Thursday that no one will be sworn-in as Governor on Friday, the APC Chief said, \u201cBetween me and my friend who has the history of violence. Don\u2019t you know how many lives you have wasted, we have read on papers. Where was the police and military officers beheaded, it is in Rivers, who was the great winner of that election violence, was it not Wike. So if he the one talking about violence, when did the tortoise begin to challenge the antelope (to a) race.
\n\u201cGovernor Dickson, who accepted defeat in Bayelsa election accused him of anti-party activity and I know he wants to use me to regain his lost membership of PDP\u201d.
\nWike had on Thursday asked that Oshiomhole be called to order
\n\u201cThe Federal Government should warn Oshiomhole to stop making remarks that will destabilise Nigeria.
\n\u201cWhat he is doing in Edo State is not proper and he should not bring it to the rest of the Niger Delta.
\n\u201cWho is Oshiomhole to determine who has spread in a state? Supreme Court has made a ruling.\u00a0 It is unfortunate for Oshiomhole to come forward to say that nobody will be sworn in\u2026.
\n\u201cIt is most unfortunate what Oshiomhole is doing because he wants to retain his position as National Chairman. APC Governors\u00a0 have rejected him, that is why he is struggling to prove that he is fighting for the Party.
\n\u201cHe is making statements as if he owns the country.\u00a0 This is the same way he is carrying on in Edo State fighting the Governor.
\n\u201cHe believes\u00a0 that he has the forces to cause crisis. He is arrogating powers to himself,\u00a0 which is not good \u201c, he said.
\nFind below an entertaining video of an earlier face-off between Wike and Dickson:
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