All forms of governments system, democracy
is globally acknowledged as the most ideal since it thrives on the collective
mandate and wishes of the people. The late Abraham Lincoln who made his famous
definition of democracy as “government of the people, by the people and for the
people” was indeed visionary in his legendary definition, in view of the
inherent inadequacies of such other types of governments as fascism, oligarchy,
totalitarianism, absolutism and even plutocracy. To all observes of the
dictates of democracy, Nigeria – the acclaimed giant of Africa – has every
cause to rejoice over her unprecedented 14 years of unbroken democratic
experiment in spite of pockets of socio-economic dislocations threatening it.
At
the twilight preparatory stage for the 2011 general elections in the country,
virtually all states of the federation were agog with political activities
orchestrated by those seeking one form of elective position or another.
In
Imo State, to be specific, Governor Rochas Okorocha, who humorously threw his
hat in the ring for the gubernatorial contest under the platform of the All
Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), was derided as a rabble rouser who had come
to play the spoiler’s game in respect of the unwritten but entrenched zoning of
the governorship seat among the three zones of Owerri, Orlu and Okigwe.
Therefore, his eventual ascendancy to power was a shocker to many observers of
Imo Politics since it was an alteration of the unwritten principle of zoning
the governorship seat among the three zones of Owerri, Orlu and Okigwe.
This
was largely because the calculation of the average Imo electorate was that
since the zoning lot fell on the Imo North senatorial district (Okigwe zone) it
should be allowed to complete its constitutional second term.
The
sitting governor then who took over from ex-governor Achike Udenwa from Orlu
(Imo West) was expected to complete his constitutional second term after which
power should shift to Owerri (Imo East), hence Okorocha’s monumental victory is
till today seen as divine.
To
be sure, the Governor’s foray into the gubernatorial race was not a
happenstance. The generally perceived anti-people’s style of governance by his
immediate predecessor, the protracted intra-party squabble which persistently
raged and rocked the then ruling PDP, coupled with the larger than life image
of the Biafran warlord – Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu within the APGA, all
combined to fetch victory for the governor in the hotly contested gubernatorial
race which was consummated in the contentious 6th May supplementary elections.
Okorocha
fought many battles and, relying on the inestimable massive support of the
electorate, he was able to weather the storm, obviated complicated barriers and
conspiracy erected on his path by his traducers, and the rest is now history.
Thus,
armed with a novelty campaign package encapsulated in his Rescue Mission
programme, the governor with a clinical examination and analysis of the odds
inhibiting and retarding the pace of growth and development of the Eastern Heartland,
did not procrastinate to tell all who cared to listen that he was indeed on a
mission to rescue mission the state from its decrepit state of abyss and
neglect perpetrated by successive regions after the late chief Sam Mbakwe of
blessed memory.
Therefore,
with power firmly placed on his hand and drawing inspiration by the
Machiavellian principle which insists that the end justifies the means, the
Ogboko Ideato South born business mogul-turned politician did not dilly dally
to articulate and brandish his administrative political powers to clear the
coast for the eventual implementation of his Rescue mission package.
Daring
areas where politicians had hitherto dreaded in the state, the governor in a
rare display of military reflex adorned in self aplomb embarked on a systematic
obliteration of the bedbug of God-fatherism which had eaten deep into the
fabric of the politics of the Eastern Heartland.
He
had also tinkered with structures he inherited which inevitably unruffled
feathers. First to fall victim to the governor’s administrative sledge hammer
was the dramatic dissolution of elected council chairmen and their councilors,
dismantling of the leadership of the state council of traditional rulers, those
of the judicial service commission, the neutralization of the controversial
10,000 jobs offered to youths by his immediate predecessor.
Convinced
that the ineptitude of his predecessors precipitated by stinking corruption and
primitive accumulation of wealth was grossly responsible for the slow pace of
development in the state, Okorocha had stoically struck while the iron was hot
by ingeniously plugging all sources and avenues of financial leakages while
placing a tab on all government financial transactions.
Again,
conscious of the salutary positive effects of the late chief Obafemi Awolowo’s
free education programme in the defunct western region, the governor
proved rabid opponents of free education wrong and declared this at both
secondary and tertiary institution levels.
A
rescue mission surplus budget for both the year 2012 and 2013 had heralded
massive construction and rehabilitation of roads in almost all nooks and
crannies of the state, renovation of schools with supply of desks, lockers,
sandals and uniforms for pupils and students, establishment of general
Hospitals, resuscitation and revival of ailing industries in addition to total
construction of the Heroes square, Ikemba Ojukwu convention centre, new office
blocks for both his deputy and wife Nkechi.
Introduction
of compulsory uniform dress code for civil servants in the state, erection of
impregnable security network through community policing, Imo security network,
procurement and distribution of modern communication security gadgets, patrol
vehicles to security agencies, insulation of traditional rulers from the cancer
of partisan polities are also among the credits of the Rescue Mission
administration.
As
a self confessed unusual governor, doing unusual things, Okorocha’s perceived
unorthodox style of governance had expectedly attracted the ire, flank and
indignation of his political opponents, mainly from the rival opposition party
who accuse him of ruling the state like his personal empire.
First
to take their found of flesh on the governor were the sacked council chairmen
who had waged a protracted legal battle with the rescue mission regime, just as
the leadership of the dissolved council of Royal Fathers, members of the state
judicial service commission (JSC) and the disarmed beneficiaries of the
ex-governor Ikedi Ohakim 10,000 jobs engaged him in a legal tussle.
Although
virtually consigned to political oblivion by the governor, the political
godfathers who had traditionally dictated the pace and direction of governance
in the state have now adopted a fatalistic attitude, hoping to re-launch and
revive their now dimmed political image at an opportune time.
As
an unusual governor, doing unusual things, Okorocha has handy settled down for
business at the Douglas House when, after taking a methodological study
of what he inherited rolled out his marshal plan to reposition the state.
Also
encapsulated in his Rescue Mission programme was the controversial Community
Government Council (CGC). Which he believed was the only credible antidote to
quicken the pace of grassroots development and growth.
In
spite of his obvious efforts to tackle the nagging security challenges in the
state, the establishment of Imo Security Network is widely seen as being akin
to the controversial proposed state police in the country. It is however to the
credit of the governor that there has not been reported cases of persecution or
victimization of political opponents in the state by the security outfit.
The
governor’s move to commercialize the state civil service apparently in a
move to beef up the states- IGR and to make them economically self
sustaining has drawn the ire of the NLC who promptly insinuated that it
was a veiled ploy to trim the workforce
and
thus throw them into the labour market.
Again,
the assumed bitter impeachment of his former deputy, Sir Jude Agbaso which was
a fallout of a N458 million bribery scandal over a road construction project by
JIPROS inter. Nig Ltd could be said to be the grandmother of all
controversies trailing his Rescue Mission administration.
As
a cat with many lives, Okorocha had set the tongue of the highly politically
conscious electorate wagging on other issues, first of which was his
rumoured plan to stifle the party that brought him to power- the APGA in
preference to the yet to be registered APC, ostensibly, to brighten his
prospect for a vice presidential position in 2015, while the second has been
his clandestine plot to sojourn in Douglas House (Government House)beyond 2015.
The
eventual nailing of the APGA on 7th May when he finally bade the party
farewell in favour of the APC largely dominated by the traditional
political foes of the Igbo is adjudged as a political suicide in the already
charged political atmosphere of the state.
But
a resolute Okorocha has remained unperturbed and tenacious in his firm
conviction that it is the only sure path to take the people to an Eladorado.
Having
bestroded the state like a colossus over the past two years with
miscellaneous achievements entwined in deafening controversies, the governor
has consequently become a cynosure for contrivances who would only be fathormed
by another nostrademus in 2015.
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