“IMO IS THE ONLY STATE WHERE GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATES ARE BEGGING TO BE ALLOWED TO RULE FOR ONLY FOUR YEARS”
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Can you react to the recent ratings about the governorship election by a leading newspaper in the country which said PDP may lose Imo State?

Those who should know have faulted the so-called opinion polls as lacking in scientific inputs. As far as I am concerned, it is a mere guess work based on rumour and gossips. How can you say that as much as 41 per cent is undecided yet on which way to vote and at the same time you reach a conclusion? Can’t the researchers see that the decision of that 41 per cent can completely alter their conclusions? Why wouldn’t the researchers hold on to see if events in the next couple of days or weeks can make those undecided to decide? The exercise is of no use to the people of Imo State. It is even an insult to such a very discernable people like Imo people.

To say that less than two weeks to the election, as much as 41 per cent of the people are yet undecided on which party to go is an insult. Our people are too sophisticated and politically alert to be associated with that type of non-challant. I hear that one of the candidates, Chief Rochas Okorocha, who was allocated 34 per cent of Imo votes, has been jumping up and down in jubilation. That’s vintage Okorocha. He is very much at home with things like that, things that confer false pretences. Being a very tentative fellow himself, he likes things that are tentative.

But in a recent interview with this newspaper, Chief Okorocha says he is the man the people want. Does that not corroborate the result of the opinion poll?

Is there any candidate who would tell you that the people do not want him? The other day at a debate organized by the Nigerian Union of Journalists, you needed to listen to the candidates. Everybody was beating his chest, even those whose parties do not have office in Imo state. They are the ones Imo people want. And as I said earlier, Chief Okorocha is known for being in love with frivolous claims.

Is it also frivolous when he talks about free education and he has something already on ground, talking about his Rochas Foundation School which he runs free?

That’s the very trap everybody seems to be falling into. I have said it before that his glib talk about free education amounts to a blackmail on our people. Somebody is talking about free education as if our people have not being going to school before now.

The way Chief Okorocha talks about his free education suggests that our people have not been sending their children to school before the arrival of his Rochas Foundation schools. He sounds as if every parent in Imo state is going cap in hand begging for free education for his or her children. That’s not the impression to give about your people. The pride of every Igbo man is to be seen to be able to train his children in school. Igbos do not have the culture of asking for free things. That’s why we don’t have beggars among Igbos. A fellow who probably comes from a background where people are used to having everything free should not come and paint a beggarly picture about our people. Igbo land is reputed to have the highest number of educated people. Before the civil war, Igbo land had the highest number of intellectuals. It was not through free education.

In any case, tuition is free in Imo state up till Senior Secondary School Three (SSS3). Chief Okorocha has not bothered to find out the level to which education is free. He makes blanket allusion to it as if nothing is on ground. And you will even discover that some other candidates have joined him in the glib talk about free education. Yet, if you ask them to articulate how they will fund free education, they will start stammering. The other day, a local newspaper reported that Chief Okorocha said he would fund free education with Security Vote and Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). With over 700,000 school enrolment, it will take about N22 billion annually to give free education at all levels in Imo state. Now, the state I.G.R. is less than N420,000 per month. He talks about Security Vote. How much Security Vote?

Imo gets an average allocation of about N30 billion annually. He did not state how much of this is Security Vote. But if out of N30 billion you take N22 billion for education only, what of salary of civil servants which takes about N22 billion annually. How about the provision and maintenance of infrastructure. You see why I refer to them as talking glibly about free education? In Chief Okorocha’s three – page interview, there was no where he explained how he will fund the free education. His talk about Security Votes betrays his mind set. That’s where his eyes are: Security Votes. No serious governorship candidate talks about Security Votes. To talk feebly about it shows that it is his main target. They should stop cheapening our people. I have said nothing to suggest that free education is not good. But we should talk about it intelligently.

Chief Okorocha was appointed by Governor Ohakim to head the State Education Trust Fund Committee that was expected to raise over N50 billion for the rehabilitation of educational infrastructure in the state. That committee did not meet for one day after inauguration.

He was no where to found. He never showed up again because he does not like to work with other people with ideas. That committee had other brilliant chaps who had ideas to contribute. But their chairman bolted away because he wouldn’t want others to make contributions. If you look around Chief Okorocha, you can hardly find bright people around him. It is only people who are handicapped so that they always look up to him as a messiah. Imo people have gone pass the messiah syndrome stage.

But Imo people seem to be sold to his rescue mission slogan.

I am happy you call it a slogan. And you know what sloganeering is all about. Most times, most slogans are empty. We have one in our hands, talking about Chief Okorocha and his governorship ambition. But it is not about slogans. Some of them confuse popularity with politics. You can be popular without being a good politician. After all, musicians are popular. Those acting homes movies are popular. If you bring a governor together with Pete Edochie or Osuofia, I am sure more people will like to stay around the actors. So, it is not just about being popular. It is about having what it takes to win an election. Imo state is a PDP state. Chief Okorocha’s party, APGA, does not have what it takes to win a governorship election in Imo state. The other day, I went home and started asking about APGA in my own local government area. There are not up to twenty people who are in APGA in my local government area. In my ward, there are only two APGA members. In my home town, there is not a single APGA member. And we have about 70, 000 voters registered in my L.G.A which happens to be one of the largest local government areas is the state. It is like that all over. Only last week, the only APGA member in the State House of Assembly, Hon. Emeronye, dumped the party and pitched camp with the PDP. Hon Emeronye is representing Ahiazu Mbaise, the stronghold of APGA in Imo state. The people of Ideato South local government area, where Chief Okorocha comes from, are not sold to his candidacy. Only yesterday, all the traditional rulers in his L.G.A endorsed Governor Ohakim and pointedly asked Chief Okorocha to respect the zoning arrangement in the state. So tell me, from where will Chief Okorocha get the vote with which he will win the governorship election? As I talk to you now, he has campaigned only in three local government areas, less than two weeks to the election. That’s why he is doing mostly road shows in Owerri. But you are here in Owerri. You know it is all theatrics.

You think it is only about structures, talking about the PDP? You think Governor Ikedi Ohakim has done well to earn the votes for re-election?

You are an Imo citizen. And you live here in the state. You can answer that question yourself. But I can still help you by saying a big “YES”. His opponents are opposing him not because he has not done well but because they are desperate to be governor. And how would you know they are desperate? Candidate Okorocha, for example, talks about spending only four years. Why would you want to spend only four years when there is a constitutional provision that you can run for a second term. The people that wrote the constitution are no fools. They knew the reason they made such provisions. Even in advanced democracies like the United States of America, they have provision for governors and president to run for second term.

So, if you come and you keep on saying, ‘I will do only one term, I will do only one term’, it means you are just begging the people to allow you to just test the position. Chief Okorocha and a few other candidates like him know they do not fall into the template Imo people are using to produce their governors, I mean the zoning arrangement. Okorocha knows that by that arrangement, he should not be talking about governorship now. That’s why he is begging, trying to deceive the people that he will do only one term.

Only desperate candidates talk that way. It is only in Imo state that you see governorship candidates who are begging to be allowed for only one term. Begging or trying to cajole the people to allow you do only one term is an admittance that the candidate either lacks what it takes to do two terms of eight years or is coming from the wrong angle. Chief Okorocha suffers from both. He lacks what it takes to subject himself to party discipline or team work. That’s why he changes party every election. He started with PDP in 1999, Later ANPP, Later he formed Action Alliance, which he abandoned before anybody knew what was happening. Now he is in APGA. Of course, such a fellow cannot sustain the loyalty of party members to make it possible for him to govern a state for eight full years. You see, people expose themselves through several ways. Chief Okorocha is begging Imo people for only one term because he knows that Imo people have a template which they want to stick to, namely that after Okigwe zone might have complete its turn through Governor Ohakim, it goes to Owerri zone, not Orlu zone where he, Okorocha, comes from.

But in that interview he debunked the zoning arrangement. In 2007 some people from Orlu zone ran for the governorship. We had Hope Uzodinma, Tony Ezenna, and Festus Odimegwu. And if any of them had won, that would have meant that another Orlu fellow would have emerged immediately after Chief Achike Udenwa. That’s why people like Chief Okorocha say that zoning is dead in Imo state.

That brings us to the crux of the matter. So, why weren’t those Orlu people elected. They did not even go beyond the primaries. Do they think Imo people are fools? Hope Uzodinma came first in the PDP primaries. Why wasn’t he given the ticket to contest the main election? The fact that a selfish money bags nurses an inordinate ambition does not mean that that is what the people want. The same way Imo people resisted those Orlu zone chaps who wanted to rubbish the zoning arrangement, is the same way they will reject Okorocha on April 16, 2011. That you have money is not the reason you should want to thwart the collective will of the people. Chief Okorocha was nobody when leaders of the state came up with that template. And I am saying that he is not is a position to change it. I have the record which shows that he visited the former President, Chief Obasanjo, on January 3, 2007, to complain that Tony Ezenna was running for governor even when he comes from Orlu zone. And he was asking Obasanjo to stop him.

But many people have said that zoning promotes mediocrity, that let the best come out no matter where he or she comes from.

May be zoning promotes mediocrity in areas where the likes of Okorocha grew up but certainly not in Imo state or if you like Igbo land. There is no local government in Imo state you will not find at least five governorship materials, not to talk about an entire zone made up of, up to nine local government areas. Let the zone whose turn it is bring out their best. You see, this zoning thing is just for equity, so that all parts of the state can have a sense of belonging. If you don’t zone, many areas will never have the opportunity.

Many of the governor’s critics argue that the projects he claims to have done are not there. Things like the Wonder Lake Resort project and Oak Refinery and Petrochemical project.

You are a journalist practicing in this state. The governor has never claimed that any of these projects have been completed. He has never told anybody that he has completed the Wonder Lake project or Oak Refinery. Those talking that way expose their own ignorance. I read Chief Okorocha’s interview where he alluded to the non-existence of the Wonder lake Resort and the Oak Refinery. Of course, these are street talks. One would expect a governorship candidate to go beyond platitudes to talk more knowledgeably. You see, these people are not thorough and deep. Otherwise, they would know that it is not possible to have completed the Oguta Wonder Lake project under four years. Or the refinery. Which state can build a refinery in four years? These are mega projects that are for the future but which foundation are being laid now. The projects require a lot of planning. The paper work alone takes years.

If it were just a question of going to a site to erect a building block to announce a project, then may be they would talk differently. And that’s what our people are used to, seeing physical infrastructure before plans for a project are even concluded. And that is why we have abandoned projects. Many governments rush to begin to erect physical infrastructures even before the feasibilities studies are completed. At a stage, they discover that the project may not be viable. Governor Ohakim is too sophisticated for that type of thing. I know that a fellow like Rochas Okorocha would start by erecting buildings so that people can clap for him. So that Okada riders can hail him. Governance in the 21st century has gone beyond mere waiving of hands. Only the deep can call to the deep. The governor is not looking for cheap popularity. Any knowledgeable fellow knows that these mega projects take time. Imo citizens who have the interest of the state at heart know that. The sword turning ceremony of the Wonder Lake project was laid on January 4, this year. You live in Owerri. Just drive to Oguta Lake and see the rate of progress within three months.

You are aware of the setback the project suffered as a result of the global economic crisis and the security situation in the Niger Delta. As a result of these, some of the earlier partners experienced difficulties. Some, their home governments even cancelled approvals earlier given. We had to start afresh. Part of the delay was also because some people went to court to stop the state government from doing certain things. Take the N18.5 billion Bond the state government floated. Some people went to court to stop it. So the Bond stayed longer than we had anticipated before it was pulled through. That naturally meant that the necessary funds were delayed in coming. As I talk to you now, the federal government, through the NNPC, is partnering with the state government on the refinery project

One issue that has come up in the current electioneering campaign is that the key candidates insist that they have a pedigree of success in business and wealthy background and that this will help them manage the resources of the state better.

Which business success? And where is the wealthy background? I don’t know when being a chronic bank debtor makes one a successful businessman. Go there, you will see the records at the relevant quarters. Some of these candidates are what bankers call bank invaders. They take loans from banks, they will never pay. I don’t want to mention names but there are at least three of the candidates whom banks have taken over their property all over the country on account of loan default.

But even so, some of them cannot talk about wealth because their wealth is what we used to call Money Miss Road in those days. How many people benefited from their wealth? Chief Okorocha talks about internally generated revenue in Imo state. Ask him how much tax he pays to the state. Is it not from taxes that you get IGR? In 2009, he paid only N661,000 as tax. In 2008, he paid only N570, 000. Go and cross check, you will see what I am talking about. As a public servant, I pay much higher than that. It means a lot of civil servants pay more tax than Chief Okorocha. Yet he has the temerity to talk about I.G.R. Is that not cheating the system and the people? In other claims, people like him will not be talking because they are tax evaders. Many countries have zero tolerance for tax evaders. But here in Nigeria, anything goes. The road to his village was un-tarred until Governor Ohakim tarred it when his mother died in 2008. Chief Okorocha says you people in the media should not compare him with the other candidates. That he stands out. And you failed to ask him on what basis. He is talking about people who have sound education they received when they were in their early twenties. But Chief Okorocha flaunts a degree he purportedly got only last year, 2010, at almost 50 years of age. So, when he says don’t compare me with other candidates, he, of course, means including Chief Ikedi Ohakim. Isn’t that funny? You come from Imo state here, tell me which company he owns. All what you hear is Jos, Jos, Jos, Abuja, Abuja. He talks about transparency in the democratic process. But you are here in Imo as a journalist. Did he undergo any primary election in APGA before he emerged its governorship candidate? As far as I am concerned, personally, Chief Okorocha is planted in APGA to destroy the party. He is on a mission there. As he did in ANPP.

Lastly Sir, the election is just 10 days away. What are the chances of Governor Ohakim?

Governor Ohakim will win the election neat and dry.