“Leadership is a privilege to better the lives of others. It is not an opportunity to satisfy personal greed” – Mwai Kibaki
It would be difficult not to be interested in Imo State if you are a politically exposed journalist. Imo and Anambra states in the South-East region have become theatre of the absurd in their kind of politics since the return to democracy in the country 20 years ago, with Imo a step higher in this incongruous democratic practice.
In the South-East geo-political zone and indeed Igbo land, Imo State is seen as the intellectual hub, the same way Ekiti State is seen in the South-West but their political arrangements since the recent democratic dispensation have fallen short of any admirable standard.
Musing this week is prompted by a message sent to me via WhatsApp platform by a senior professional colleague and a brother in the Biafra struggle, Kanayo Esinulo (who was 70 years on Monday), detailing the type of governance in practice in Imo State. The message has even gone viral in new media. The first instinct you get on reading the message is to dismiss it as untrue and to even say that if such weird things were to happen, it cannot be in Imo State of all places.
According to the message, the incumbent government in Imo State under the watch of “Owelle Rochas Okorocha has his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu married to the first daughter as his chief of staff, whom he is plotting to impose as the governor of the state come 2019. The minister nominated by the governor from Imo State, Prof. Anthony Anwukah is also his in-law, married to his second daughter, Uju Okorocha. His youngest sister, Ogechi Ololo, is his deputy chief of staff as well as his Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs. His wife, Mrs. Nkechi Okorocha, as First Lady is in charge of amnesty programme in Imo State with a budget of N5 billion. His elder sister, Mrs. Geraldine Obinali, collects all market fees and fines in Imo State. His eldest brother, Gerald Okorocha, receives the account for all Motor Park tolls in Imo State. His younger brother, Okey, is in charge at the Imo State Transport Company. His other brother, Jude, is in charge of revenue from sand dredging and any laterite excavation pit in Imo State. His daughter the minister’s wife is appointed as federal board member from Imo State.”
Honestly, I had desired that it’s not true and not happening in Igbo land. I had also waited for the Imo State government to come up with a statement denying the story as lies and a figment of the author. Their silence to me is an indication that there are some truths in it. In fact when I tried verifying the story an Imolite in Owerri told me that I didn’t add that the First Lady is the de facto deputy governor and that the new governor’s official residence was actually designed and built with Okorocha family in mind.
With this type of family chop alone system, Imo State has no moral standing to accuse federal government or President Muhammadu Buhari of running a clannish and nepotic administration.
If this story had emerged from another state, Imolites I know would have been saying this nonsense can’t happen in their state but here we are.
Even during military rule, you could hear such arrogant talks like ‘this type of thing can’t happen in Imo, even some military governors didn’t really find it easy governing Imo State because of the activism of the people.’ Recall things like Ikwechegh na Kwa echeki (cautions sent then to a military governor Navy Commodore Amadi Ikwechegh for him to be careful and watch his actions).
The consequences of dragging the entire family into governance is that it leads to the bizarre plot of trying to install another family member after eight years for the largesse to continue and never cease even if it is at the expense of other people. Who cares.
Late Biafra hero, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, loved the vibrancy of Imolites that he adopted it as his preferred home. But since democracy, Imo has really been a shadow of itself. The citizens have been roundly cowed, after the colorless and ‘lifeless’ (word original to Donald Trump) but peaceful administration of Achike Udenwa, then came the turbulent ikiri Ikedi Ohakim era whose battle with Imo people rightly or wrongly brought them to the now court of the Okorocha family project.
Even though Okorocha came through democracy, the system he has been running in Imo is yet to be properly determined. Wikipedia says that a government run by a family is a monarchy who possibly inherent their position from their family and is usually called royal family. Monarchy is of two types, absolute and constitutional, what Okorocha is running in Imo has no place in the two even though it has characteristics of monarchy. Who knows it could be Iberibeism as enunciated by Governor Okorocha himself. What is Iberibeism? It cannot be found on Wikipedia apparently because it’s derived from a local Imo dialect but it could be defined as a system of government run by people with incomplete nuts upstairs. Whether monarchy or Iberibeism it is still too early to determine which one is in operation in Imo State today. Maybe after Uche Nwosu replaces the father-in-law before the picture can be clearer.
How did Imo State arrive at this destination? Who or what is responsible for this wildly unreasonable political behaviour? My search for an answer to the question brought me to the fact that all the political gladiators that have held the state down were once in the same political platform called the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Name them, Ifeanyi Ararume, Osita Izunaso now in ÁPGA, Hope Uzodinma still searching for platform, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, Emeka Ihedioha, Chris Okewulonu, Samuel Anyanwu, Ikedi Ohakim, Achike Udenwa, Iheanacho, etc. are still in PDP, Rochas Okorocha and family in APC.
Their common characteristics are greed, impatience and chop alone mentality an attribute that made them disrupt the zoning arrangement that all other states in the region kept and enjoyed peacefully.
Why is Enugu State the most peaceful politically speaking in the country, simple, it respects the spirit of zoning realizing from inception that everybody has a stake in the state. The Nsukka people who are the larger brother allowed the smaller ones of Nkanu and Udi zones to go first, second and now is their turn and the state is running seamlessly. Even in Ebonyi State, the majority Abakaliki zone of old Enugu State still allowed the minority Afikpo zone of old Abia State to have shot at the governorship.
Not so for Imo, the big brother Orlu zone after going first could not allow the junior Okigwe to complete their turn. And after 16 years out of 20, the same Orlu is still scheming to go again in 2019. Wondering if that is not iberibeism?
The Mbaise and Owerri in Owerri zone have also not helped the situation, as they will rather throw it to the dogs than let either of them have it. In Imo as it is evident, zones do not want to give way to other zones, families do not want to give way for other families, it’s all self and no common interest.
As a result, Imo State is the only state in the country to have the notoriety of having been ruled by four different political parties (PDP, PPA, APGA, and APC in that order) in a period of 20 years and all the combatants now scattered in the four parties were once in one of them. Peaceful states like Enugu and Ebonyi states have remained with one political party ever since, the politicians in these states may not be saints but they appear to be more patience, less desperate for power and less greedy. Nothing can be more evident that Imo State is passing through intense political difficulty.
To get out of this muddle, Imo voters must in the words of the former American President Bill Clinton “knock down the barriers erected by greed, special interests, and powerful forces.” It is a herculean task no doubt but not impossible, there is nothing determined electorate cannot do with their voting power if only they so resolve.
If you are therefore an Imolite and you’re above 18 years and have not collected your PVC, know it that you are as guilty and also suffering from Iberibeism. Even more guilty and dangerous is your wrong use of PVC, in 2019. PVC holders in Imo should therefore use it to enhance justice, equity, fairness, power balancing, stability, peace and progress and above all see to the extermination of Iberibe disease in the state polity. As they do that God will bless ala Imo.
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