By Uzoma Nwachukwu
It is no longer in doubt that Chief Rochas Okorocha, current governor of Imo state, is an ambitious fellow. When he was campaigning for this his current position, he told his people in Imo state that he was “condescending” to seek for the position of governor. If the people thought that it was a mere campaign hyperbole, they realized shortly after Okorocha had assumed office that he meant every bit of what he was saying: He is, indeed, of a special breed, of a blue blood and sent to rescue a hapless people. Unfortunately, the people were not discerning enough to realize that his Rescue Mission slogan was a euphemism for an army of occupation.
Currently, Okorocha’s Imo is under occupation by Okorocha’s army. Recently, he told a stunned audience right inside the chambers of the Imo State government that he will liked to be addressed as “Captain”. Captain Rochas. But like every ambitious conqueror, Captain Rochas is gradually moving outside Imo. With the latter neatly tuck into his pocket, Okorocha has since arrived the neighbouring Anambra state. Under the guise of campaigning for his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), for the forth coming governorship election in the state, Okorocha has lunched an assault on the highly troubled state, evidently with the objective of establishing his influence there. To demonstrate that he is serious, he has raised the stakes quite high. With a whopping N2.5 billion allegedly sank into Anambra by him, there can be no doubt that Captain Okorocha will leave a big mark in the state whether or not his party wins.
Certain of this, the conqueror turned southwards again, marched through Imo and headed to Abia state. There, the highly imaginative adventurist sought for another disguise: His nation-wide birthday carnival was still ongoing but rather than proceed to Kaduna where the birthday train was to anchor penultimate weekend, he sent it to Aba, the commercial city of Abia state where a purported birthday reception was waiting for him. But he forgot that he was in an entirely different territory, indeed another man’s territory. According to media reports, Governor Okorocha’s handlers went ahead with the arrangements of the birthday reception for him without the modesty of letting both the security and political authorities in Abia state be in the know. Even so, Okorocha himself failed, according to feelers, to intimate his Abia counterpart of his intention to come to Abia.
But that wasn’t the real issue since the highly comportment T.A. Orji might have possibility ignored his indecorum. The real problem, according to reports, was that the planned birthday was to pitch a section of Imo indigenes resident in Abia state against another, a situation that arose from the speculation that the proposed birthday event was a disguise to canvass support for Okorocha’s APC in the state. Besides, a section of Abia citizens, for reasons that are not difficult to phantom, was not going to have anything of that sort.
It is to the credit of Governor Orji that an imminent showdown between the opposing sides was averted by the timely intervention disallowing the event. Naturally, the stoppage of the event attracted the attention of the media especially as Okorocha’s handlers tended to make a big issue out of it by painting the picture of an Okorocha that was denied something he is entitled to. But they failed it, as the sympathy they were looking for never came the way of the Imo governor.
In its stead, the question on the lip of every Imo citizens and indeed most Nigeria has been, what was Okorocha looking for in Aba? Coming against the backdrop of the ongoing nation-wide birthday carnival, Imo indigenes saw the incident at Aba as an opportunity to regain their voices, after an embarrassing quietude by the otherwise highly discerning and sophisticated Imolites over the birthday perfidy.
A group, which styled itself the League Of Imo Professionals, in a statement published widely in the media took on the Imo governor on the birthday matter. Apart from wondering why the Imo Governor was embarking on a nation-wide birthday carnival that first took him to Ibadan, Oyo state and allegedly expected to cost the state about N1.8 billion, the group asked Okorocha to stop going about “creating scenes” from one part of the country to another. Pointedly, the group told Governor Okorocha to stay at home and pay attention to the “myriad of problems” confronting the state and the “avalanche of complaints” by citizens of the state over the perceived “ineptitude” of his administration.
In alluding to Governor Okorocha’s penchant for “creating scenes”, the group was evidently drawing attention to other instances, before now, when the Imo governor was involved in unnecessary controversies at public functions, as well as in his personal brushes with people. Sometime ago, Governor Okorocha made headlines when he was involved in an imbroglio with aides of his Anambra state counterpart over sitting arrangements at an event in Enugu. Not long after, he was fingered as the mastermind of a bloody clash between his convoy and that of a senator from his state. He was physically present, according to widely publicized reports, as his security details manhandled one of the drivers in the senator’s convoy.
Next, there was the motor accident in which the driver of a Mercedes Benz car allegedly ran into his official car and in the process of which the governor sustained head injuries. The theatrics that surrounded that incident is still fresh in the minds of observers, with many actually of the view that it was contrived in order to elicit sympathy for the governor. Who wanted the performing governor dead? So the question went. So the story went. Even when the Imo governor later invited the erring motorist and hugged him in front of television cameras, not a few believed that that show was in mere furtherance of a choreography that was designed to portray the governor as large-hearted, accommodating and forgiving. Such publicity stunts are, of course, to be expected because minus them, Governor Okorocha’s image is that of a cantankerous fellow who throw his weight and authority about.
In Imo state where he presides, there exists a clear paradox of the Okorocha administration. Governor Okorocha’s tactics of concentrating only on renovating or building physical structures initially succeeded in setting him aside as a governor who has a vision to “develop” the state. The refrain became: he does what people can see (Ihe Ana Ahu Anya) perhaps in comparison with his predecessor who was concerned with laying a foundation for the state’s economy rather than reroofing buildings. But soon, this Ihe Ana Ahu Anya phenomena began to fade as the people began to realize that the process that led to the structures that were being built defied all known rules of governance.
Specifically, the people soon realized that almost all the projects are handled by close family members, to say nothing of the fact that the quality of the jobs done was nothing to write home about. When this is added to the fact that Governor Okorocha governs the state with so much impunity, with absolute no regard to the opinion of knowledgeable elements even right in his cabinet, the situation is that of an administration that is completely alienated from the people yet appears popular because the fellow on the driving seat knows how to conjures ideas that ordinarily fancy the people. He keeps on rousing the expectations of the people but has shown an obtuse lack of capacity to see his ideas through. This is where the state is now. Matters are out helped currently given Okorocha’s ambition to expand his territory not only to Abia, Anambra and indeed the rest of the South-east, but also to cover the entire Nigeria. Hence, his ongoing nation-wide birthday carnival. When a fellow who was elected to govern just a state begins to go from one part of the country to another to stage birthday shows with the resources of the people, he is merely reminding the people thus: “I told you I was merely condescending to be your governor”.