Delusion of delivering the South-East to APC on July 22, 2013 / in Viewpoint 11:06 am / Comments WHEN an elected person talks in an official and/or political capacity, the understanding is that he is speaking the mind of the people he represents. The reason is simple – he has a duty to consult with them before making any pronouncement on their behalf. It is against this background that the statement credited to Chief Rochas Okorocha of Imo State to the effect that he would deliver the South-East to APC in 2015 should worry or even anger every right-thinking Igbo man. Okorocha emerged as governor of Imo State after an election whose results and constitutionality are still being challenged in court. So the authenticity of his representation of Imo State is in question, so is his capacity to speak on their behalf. Besides, his loquaciousness and proclivity to make promises that he does not have the slightest intention and even capability to keep, have cast doubts on the minds of many of his ardent supporters as to whether they are doing the right thing supporting him. Rochas has in his past two years in government exhibited an absolute lack of leadership qualities. His voluble disposition puts him in a position where he talks before thinking. Governor Okorocha says he does not recognise any other governor who has superintended over the affairs of the state except the late Chief Sam Mbakwe. He has lived up to that pronouncement by obliterating as much of the achievements of his predecessors as he possibly can, including even some of the legacies of Chief Mbakwe. Governor Okorocha became governor under APGA platform after Peter Obi had served out his first four-year term as governor of Anambra State and major financier and leader of the party, yet Okorocha disregarded Obi and other leaders of the party and made a unilateral commitment of APGA involvement in the APC arrangement. Of course, the real owners of APGA in Imo, Anambra and elsewhere have since dissociated themselves from that faux pas which has left Okorocha currently without a party.Even within the so-called APC, he has started having issues with Chief Achike Udenwa whom he does not recognise as a former governor but who is of course a formidable force in the ACN (the most senior partner in the yet-to-be-recognised merger). This much was re-echoed by Chief Udenwa himself when he reportedly told leaders and members of ACN recently that ACN was the pivot upon which APC stood and that nobody could sideline the party and its members on what concerned APC, especially in Imo State. In a veiled reference to Governor Okorocha, Chief Udenwa, according to the report said: “You cannot build a house and sleep in the parlour while a stranger sleeps in the bedroom”. Governor Okorocha is indeed evidently now not only a stranger in APC but also a stranger in APGA. His alleged sponsorship of the impeachment of his deputy under circumstances ab initio orchestrated by him, speaks volumes about his inability to function effectively in collaboration with others. But the Governor seems too conceited to realise that he is unlikely to deliver himself in 2015 in Imo State otherwise why would he, in his wildest imagination, arrogate to himself the ability to deliver the entire Igbo nation to APC? Who made him the leader of Ndigbo? The treatment he received from the owners of Igboland during President Jonathan’s visit to Enugu recently, would by now have opened his eyes to his real reputation within the zone. He was treated almost like a Pariah by the crowd which booed at him each time he stood up to speak. The reason for his rejection by that assemblage of Igbo leaders in Enugu is not far to seek. Governor Okorocha, by his actions and utterances, seems to be lending some credence to the erroneous belief by other tribes that the Igbos may never be able to put their acts together. Igbo leaders of which Rochas Okorocha (being a governor) is one, should at this time be seen to be speaking in one voice on crucial national issues. But he is not a man to be fed that “trash”. Those who are familiar with his modus vivendi say he has a voracious appetite for power and could not care what happens in his pursuit of it. They posit that he has his eyes on the Vice Presidency and, may be, something higher and is ready to destroy the platform that he used to attain his present position. Governor Okorocha, in my view, is deluded by his present position to believe that he is capable of bluffing his way to a higher position through the APC experiment without the backing or support of the Igbos. He is dead wrong. Though his demagogic speeches and bluffs have carried him this far, they have also exposed his tricks and inadequacies. The people now know that he is in the habit of speaking from both corners of his mouth; they are aware that he makes promises and never keeps them. Within these two years, he has shown Imo people, nay Ndigbo, that he has no place in his mind for planning and no regard for due process. His dictatorial tendencies are evident in the way he is running his state and the unilateral manner in which he attempted to drag APGA to APC, thus respectively bringing Imo economy to its knees and almost tearing APGA to shreds. While answering questions from journalists during his so-called Imo freedom day, Okorocha boasted: “I will be lynched if I do not run again”. That was an open declaration of his intention to throw his hat into the Imo governorship ring again in 2015 and, to my mind, a tacit withdrawal of his conjectured vice presidential ambition. If one may ask, who will lynch Okorocha if he does not run? May be those 10,000 youths who he deprived of their daily bread or the civil servants whom he has treated with underserved disdain or may be the CGC appointees whom he does not pay salaries, or those he demolished their houses for reasons other than public purpose/interest and without compensation. He is indeed correct. The indigenous contractors in Imo whom he has deliberately starved of jobs for selfish reasons and whose families are starving, will lynch him. Has he not had a taste of it in Oguta? 2015 is very much around the corner and only the Imo electorate will determine who will be governor. As for the talk about delivering the South-East to “APC”, it sounds like building castles in the air”. Nobody ever gives what he does not have Mr. IFRED IKEDIALA, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Owerri, Abia State.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 11:16:10 +0000
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