By Okey Alozie
An assessment of the curriculum Vitae of Imo State Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha will show that the name Rochas was imported to complement his identity. In the particulars of the Governor, what is obtained are Anayo Ethelbert Okorocha.
But Rochas has overwhelmed others name. Only recently, the governor disclosed how the famous Rochas name has overwhelmed other biological names given to him by his parents.
Speaking during the church service held on Sunday at Victory Chapel, Government House, Owerri, the Governor hinted that the name was coined out from his surname (Okorocha) because of what he faced in Plateau State during his childhood. According to him when he was 13 years old, he went for an interview to gain admission into a technical college in Jos but discovered he may be a victim of discrimination since he was not a non indigene. When he discovered that the school management may not admit him as a result of his stranger background since his surname Okorocha is a pure Igbo name and language, he resolved to play a smart game by coining out a new name (Rochas) from his full name to wear a new identity.
He revealed that before the interview his name was Anayo Ethelbert Ibeabuchi Okorocha which he then changed to become Rochas Okorocha.
According to him, the name Rochas is not his original name, it was a name adopted out of circumstance.
He now declared that anybody who knows him by the name Rochas did not know him from his home town Ogboko.
“Ethelbert Ibeabuchi Okorocha is my true name and anybody who calls me by that name knows my true identity”, Okorocha stated. Even God has his true name as Yaweh.
He further explained that the name Rochas which he extracted from his full name is the same with Okorocha. Therefore “anybody calling me Rochas is like calling me Okorocha and nothing more than that” the Governor hinted.
He advised Imolites to speak well of their state and not Rochas, adding that people spend more in criticizing Rochas instead of talking good of Imo, the great State.
