Like in many states in the country, there seems to be this dichotomy between the southern and the northern zones, which has resulted in all the governors that have been elected, except Professor Ambrose Alli (from the Central zone) being from Edo south. You are from Edo north. Do you think you will be able to overcome this dichotomy?
I am sure God had a purpose for creating us the way he did. I think there is something about Edo State, which is unique. It is one of the few states that are named after a people. Many others are artificial creations but not Edo. Edo is not named after a river, a hill or any geographical feature. It is named after an ethnic group. Everybody from Edo State basically migrated from Benin.More..

After ten years in the NLC Presidency, what will you want to be remembered for as your contributions to the Labour Movement in Nigeria?
In my campaign manifesto in 1999, I made three commitments, which are interrelated namely: that we shall build an organisation that will take orders from its members, and not from the State House; one that cannot be ignored by government, respected by employers and tested by the members as well as the public. I made these commitments against the background we were coming from where the NLC was seen as a toothless bulldog. I think, several years later, it is clear that nobody can say that the NLC can be taken for granted by government or employers.
For the first time in Nigeria's history, we found a labour group calling on people, including non-salaried Nigerians, and millions respecting our call. Before I became the NLC President, there was this mutual suspicion between the NLC and the civil society and human rights groups. It became clear to me that for the NLC to realise its potentials, it must be able to identify common allies with whom it shared ideals on matters of national importance, in terms of commitment to justice, fairness, the creation of egalitarian society, democracy, good governance to formalise relationship toward the achievement of common goals. Everybody will agree that we network with civil society and that contributed to the effectiveness of the Labour Movement in this period.More..

The Challenge before oshiomhole.
On Wednesday this week, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Adams Oshiom-hole, will be the star attraction in Benin City, Edo State. This is not because of any mobilisation rally of workers against the planned retrenchment programme of the Obasanjo administration.More

Why I Settled for Gubernatorial Race--Oshiomhol This leads us to this core question: if you become the governor of EdoState, what will be your immediate areas of attention?
The key issue is the elimination of poverty. To do that we need to invest in two broad areas, namely to ginger up the civil service, motivate them through further improvement of skills or retraining. The second is the public infrastructure - roads, both urban and rural roads, access to clean water. I believe if you make the right investment in those areas you will generate a number of economic activities, which will engage labour and create more employment. We have to address the issue of the economy of the state and broaden the productive base of the state such that the private sector can contribute to the creation of employment. To do that, we will find out exactly what the private sector wants. Unfortunately in Nigeria, government puts more obstacles in the way of business, rather than create more opportunities to attract business.More..

You have now declared to be the next governor of EdoState. Many people also felt that the other option was for you to run for president. Why did you settle for governor?
I believe I will make a good president. I have no doubt about that. I believe that I can do much better than a lot of those who are parading themselves. I believe I have a clearer understanding of the challenges and what we need to do differently to fix our problems. Having run a pan-Nigerian organisation, the Nigerian geopolitical complexity is not a stranger to me. To keep Nigerian workers together for eight years without allowing external influences to infiltrate, weaken and undermine our integrity is one of the greatest challenges any Nigerian can face.

When you came in as the president of the NLC, you promised that workers’ welfare would be the cornerstone of your activities. How would you say you have fared?

In today’s Nigeria, what kind of qualifications do you look out for in an NLC president?

Before now, it looked like we had a closed political  space with the third-term agenda. Now, it is open. What does it mean in terms of a successor in a setting where even the opposition appears still largely in disarray?

One of the challenges of the post-third-term era is where the next president would come from. Would he or she come from the North, particularly now that there is agitation from the South-south?

In 1999, all the elections were not held in a day; that was why it was possible for the President to choose a governor-elect as his running mate. So, why would INEC choose to lump all the elections together in one month?