The local government is a critical tier of the democratic system in Nigeria. Expectedly, elections into offices for Chairmen of the councils and councillors for respective electoral wards are held periodically. But in Imo State, it seems to be cul de sac for aspirants seeking to represent the interest of their people in the councils since Owelle Rochas Okorocha assumed office in 2011.
Despite repeated assurances from the state government headed by Okorocha that LGA elections will be conducted before the end of his first tenure, the expectations of hopeful aspirants were dashed as no poll has been held so far. With his second term mandate underway, the chances of having an elected executive chairmen supervise affairs of the councils are remote, if latest statements credited to the governor hold water. According to Okorocha at a recent public function, his reasons for failure to conduct polls are traceable to the court actions trailing his dissolution of elected council officials in 2011. It would be recalled that one of the high points of executive display showcased in his maiden address to Imo people was the dissolution of council chairmen and councillors in a state.
The aggrieved chairmen under the auspices of ALGON, Imo State chapter, challenged the decision of the governor by approaching the law court to seek redress. Their quest paid off a year after on July 5, 2012, when the Appeal Court, declared Okorocha`s action as illegal and unconstitutional, thereby reinstating the elected officials. Their reinstatement was thorny and unpalatable as the governor never gave them relevance in the course of discharging his duty as the state number one citizen. Meanwhile, the issue of tenureship of the sacked and later reinstated LGA officials has continued to be a matter of jurisprudence till date.
On repeated occasions, the electoral body with the mandate to conduct LGA elections, the Imo State Independent Electoral Commission, ISIEC, had announced intentions to conduct elections into offices. The first Okorocha ISIEC team led by one Barr Akwari, one of the governor’s kinsmen had asked people to pay money for creation of new ISIEC electoral wards before the conduct of the election. Intending communities spent not less than N350,000 for the purposes of getting new ISIEC wards which became a mirage till date. While a training course for aspirants was organised in partnership with the Imo State University, Owerri where the concerned persons parted with monies to be part of it, nothing was heard about ISIEC elections propagated by the Akwari-team until they got the boot. Further to this, the leadership of the APC in the state collected monies from its members willing to run for the elections. That era became a thing of the past when the governor quickly changed those in charge of ISIEC. All monies paid by aspirants have became a lost enterprise.
The new leadership of the ISIEC under the chairmanship of Amaechi Nwoha, a former legislator of the Imo State House of Assembly also came up with programs to conduct the polls. In one of the news briefings, Nwoha informed the public that elections would hold sometimes last year. While expectations were high that the councils would get elected officials in the life of the Okorocha administration, there were no empirical evidences to buttress this point. Apart from absence of a budget in the state`s Appropriation Bill for 2014, the state government played a rather mikky-mouse type of game over the proposed election.
The political climate at the grassroots was again charged when Nwoha signalled that the election will now take place January 31st, 2015. Aspirants, especially members of the APC, rejuvenated their political machineries to take part in the proposed election that never saw the light of the day. Posters and billboards flooded the local levels, yet nothing came out of it. To indicate that Nwoha`s verbal expressions were part of the wishy-washy approach of the state government to the LGA election, the desire was totally in contrast to ISIEC law for conducting election, which stipulates number of days allowed for preparations ahead the exercise. Gradually, the hype for the election fizzled out and Imolites could no longer remember when the marked date of Jan 31 election, passed.
Remarkably, ISIEC has remained redundant since Okorocha became governor with the commission chairman and members going home regularly with monthly pay with nothing to show for drawing resources from the lean treasury of the state government. If the court case takes another four years to dispose, Okorocha may enter the record books as first civilian governor of Imo state who could not conduct election in the state.
Suffice it to note that during the tenure of Achike Udenwa, elections were held and council chairmen and councilors who observed three years in office were elected in 2004. Ohakim also conducted an election in 2010 where LGA officers were also elected to steer the ship of the councils.
As the fate of the councils remain unknown in the face of the slow pace of judiciary process, the aspirants who have committed logistics, energy and resources to be elected chairmen and councilors may wait for eternity to make their dreams come true.
