The alliance against [Okorocha] only succeeded in pulling the rug from under his feet during the APC congresses in the wards and at state level.
Tony Iwuoma
“Our politicians are amusing, aren’t they? They provide entertainment. Yet we didn’t elect them to entertain us. We elected them to develop the land. We are now saddled with dancing senators, miracle-seeking ministers, and statue-creating governors. Added to this group are the people who elected them and will re-elect them again next year. But we cannot be amused anymore. Little by little, we can make a change. Do we really believe in that slogan that together we can do much more? I believe. Yes I believe we can.”
This essay was inspired by one brilliant Okechukwu Ekeigwe, who authored the foregoing quote. In fact, he deserves credit for the entire essay. Because his thesis set me thinking and I wonder why strange things do happen. A lot of times, you see very beautiful women married to ape-shaped men and if you think it was because of the man’s money, forget it; he does not have it. Well, I can’t confirm if the man is a super stud but what do we make of cases of women, who are married to midgets and remain happy ever after.
How do I know? Ask the Nigerian voter
He is in love with his tormentor. He defends him with passion. He is ready to kill anyone that as much as speaks a negative word against his political hero. Yet this ‘hero’ brutalises everything about him. He clears the road when the politician comes to commission the electric pole or grinding machines or shoe shine kits in the constituency. He goes on campaign train for him; often performing stunts on his rickety okada while the oga glides along in armoured limousine…some masochist you may say. The more his humiliation, the deeper his love.
We are on the road again; to 2019. And for Ekiti, the race came too soon. And to ensure that loquacious Peter the Rock Ayodele Fayose was maimed for life, the government emptied the entire security armada upon tiny Ekiti and ‘cowed it into submission’, thus lending credence to Fayose’s claims to a rocky nature.
Poor voters, clutching dirty N3000 – N4000 inducement, derisively handed out, queued up for hours, in rain or shine, to lay down their lives for government that is adept at making inane excuses for competitive failure…. For every misadventure of a government, it says the previous ruler did the same. There is joblessness and hunger in the land; but that’s how it’s always been. Nigeria is now a killing field dotted by mass graves; but we have always slaughtered one another. Corruption is ripping the country apart; na so we see am o; we are doing better to curtail it than the previous governments… And back to Ekiti – did you not see the brazen brigandage that brought Fayose himself to power? What was good for Fayose is also good for Fayemi but that is not admittance of anything o!
This essay is not about President Muhammadu Buhari, his government or All Progressives Congress, APC. It is about the willingly beguiled voters. If Ekiti’s precursor to what 2019 would be…. what is the noise about Permanent Voters Card? APC bought votes; so did Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and others, and Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, was complicit. It is just that one old fox outfoxed the other. If Eleka (PDP) had been declared winner, APC’s outrage would have been even more strident.
Now let’s go to Imo State. With the likes of Governor Rochas Okorocha, do voters need to come out at all? Here was a man who rode into Douglas House on the back of people’s revolt accentuated by blackmail against then Governor Ikedi Ohakim. So sad, he has squandered all the goodwill. Nobody understands his brand of politics and governance, as he churns out new political concepts.
No one can deny him his dexterity in checkmating opposition. His was and still is the only one that created a fourth tier of government that governed nothing. He turned the state Assembly to appendage of the executive, with hypnotised members as supervisors of the castrated LGAs. He it was who frittered away scarce resources to (de)construct 27 general hospitals in one fell swoop and even though he still boasts of the feat, not one hospital is completed, almost eight years down the drain. Now he even dreams of allowing cattle ranch in the state; perhaps, his nightmare!
It was Okorocha who went in broad daylight like a daring robber to cart away equipment for Nsu Tiles, a much needed industry that the late Governor Sam Mbakwe founded. He went to the bustling town in Ehime Mbano Local Government Area in grand deception and a blitzkrieg of fantastic promises. Before the bemused people recovered from his oratorical verbiage, the multi-billion naira equipment had vanished to God knows where and despite the people’s yelling of #BringBackNsuTiles, Okorocha remains unfazed and trudging on.
He has anointed his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, as his successor and despite an amalgamation of opposition forces, he still succeeded in installing his stooge as National Organising Secretary of the APC as if the powers that be do not see the macabre show f shame in Imo. Okorocha’s very hilarious government created a Ministry of Happiness with his sister as commissioner. And truly, Imo is happy, laughing or grimacing at once. The alliance against him only succeeded in pulling the rug from under his feet during the APC congresses in the wards and at state level. Yet in bizarre display, Okorocha is still organising his own congresses even when the NWC of APC had since endorsed the congresses and with a case pending in court.
READ ALSO: APC congress: Okorocha carpets Imo Coalition
My governor, my governor schemed out his first deputy and has gone after the second with pliable and spineless lawmakers in tow. Imo may well be the first state to have two impeached deputy governors in one administration. And you know what, as Eze Madumere is surely set go the way of Jude Agbaso since Emperor Okorocha has decreed it, I see his son-in-law, as Madumere’s successor. The catch here is that since Nwosu’s gubernatorial endorsement had run into a storm, and may never really fly, let the young man add the deputy governor tag to his resume with all appurtenances of office attached. He could well be a regent for the coming of Okorocha’s son or daughter since Imo State is lacking in men to extricate its patrimony from his vise grip.
At the inception of his administration, Okorocha had promised during his thanksgiving mass at the Holy Trinity Parish, Ogboko (his hometown) to begin industrial revolution in Imo. The governor had disclosed that he would lay the foundation stone of 26 industries and 10 universities in line with his “factory, factory, industry, industry and employment, employment” mantra. Eight years on, the people are still waiting.
However, if there is one thing that would haunt Okorocha for life, it is the rape of Nsu. If I were he, I would use the remaining months to atone for my sins against the people by moving quickly to revive the tiles industry and thereby pacify the grieving spirit of Dee Sam, if the dead could see.