On Thursday 10 March 2011, the Catholic Church in Owerri under the auspices of JDPC-DCS and with Most Rev, A. J. V Obinna, Metropolitan Archbishop of Owerri as the Chief host, organized a Public Forum on the 2011 General Election for Imo Governorship Aspirants. The theme was: Preparing for Rigging-Free, Violence-Free and Upright Voting in Imo State.

Ordinarily, this was a wonderful idea. The JDPC has had a record of intervention in public affairs by organizing public fora. I have had the privilege of participating in several JDPC events at their Anifowose Street hall in Victoria Island, Lagos with friends like Monsignor Matthew Hassan Kukah, who is now Vicar-General of Kaduna, Fr George Ehusani, currently of Church of Assumption, Abuja, Prof Pat Utomi and other activists. I have had the rare privilege of addressing the Catholic Bishops Conference years back at Abuja. That was apparently the day Fr. Ehusani knew I was not a Catholic. My close association with Catholics has made people assume that I was a Catholic!
But the event organized by the JDPC in Owerri on 10 March was a horrifying departure from the standard of organization associated with JDPC. It was like holding a campaign rally for 12 rival political parties in one venue at the same time! This was a surprising departure from a similar debate billed as The Great Debate organized for all gubernatorial candidates in Imo State on Tuesday 8 March 2011 by the NUJ Imo Chapter in conjunction with Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN Imo State branch, of which the Catholic Church is a member. The NUJ-CAN debate which was broadcast live, observed and reasonably enforced some basic and universally accepted rules of political debate.

In the JDPC pamphlet some of these rules were itemized under the “Forum Code of Conduct”. But the organization of the Forum was such that it was absolutely impossible to enforce the code of conduct. The first sign of trouble I noticed on arrival was that the Forum was held in an open and unsecured arcade, called Obiri Odenigbo, Assumpta Cathedral and there was no accreditation of the audience! Obiri Odenigbo is a venue that hosts the famous Odenigbo Lecture series, usually delivered in Igbo language by one speaker.

All events are not the same. Different events attract different audience and different management. You must understand the character of the expected audience. Venue is always chosen to fit the event and the audience. You cannot host a gubernatorial debate in a market square! And when you put rival political contestants canvassing for votes in one uncontrolled venue, it is a mere pretence to expect decorum there! It seems to me that the organizers assumed that the hallowed ground of Assumpta Cathedral was enough to imbue the crowd hired by some of the contestants with decorum. What I saw was an event where the organizers lost control.

The only way the JDPC could have taken charge of the event was to accredit the audience. That was what the organizers of the NUJ-CAN debate did and the event achieved its purpose of giving the contestants room to address Imo people. But at Assumpta, it was like hosting a World Cup at Dan Anyiam stadium and throwing the gates open for free. You had to fight to get a plastic chair. Then you find that the small space available had been taken over by rented crowd some of who probably slept there! That was a serious breach of security at a time thugs are vandalizing opponents campaign offices and shooting rival contestants!

If the logic was that the candidates needed to directly address the masses of Imo people, it was grossly flawed. In these days of even better mass media you don’t need direct contact to reach mass audience. That could be better achieved by holding the debate in controlled environment, with an accredited audience and setting up large viewing screens for all and sundry, and televising the event live or recorded. The contestants would still have reached the masses. Therefore, it cannot be an argument in favour of poor organization that you wanted the contestants to address electorates directly. Things are not just done that ancient way anymore!

The flaws in the organization of what was ordinarily a wonderful idea began to manifest even before the first speaker. Things became so disgraceful that His Grace Most Rev Obinna had to leave his seat on the high table to go down to the audience to quell fights among volatile rented mobs rooting for some of the candidates! Things got worse when the crowd started leaving. Archbishop Obinna pleaded for people to come back, to no avail! What more evidence did anybody need to know that the event had collapsed on the heads of the organizers! As my driver, a Catholic himself observed painfully, even those who take Holy Communion from the Bishop every Sunday could not listen to him!

As the ugly scenes unfolded many observers found it curious that some of the candidates of some political parties who 48 hours before, dodged the NUJ-CAN debate that had better organization showed up enthusiastically at the Assumpta rally! I would not speculate about the motive of the JDPC-DCS and what they programmed to achieve with the Forum. I can never doubt the integrity of JDPC or Archbishop Obinna. But we are in interesting, but testy times. And I wonder if the organizers can beat their chests and say that they pulled off a great event as NUJ-CAN would or that they were fair and just to all the candidates, the audience and the Catholic Church!

I have always advised organizers of events not to plan from the point of view that everything would work out. Come that day, you find to your embarrassment that nothing works out because in Public Relations we caution that nothing happens unless you make it happen! It is always better to anticipate everything that could possibly go wrong and plan from that point of view. The JDPC Public Forum was a marvelous idea mishandled. This should be a lesson to the organizers for the future. Finally, those who breezily criticize government must learn from this fiasco how difficult it is to govern Imo State.

Is this how they want to rule Imo State? I guess we should rebrand Ararume's campaign as "campaign by Thugs incorporated". The behavior to import thugs to disturb a well oeganized debate is deplorable and should be condemned by any civilized person. Regardless of what, people should be allowed to present their platforms freely. I commend His Excellency Governor Ohakim for even agreeing to participate in a debate with everybody that declared his/her candidacy. The Governor showed magnanimity and demonstrated that he is committeed to a free and fair election. As the chief security officer of Imo State, he should employ security agents to make sure that people will not use thugs to disrrupt the election. All the disgruntled PDP people who left the party to other parties and will eventually return back to PDP should help the Governor to ensure a free and fair election. They know that Governor Ohakim will win reelection because there is remarkable improvement in the state and that is why they have resorted to thuggery. They will fail because Imo State under Ohakim is in God's Almighty Hand. I cannot remember when the smart people of Imo State have entrusted leadership to members of dangerous private cult. Imo people know that elections are won by programs, leadership and performance not by thuggery and belonging to private cults.
Have a nice Sunday

You sound like a man who is sure that he is about to lose his source of making money, I pity you, Bishop Obinna is a man of honour and Assumpta Cathedral is not a market place, so stop talking trash, I will advise you to go and get a store at Eke-Ukwu Owerri, and start selling rice and beans, that is what fits you.

Your problem is that you are almost sure that Governor Ohakim is going to lose the April election., stop crying, there is always another chance.