It is with mixed feelings that I approach this week’s topic. Since the 2011 General Election was conducted with some candidates emerging victorious and others losers, I have relegated the exercise and intrigues that characterized it to the dustbins of the past. I am only looking forward to 2015 for another chapter to be opened again in our political records.
However, I am propelled to reflect on the 2011 election courtesy of a yet be launched book entitled “Democracy by Military Tank”, the untold story of Imo 2011 written by Dr Ethelbert Okere. If not for the respect and regards I have for the seasoned writer and senior colleague in the pen profession, I would have accused him of having a peep into my memoirs which borders on political developments in Imo state that i am translating into a book. The book which has reached advanced stage is a chronicle of events that occurred before, during and after 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 elections. A crucial part of the chapters is the role of soldiers in the determination of the 2011 governorship election with regards to the disputed May 6, 2011, Supplementary Election. In the course of my diary, I recorded the role of security operatives especially the army during election. I have been opportune to monitor elections in the state as an unbiased assessor since 2003. But last year was an exception taken into consideration the militarization of some areas during the conduct of the Supplementary Election. Incidentally, my ward where I played active role to ensure my party won was more of a war zone than a pooling both during the Supplementary Election.
Despite the issues raised in Okere’s Democracy By Military Tank, the roles of soldiers and how the witchhunted particular persons and party is the hallmark of the interesting book.
Without mincing words, yours truly was a victim of soldiers’ brutality. Okere’s account of what transpired in his electoral ward at Umuowa, Ngor Okpala during the controversial May 6 Supplementary Election was an understatement to the travails I witnessed alongside other earmarked targets in my Umuagwo ward, Ohaji/Egbema LGA. Since Okere was not in Umuagwo or any part of Ohaji/Egbema during the election, his account of the inglorious acts which I may describe as a renewal of “gun boat politics” in the book is sketchy and not pronounced.
One famous man in my community who could be described as a philosopher of our time when given any account of a true story he observed will not fail to say “eye sees it”, meaning, he is a living witness. My account is to corroborate Okere’s narration without prejudice.
Prior to the May 6 election, we witnessed a rancour-free election with little skirmishes that never disrupted the conduct of the election in the ward. And in each of the election, my ward had a result and everybody went home without happy irrespective of the outcome of the result. However, ominous signs that some desperate politicians have perfected strategies to use the “12th man” on the field to achieve success emerged when soldiers few began unexpected patrol of my community and environs few days to the election. The fully armed soldiers who wore horrible postures with their weapons moved with agents and notable figures of APGA in my locality to all the pooling units in the ward. Apart from the unexpected movements, the soldiers with their Hilux vans made frightening maneuvers within the residents of PDP stalwart in the area. The exercise believed to be espionage raised serious concern among PDP members. But since their mission cannot be deciphered, everybody became cautious. Calls put across to neighbouring pooling units in other wards related same experience.
Indications that the ubiquitous soldiers are nothing out marksmen detailed for a yeoman’s job came to the fore a night before the D day. One incident exposed their biased posture. Around 9pm, not less than five buses loaded with youths from Orlu and Anambra towns were emptied into a rag-tag guest house in my community.
The buses came in drove before the eagle eyes of some community vigilante groups and youths caught them. The youths stormed the hotel and alas not less than 50 young men whose identity and mission could not be ascertained were apprehended. Their leader, who it is not necessary to mention his name now though playing a leading role in Owelle Rochas Okorocha government now, when harassed, exposed their mission but pleaded for leniency when the youths threatened to deal with them. When the youths resorted to reason and invited the police, one of the boys held captive and the leader who is from Isu LGA connived to put a call across to their pay masters who immediately dispatched soldiers to the scene. Meanwhile, some APGA faithful in our ward who got wind of the arrest of the imported thugs came to snoop around. In the process, they were almost lynched but for my intervention, I told the angry youths who had already seized one of the unlucky ones to free him as election is not a do or die affair and nobody’s life is worth any political position.
Finally, the man was left off the hook to gain freedom. Till date he still thanks me for saving him from the youths’ jugular. Meanwhile, the soldiers followed the police who arrested the boys to the Divisional Headquarters, Umuagwo Ohaji were the boys were later released. I was not surprised that the same boys worked with the soldiers in displacing PDP supporters at the pooling units when elections commenced the next day.
The worst scenario was on the day of election. It was a nightmarish experience I don’t cherish to recall anymore. Our sleepy community which has not seen armoured tanks for before haboured it for some hours. By 6 am on Election Day, the soldiers had taken over and restricted movements in the community. As if they were acting on a well planed script, PDP members and political appointees of the party’s extraction became victims. A particular boy, who has not only confessed but regretted his role in implicating and showing the soldiers the marked men like me, disclosed how the hatchet job was executed. He confessed that several names were listed as targets for intimidation and subsequent humiliation by the soldiers. I became cautious when one soldier, I think a lance corporal followed and marked me on the field. He exposed his mission when I went to answer nature. The dark skinned soldier who was detailed to follow me immediately forgot decency and came close to where I was offloading urine near the bush. He queried my reasons for answering nature near a pooling station. Since I knew the soldier who was in bloodshot mood may be up for something funny, I adopted a melodramatic option to douse the tension. I joked about the whole affair before he swallowed my bait and shifted to allow me be. A cousin of APGA stock who was monitoring the drama told me in our local dialect to disappear from the pooling boot as arrangements have been concluded to whisk me away on phantom reasons adding that I belong to the category that was on the wanted list. I beat a retreat to now have a vintage assessment of the soldiers’ dress rehearsals. Few meters across the road to the next voters boot, my ward party Chairman had been caught in the soldiers’ web for no just cause. The PDP Ward Chairman, Obinna Akpelu and two others suffered untold hardship in the hands of the merciless soldiers. They were forced to roll on the mud water in the full glare of other voters for undisclosed reasons. The punishment got to a stage where onlookers irrespective or party cleavage had to plead that they should be allowed to go. In other pooling boots, other marked PDP agents and stalwart underwent the same experience. Out of frustration, most of them including voters sympathetic to the PDP case withdrew from the pooling centres to escape humiliation and threat from the soldiers.
From all indications, the soldiers’ threats and humiliations were calculated attempts to not only cage the PDP during the Supplementary Election but also scare potential voters sympathetic to the party’s victory from voting. At the end of the election, the job had been completed and the soldiers withdrew with the armoured tanks and weapons. My account therefore is not in contrast to what Okere reeled out in the book.
Apart from the “gunboat politics” that characterized the May 6 Supplementary Election, Okere’s Democracy By Military Tank exposed other factors that probably stopped the PDP from clinching the Governorship victory in the 2011 election. The author gave an in-depth analysis of the charged political atmosphere prior to the elections. According to the seasoned writer, “the general political environment in Imo state prior to the 2011 general election was characterized by widespread animosity not only among members of the political class but also between a section of the latter and some elements and groups outside it. Perhaps for the first time in the political history of the state individuals and professional groups that were hitherto presumed to be non-partisan showed unequivocal interest in the candidates and their prospects”.
Okere went further to state that “there was intensive politicking that was hinged, not on ideological imperatives but on personal differences among major political actors even before the primaries but what was witnessed within the PDP, in particular, was of such a dimension that the main opposition parties promptly took advantage of it to inflict maximum injury on the party” With the above scenario, it was certain that the self acclaimed largest party in Africa was sitting on a keg of gunpowder in Imo and later events did not prove otherwise. In the book, Okere chronicled the opposition forces and protagonists which were spearheaded by former Governor Achike Udenwa and Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, both of ACN. The strange romance started asAlliancefor Good Governance before it metamorphosised to ACN in Imo. It had a structure akin to PDP with notable political heavy weights in that fold. I agree with Okere that ACN gave PDP the fight which APGA and Okorocha reaped from. If my ward will be used as case study, APGA had no structure. What brought the party into reckoning was the popularity of their candidate Owelle Rochas Okorocha and his presumed magic wand which subsumed the masses. Throughout the elections and even during the April 26 gubernatorial elections, APGA came a distant third in all the booths, with PDP and ACN coming first and second respectively. The records are still available for emphasis.
For APGA, things only changed for better on May 6, when ACN members who had nothing at stake joined forces with APGA coupled with the assistance of the soldiers to gain electoral fortune.
Another issue raised in the book which deserves mention is the role of the Catholic Church especially the involvement of Archbishop Anthony Obinna of the Owerri Catholic Archdiocese. Okere in the book said “outside the political class, there were strange developments that introduced a strange dimension to partisan politics in the state, at least as it concerned the governorship election. That was the direct involvement of the Catholic Church and its Clergy, especially in the Owerri Archdiocese. For the first time in the electioneering history of Imo State, the Catholic Church was indirectly believed to be particularly opposed to the re-election of Gov Ohakim” I have no intention to go further on this issue as it concerns the Church, it is also the duty of the reader to have access to Okere’s book before reaching conclusion. However, I have a little experience to share in this aspect. As an ex-seminarian and a Knight of the Church of the Ancient Order of Knight of St John, I related well with Catholic Priests and the Church. An incident in my local Church almost challenged my Catholic faith.
Years before the election, I have always shown interest in the growth of the Church. Apart from spiritual obligations of trying to fulfill the commandments of God and receiving the necessary sacraments to be in good standing before God, I have always been there to contribute my quota to Church growth. But the attitude of those in charge and co-parishioners changed when election approached in 2011. In one of the functions, I think the 2011 Mother’s Day of the Catholic Church celebrated in March, I was shocked to the bone marrow when members of the congregation murmured that they don’t want my “political money” now. The murmured tone was that we should go out of the church with the “politics and PDP money” stating that they don’t need it. This comment was made when I stood up and moved to the altar with some colleagues to felicitate with the women like other church members. It has been the ritual every year for the Christian Women Organization (CWO) to celebrate Mothers’ Day and use the opportunity to raise fund. And I have always been part of the event. But the 2011 event took another turn. Even the priest who I don’t want to mention his name got more infuriated and incensed that I came out to give “politics money”. In the process the cleric who has spent about 20 years in priesthood dropped the microphone and abandoned the mass halfway without apologies to the congregation. There was confusion in the church. I quietly withdrew to save the situation and walked away without receiving the last blessing. Well, today all that transpired has become history because I have also resumed my normal offerings and donation to the church but no body remembers to tell me again it is “politics money”. Even one of those who insinuated that I came to give “politics money” lured me this year to chair the parish harvest and bazaar which I gladly accepted and handled to the glory of the Almighty God. My analysis is an objective view to showcase the antagonistic stance of the Church towards the return of Ohakim to Government House in 2011.
Despite the reasons adduced by Okere to be responsible for PDP’s failure in the gubernatorial cadre, it is important to state that the party suffered from self-destructive tendencies exhibited by key players in the fold. Space might not allow me to go further and explain but permit me to reveal that unwarranted intra-party bickering, power tussle; sabotage and fielding of wrong candidate were instrumental to the party’s failure. Most of the so called Apex leaders and those entrusted with party power were sheer paper tigers without electoral value in their respective electoral wards. The results of some of the wards proved this point which the party cannot ignore if the desire to make impact next time.
Even as I spelt out wrong candidate as one of PDP’s albatross in the last election, I will however agree with his views on “Kema Chikwe and the fallacy of ‘wrong’ candidate. Okere informed readers that it is a “bigger fallacy” to state that Chikwe failed because she was a “wrong candidate” adding that the only refrain to the Owerri North born politician was “Ogala mbu” (she has gone before) in reference to the fact the Mrs Chiwe had served as Minister and Ambassador within the immediate past ten years”.
In his arguments, Okere advised that Kema Chikwe could have suffered from the story of politics in Igbo land which succinctly illustrates the aphorism that a prophet is not recognized among his own people adding that in Igboland, those closer to a successful man or woman are usually his or her detractors, cynical and almost always difficult to please.
Undoubtedly, in our area, the first line of attack against most political officer seekers or holders is his/her kinsmen. I also had a fair of this local envy and peer group jealousy and rivalry. My four years stint as Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to a Speaker of Imo State House of Assembly was another challenging era in my life. I had nightmarish experiences with my contemporaries, friends, and associates who were poised to vilify me for occupying the position. I was blackmailed, tongue-lashed and called unprintable names for unjustified and unidentified reasons. Their grouse was that I have raised the bar for the group since I had an official car from government and chauffer-driven with improved financial status. Therefore, class rivalry could be one of the factors that affected Kema Chikwe’s fortune in Owerri North during the senatorial elections.
On a final note, I commend Okere,s courage in articulating the book especially his fearless disposition in mentioning names of some prominent politicians, clerics and business moguls whose actions and inactions influenced the outcome of the Imo Guber election in 2011. Expectedly, divergent views will continue to trail the book due for public presentation this week in Owerri. No matter your political linage or apolitical status, the book is a must read.
