Oshiomhole and his begging expedition

If your team member in a football match gives away an advantage, or scores an own goal, it is morally incumbent on them to retrieve the advantage or cancel out the own goal by either scoring or giving an assist.

In a bid to remedy their blunder, the player may become desperate, and may, in fact commit more blunders or get yellow carded or sent off altogether. In which case, it is more trouble for his team.

It is in this light that one must view Oshiomhole’s recent recourse to begging Benin traditional rulers for what he called his mistake by supporting Obaseki for governor and denigrating Ize-Iyamu in the 2016 Edo governorship elections.

The problem, though, is that Oshiomhole’s own goal was not only deliberate but also intended to punish Obaseki for daring to disagree with him

For personal disagreement, ego, and perhaps selfishness, Oshiomhole traded away his party’s fortunes in Edo State. APC – hitherto ruling party and over which he superintended as national chairman – suddenly found itself in the opposition and the opposition PDP becoming ruling party in Oshiomhole’s home state of Edo even without an election. It was a political about-turn of epic proportions hitherto unknown in our clime.

What is more, Oshiomhole not only got suspended by his ward chairman, he also got dismissed as national chairman of his party.

All for what? Ego. Greed. Personal disagreement with his state governor.

In the trending video of his begging expedition, Oshiomhole looks a pitiable sight. Whoever thought that a hitherto swashbuckling and cocky Oshiomhole would be brought to his knees in his desperate bid to (now) sell an Ize-Iyamu he had labelled a thief, fraudster, liar, and shady character as governor. It is a classic case of ‘onu kwulu njor g’ekwu nma’.

It will be interesting to see how his begging escapade rubs off on the electoral fortunes of his party in the forthcoming Edo governorship election.

One thing is clear, however. For his selfish interests, Oshiomhole brought two prominent sons of Bini kingdom to a political and personal head-on collision. With his tongue, Oshiomhole destroyed a Bini son in 2016. With his tongue, he is now destroying another Bini son in 2020.

The Binis I know very well are not the sort of people likely to forget this insult to their psyche, especially given his oblique attempt to draw in their much revered Omo n’Oba n’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo into the fray. If they do, it will be unfortunate.