Imo state is arguably the centre of the Igbo nation. It shares borders with virtually all the eastern states/prefectures, excepting Ebonyi, possibly, and Anioma.

But since Sam Mbakwe, Imo has been riddled with the virus of bad governance and governors. The list is really endless. For instance, it was the flawed one-legged tenure of Ikedi Ohakim, the penultimate governor, that brought in Rochas Okorocha. Perhaps that is why Okorocha christened his gambit “the rescue mission.” Okorocha, it is important to state, was ferried from Abuja, where he was a trader and citizen, to come and run things in Imo State, where he is an indigene. That is, Okorocha was hired or self-hired himself as a plutocrat. For the foretold implications of plutocrats coming in as offshore and or as messiah-politicians, readers may see our “Economists as Assassins: The Nigerian Connection,” published by The Stone Press.

Now, Imo people are jubilant Okorocha will soon be down and out of Douglass House. But, somehow, what would have been a routine contest has taken a heated turn. And it is all due to the shenanigans of Okorocha. How? After ruling or misruling Imo for seven odd years, Okorocha has woken up with a plot to convert Imo, a municipal state, into his hereditary fiefdom.

Somehow magically, Okorocha has bent backwards to retrieve one of his peons, a near relation of his, to be his placeholder when he is constitutionally sacked from governance. The chap, Uche Nwosu, self-alleges he is the in-law of the governor. Point is, nobody envies Nwosu for his assembly line duty of manufacturing and making grand babies and heirs for his lord and in-law. But if the matter comes to turning our dear and glorious Umu Imo into slaves and tributaries of marital political sodomy, then we are all up in arms. Imo State shall never be made an empire of Okorocha and clan of jokers. Or any characters at all.

As we write, we have not been told any distinctions of Nwosu save that he shines bright under his father-in-law’s shadow only. And lest we forget, Nwosu’s interview (http://punchng.com/im-not-desperate-to-become-imo-gov-nwosu-okorochas-chief-of-staff/) was a complete disaster. At best, he exhibited undernourished logic, if not total ignorance. How, for instance, he says: “The deputy… is like a son to the first lady” [of Imo State].

Now, by records available, the deputy governor is much older than Ms Okorocha. The miracle of how a younger maiden can be a mother to an older man is a puzzle. Even more bizarre is the fact that official relatedness of the deputy to the governor and his connections is being bastardised. So, how a deputy governor will in official matters become like her son to an unelected and perhaps unelectable gubernatorial spouse is a complete humiliation and rape of the state. Has Imo State been so f–ked up that a deputy governor is being breast fed – literally – the devil asks?

And to further be informed in the same interview that it is actually the Okorocha Abuja outpost that is being imported to run Imo State is the worst I have heard with my ears since we fought and had Imo created.

Luckily, Imo a proud and free peoples, have taken it up to save themselves from the Okorocha pandemic. One, the Orlu Senatorial [Okorocha’s home constituency] Zone elders have abjured Okorocha and his inheritance. Two, candidates are flooding in to stop the Okorocha toxic alluvium from overwhelming Imo.

So, it is pretty fascinating to have some chaps rolling up their sleeves to humiliate Okorocha vote by vote. And next, throw his memories into the dust bin of history. It is a long list. There is the chap who runs ABC Motors, Nneji, there is Okey Eze, a former banker, etc, from APGA. And not to be beaten are in-house mutineers in APC. They are led by Senator Ararume and Madumere, the deputy governor himself. And from PDP are chaps like Emeka Ihedioha, etc.

What again was astonishing in the same interview was the reverence Nwosu showed by inputting God, the divine, endlessly. I was almost getting converted, till a friend who was hosting me drew my attention to a matter. Pointing from the window of his luxury home, he said Evans lived there and was a neighbour. “I knew Evans well, Jimanze,” he continued, “there was no day I met Evans that he did not call on God and the divine, more times than armed robbers strike at the innocent in Nigeria each day.” Which Evans, I asked. And he answered, “Evans the billionaire kidnapper.”

So, apparently one can also input that Evans and Nwosu are in good and excellent company. God, divinity, God, divinity, they are all words. And worse, could be masks. Evans has just been unmasked. Umu Imo ronu.

Again, Nwosu claims he is from Nkwerre Local Government. We can tell we have more equity in that local government than him. Besides issues of provenance, we were a part of the planned defense of Nkwerre in the early days of January 1970, against the Federal vandals, precursors to today’s herdsmen? Perhaps, Nwosu was then not even born. Which is no sin of his, by the way. It is just that it may be the fact. But the poser is: how can a kid who is just cutting his umbilical cord, come to mess up what we, his elders, have shed our blood to prevail? Point is, if Igbo are a democratic peoples, Nkwerre are the most Igbo of democrats.

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We must thus remind Nwosu, his sponsors, in-laws, outlaws, etc, that ihe ru abuo iwere otu. And the fact of this is to signal the ontological duality, if you like, of Igbo nation. It is not for fun that Eshi, the scholar-founder of the Igbo nation, left us with on oru na igbo, ofo na ogu, oha na eze, ife kwulu ife akwudebeya, ahanu asu otu onye unu elo le/adara asu ofu onye unu nnoor.

These carefully crafted ontological duality, if you like, is essential to being Igbo, to Igbo existence. And whoever disrupts it is destroying Igboland. One is forced thus to ask, are Mr. In-Law Nwosu and his principals, are they, were they ever Igbo?

Anyway Chinua Achebe has a word for them and their ilk: “But I have been watching this Ezeulu for many years. He is a man of ambition; he wants to be king, priest, diviner, all. His father, they said, was like that too. But Umuaro showed him that Igbo people knew no kings. The time has come to tell his son also…. And we have all heard of how the people of Aninta dealt with their deity when he failed them. Did they not carry him to the boundary between them and their neighbours and set fire on him. I salute you’.’ (Arrow of God).

Takeaway: The Imo governorship race is getting as hot as hell is cold, and we will be reporting from the eye of the fire, direct. Ahiazuwa.

 

 


 

Danjuma fires his own first shot?

Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, a retired General, is a fairly well known historical name. More specifically, history’s famous or infamous chapters on Danjuma will dwell on his roles on military coup-making. Danjuma is also something of a praetorian opportunist, if not plunderer, according to some of his biographers. For those who hold this view, that is the only way to explain his possession of billion dollar oil blocks. And Danjuma has blood, a lot of other peoples’ blood, on his hands. The last sentences are not really mine. Today, on Channels Television, a young Hausa-Fulani chap, repeat, a young Hausa-Fulani chap, said the following: “That Danjuma is talking about ethnic cleansing, was it not the same Danjuma that not only killed Aguiyi Ironsi, his commander in chief, but also Ironsi’s completely innocent host,  Colonel Adekunle Fajuyi?” And now, wait for it, the gentleman, and I repeat, an Hausa-Fulani guy, now went for the jugular. According to him Danjuma was talking of ethnic cleansing, was it not the same Danjuma that supervised the killing of over 300 innocent Igbo soldiers during his anti-Ironsi putsch? He was not finished. Was it not the same Danjuma, he charged, who, as Defense Minister, saw to the genocide at Odi? These are not my words. They are open in the public arena. It is available on Channels Sunrise show today, 27-03-2018. And they are the words of an Hausa-Fulani guy, supposed allies and inner kitchen members of the Murtala-Danjuma mafia.

So the question of Danjuma as a moralist, as a humanist, gets interesting, gets K-legged. Yes, the messenger has a right to be listened to, but never as a moralist, never as a humanist, if he has a past. A messenger can come in with all his baggage, if he is a technician, like the Nazi geniuses, von Braun, etc. Those guys were “retained innocently” to build American space programmes and all heaven approved. But, we repeat, a von Braun, a Danjuma, can’t moralise, can’t play the humanists again. The only way a sinner may come clean a moralist is by confessing his past. And Danjuma still has time. If he fails, he will be like his hand-in-glove confederate, Murtala Muhammed. Today, Muhammed the man is in eternal infamy. Why? He never apologised for his gross inhumanity and grosser genocide against others. And to recall, as many have reminded us, that Danjuma and clan suffering genocide is poetic justice! What he gave to others his people are being treated to, makes one to wonder on the old hymnal line: God is mysterious His wonders to perform.

The point is that if earlier, Danjuma and club had apologized for their many sins and sought the face of God, Nigeria would not have come to the turn of murder as a way of life. It is because folks like Danjuma, Gowon, Murtala, etc, remain un-condemned for their genocide that lesser mortals are taking up their examples, after their own fashions.  Did Danjuma tell the truth? Yes. Is Danjuma a prophet of Justice? No. To summarise, there is never justice for one, there can only be justice for all. Danjuma Ronu!