By Damian Duruiheoma, Owerri
Son-in-law and Chief of Staff to the Imo state governor, Chief Uche Nwosu, has dismissed the insinuations that his father-in-law, Rochas Okorocha, will manipulate him or dictate his actions if he is elected as governor of the state in 2019.
This is just as Nwosu stated that Governor Okorocha was not imposing him on the All Progressives Congress (APC) and that the endorsements he was getting from the party, as its sole candidate, were never by inducement or coercion.
Nwosu’s governorship ambition has been greeted with criticisms within and outside his party that his governorship ambition was seen as a third term agenda for his father-in-law, Okorocha.
But, reacting in an interview with one of the national dailies, Nwosu maintained that he would not be tele-guided by Governor Okorocha nor manipulated by the governor for any reason, to do the biddings, describing the insinuation as another tool of blackmail employed by mischievous politicians who he claimed had been dislodged in the state.
“I am telling you who the governor is, once Owelle Rochas Okorocha leaves the seat of power, the man I know very well will not even come close to this Government House; it is we that will be telling him please come and visit us. Rochas Okorocha has made a lot of people, senators, ministers and House members. How many times has he called to say I want to put this or that in the National Assembly or called any minister and say I want to get this from you? But that does not mean that, as an elder statesman, just like we have Achike Udenwa and Ikedi Ohakim, whenever we need advice, we should not go to them but the man I know very well, who I have worked with for over 20 years, is not a man who will leave a place and come back to that place and start saying this or that will happen”, he said.
The governor’s aide argued that his ambition was propelled by the conviction that he has the capacity to sustain and drive the new Imo hallmarked by massive infrastructural development, free education, wealth creation, security of lives and property and accountability as well as the support of the people.
He maintained that “being the governor’s son-in-law is just an added advantage to my ambition,” stressing that he has garnered the leadership and administrative skills needed to govern a state like Imo.
“Of course being a son-in-law to the governor does not stop me from doing what I am supposed to do as a chief of staff and a staff of the state government.”
“Yes, I am a son-in-law to Owelle Rochas Okorocha and I am very much proud to be his son-in-law. Today in most of the countries of the world, let me just start with President Donald Trump, his son in-law is an adviser; he is a member of his cabinet, America never went up in flames, why should Trump appoint his son-in-law as a member of the kitchen cabinet of his government? President Bush senior was the President and after his tenure, his son became president and America never went haywire, even at that his son was also a governor. What about the Bill Clinton family, while Clinton was president, the wife became a senator, the wife became Secretary of State, the wife also came back to run for president, does that stop America from choosing the right person, does that bring food on the table of the poor masses? So being a son in-law does not stop Imo State from getting what they want to get, it does not stop the poorest of the poor in the state from having food on their tables.
“What you should rather ask is: what do you have for the people of Imo? Forget about the issue of being a son-in-law, being a son-in-law to the governor is an added advantage because I have acquired knowledge, added advantage is not in the area that people say he wants to put his son-in-law”. https://orientdailynews.com.ng/politics/imo-guber-okorocha-wont-manipulate/ https://orientdailynews.com.ng/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/uche_NWOSU.jpglalasticlala seun mynd44 |
