“Oke anaghi eri ihe onye mu anya” is an Igbo axiom depicting that ( a rat does not eat what belongs to someone who is watching) if the literary translation into English is considered.
That was what oozed from the mouth of Rochas Okorocha, the peevish Imo State governor who has become grumpier over the conduct of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Congresses in the state chapter of the party following his disconnect from the shape the exercise has taking so far.
After the Ward Congress held on Saturday, 5th May, a discomfited Okorocha, apparently suffering from frustration associated with the manner it was conducted, which saw him at the losing end, needed an elixir to fine tune the morale of his sympathisers into believing that all hope is not lost yet. Part of his usual talisman to hoodwink his followers into believing in him prompted the “Oke anaghi eri ihe onye mu anya” tales he forwarded to listeners in Government House, Owerri.
Before now, Okorocha had been reverberating the entire hemisphere boasting of his political prowess and enormous capacity to determine what happens in the state, especially in his APC political family now that 2019 election is fast approaching.
First, the governor came up with the “Agburu” mentality where he claimed that only those belonging to his “Agburu Anyi”, a kind of political camp originated by him, where he acts as the generalismo, will henceforth, only merit the political empowerments like appointment and elective positions in the state. In ostentatious pretence of self glorification, he went further to announce publicly how he would retire certain political gladiators in the state including an old war horse and dogged fighter in the politics of the state, Ifeanyi Araraume, former governor Achike Udenwa and the National Organising Secretary of the APC, Osita Izunaso after next year’s general election by claiming glory of sending into oblivion, the aged actors in the scene, who once held sway and dictated the pace of political development. Without any empirical evidence, the governor claimed to have retired the octogenarian Arthur Nzeribe who is battling with old age to make any further impact in the political scene as well as the ageing elder statesman, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu.
Going further to showcase contemptuous indifference to the feelings of the people in the state, Okorocha in the choice for a successor after two terms truculently discarded the leadership know-how of all his followers who have been with him in the Rescue Mission government for about seven years, to consider only his son in-law, Uche Nwosu, as the most qualified to merit Government House, Owerri, office after him.
In a supercilious manner, the governor went further to dump democratic ethos at choosing cronies and suspected bootlickers who would run for elective positions in the party come 2019 after allocating the Office of the Governor to the son in-law and pocketing that of Orlu zone senatorial seat ticket.
In what watchers of politics in the state have dubbed theatre of absurdities, other allies in his Rescue Mission government got his endorsements to run for Senate, House of Representatives and House of Assembly positions at the expense of other APC stakeholders interested in such positions come 2019.
Invariably, Okorocha’s verbal overflows and decision to pocket all posts and allocate 2019 elective positions to associates pitched him against other celebrated political figures in the APC hence the battle for the soul of the party. With top flight politicians in the state APC, Araraume, Izunaso and a serving senator of the party, Benjamin Uwajumogu leading the onslaught against the Imo governor,the battle against Okorocha blossomed as his former soul mate and Deputy Governor, Eze Madumere, past commissioners who served in his cabinet, TOE Ekechi and Best Mbanaso including former aggrieved allies and appointees formed a strategic partnership to resist attempts by the governor to colonise the party.
In his bid to be the “only cock that crows” in Imo APC, the governor had launched an attack against the another force in the politics of the state, Hope Uzodinma, the Senator representing Orlu Zone, who just decamped to APC from the PDP few weeks before the congress commenced. To add to the list of his adversary, Okorocha pretending to be the owner of Imo APC accused the Senator of joining the party through the “back door” and therefore cannot be accepted in the fold.
However, without the battle for who owns Imo APC going half way, Okorocha has turned a complainant and weeping.
The first test of might for the soul of Imo APC between Okorocha and his Rescue Missionaries against the opposing forces, otherwise known as the “Allied Forces” was the party’s Ward Congress held two Saturdays ago. And that was the beginning of the governor’s woes that have made him and the followers the “new wailers” in town.
In the bid to make real his vow before followers that only his Agburu ( political lineage ) would gain political ground in Imo APC ahead the 2019 election while those not in support to his son in-law shall be sent packing, reports have it that the governor and his group were accused of alleged attempt to hijack the Congress sensitive materials by holding the officials sent to conduct the Congress hostage in Government House, Owerri. Oblivious of the fact that the materials were not with the group said to be for another state, the “Allied Forces” comprising his Deputy, Araraume, Izunaso, Uwajumogu and others conducted the Congress in the various wards with the authentic officials and Congress items. That was the beginning of the governor’s problems which have earned him the toga of “Complainant General” for now.
Stories also have it that when the governor realised he kept hold of the wrong persons entitled to conduct the Ward Congresses in the state and the materials have gotten into the hands of the opposing forces, he besieged the security agencies for rescue. It was also said that after “wailing” to the former Commissioner of Police, Chris Ezike, whose sudden removal is linked to the May 5 Congress, he alongside the security chiefs in the state not only kept hold of the congress officials but also went knocking on the door of the Owerri private residence of Izunaso, the National Organising Secretary of the party.
Wearing a pitiable look, pictures of the governor and the ousted CP in front of Izunaso showed that Okorocha was indeed in trouble and seeking for help. Those who were not at the scene of the incident at Civic Centre, Owerri home of Izunaso have given different interpretations to what may have transpired. While few guess he went begging, others argue it was complaints galore based on his lamentations on alleged missing “sensitive” materials.
As if the efforts of the security agencies could not yield any fruit, Okorocha who had previously boasted of pocketing the party’s fortune in the state quickly dashed into his private jet alongside his second son, Aham, his commissioner for information and the one he has adopted to carry the flag of APC for Okigwe Zone, Nnamdi Obiareri, a House of Rep member, Chike Okafor and dashed to Daura to intimate the President, Muhammad Buhari, who was at home for the ward Congress, of his travails. The Daura trip was enough signal that Okorocha who had been parading as the “Alpha and Omega” of Imo APC was a sheer traducer wallowing in grandeur of delusion of a mystic power to determine what happens in the party.
Sources however disclosed that the unsuccessful outcome of the Daura trip where he was advised to seek redress through the appropriate party channels which is the Ward Appeal panel manifested when he flew into Abuja to see the Inspector General of Police, IG, and the Vice President, to complain about the suspected “missing sensitive materials”
While he was on the “wailing sojourn” to would be helpers, the Allied Forces was consolidating grounds by dishing out devastating blows at his end. The Ward Congress report was submitted and that of Appeal Committee concluded and deposed at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja.
As the governor was moving around to ensure the coalition against him does not succeed, the Allied Forces are not resting on their oars to give Okorocha a complete rout in the fight who gets what in the party. For a greater part of last week, stakeholders in the state party including the governor were in Abuja were the Vice President, Yomi Osibanjo heard their cases.
However, a newsbreak about the arrest of four suspects by police headquarters in Abuja alleged to have forged and in possession of fake Congress materials items tried raising hope for Okorocha that the ward Congress would be upturned. But the police assertion that that it was fake materials and the fact that the ward Congress results have been submitted days before the arrest based on publications making the rounds rubbished the openings of a possible cancellation of the earlier excercise.
On his return to the state after effortlessly pulling all strings to cancel the ward Congress including media shows on TVs and print mediums, Okorocha reassured his followers that a new date for the Congress would be announced, adding that the NWC would also meet this Tuesday to take a decision on the matter. Okorocha’s position on a new date for ward congresses in the state became pronounced when the LGA congress scheduled for last Saturday was stopped.
Different versions of stories trailed the stoppage of the LGA Congress dominated discussions in the state. While the Okorocha camp claimed it was as a result of his complaints arising from the discrepancies associated with the ward Congress, the state party chairman, Hilary Eke informed members of the party that the LGA was shifted to Monday following the fire outbreak at the state party secretariat. The Congress eventually took place across the 27 LGAs on the rescheduled date of Monday May, 14.
Apparently aware that he has been playing losers game, Okorocha took his wailing spree to the doorsteps of the national party officials who he accused of allegedly backing the Allied Forces to deal with him in the state chapter of APC. But the spokesman of the party, Bolaji Abdulahi gave it back to the governor when he asked him to look inwards than engage in wolf cry against the NWC.
A statement from the governor had earlier claimed that the denial being meted to him was a result of his kick against the tenure elongation of the party officials during the National Working Committee meeting of the party. The governor hinted that the decisions taken under his watch as the Chairman of the Progressive Governors Forum, where he opposed the tenure elongation of the APC NWC, might have irked Oyegun, leading to his attempt to frustrate and truncate his political future using the on going Congresses of the party. But in the words of APC National Publicity Secretary, Okorocha was told not to transfer his frustration on NWC while accusing him of being malicious. According to him ” Okorocha is being malicious and unfair to the NWC. If he has mismanaged his relationship with his own people, in a way that they now constitute an encumbrance to him, he should not transfer his frustration to the NWC”
Further to his outcry over the congresses, the governor was also said to be behind the visit of the 20 members of the Imo State House of Assembly and two Federal lawmakers, who are of the APC, to the party leadership in Abuja, even as a group of protesters against him robbed off the shine of the visit at the party headquarters when the demanded that the governor should forgo imposing his son in-law or quit from the party to allow peace reign.
While the outcome of the governor’s complaints is being awaited, it is obvious that Okorocha’s outcry is a manifestation of his lost of the grip of the party structure in the state with the Ward and LGA Congresses concluded remaining only the state congress. It is obvious that those close to the governor failed to recite before him a salient Owerri maxim which states that “Oke hie ura, Ibe ya apara ya” (if a rat sleeps off, others will carry the day).
