It was Mahatma Gandhi of India that said, “The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace”. Also, in “The 48 Laws of Powers” Robert Greene says in the 45th law thus “Everyone understands the need for change in the abstract, but on the day-to-day level people are creatures of habit. Too much innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt. If you are new to a position of power, or an outsider trying to build a power base, make a show of respecting the old way of doing things. If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past”. Nobody in Imo State will deny the obvious fact that a lot of things have really changed in the state especially since the inception of the Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha’s Rescue mission government. When the truth is swept under the carpet, destinies are indeed trampled under feet. One plain truth that must be told is that things have really fallen apart and the center cannot hold. The other necessary truth remains that the HOT 99.5 FM radio station is the greatest agent of social change ever witnessed since 1976 of the creation of Imo State ( Old Imo State and beyond). The bitterest truth as equally efficacious as the bitter pills is that the champion of the rescue mission agenda in the saddle has actually re-defined government. But don’t ask me if that is being done positively or negatively because history only can vindicate that truth. The awesome truth about that people oriented morning programme, People’s Assembly is the clinical manner with which it draws out People’s personal opinions in their most undiluted natural states of minds. Honestly, to the regular callers, listeners, and fans of the HOT 99.5 FM’s people’s assembly one hour daily (working days only) programme, it is indeed a hot tonic quite more intoxicating than any other habitual attitude one can think of in my own candid assessment. The particular episode of that programme that provoked this topic was a bombshell during which callers, almost all except one “Pastor” Victor from Egbema who differed from the rest of other opinions luckily aired that fateful day of Tuesday Dec. 3rd, 2013 morning 8:30am to 9:30am precisely over the hot potatoes-like topic of “if the traditional Rulers of the South East extraction ( Ndieze Ndi Igbo) do really command as much respect and integrity as their counterparts in South West and Northern regions.” Summarily, many (about 99%) of callers responded pertinently in the affirmative but on the negative angle which implied simple and capital “NO”, safe “Pastor Victor” and of course His Royal Highness (HRH) Eze Samuel Ohiri. As the chairman of Imo State council of Traditional rulers, HRH Eze Ohiri acted swiftly in a defensive bid to at least salvage the already battered image of the Igbo traditional institution. I salute the courage and doggedness exhibited by Eze Ohiri (clad in his usual Zulu king-like regalia) for venturing or delving into the near-impossible defense of public perception of the entire Igbo Eze’s and his personally scourged integrity particularly. From the count down after the debut Tuesday discussion of that curious topic about 75 percent of the negative callers were inclined to the denigration or so to say resentment of HRH Eze Ohiri’s disposition to be all over the incumbent Imo State governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha (OON). It is not out of question to aver that the public mudsling or resentment as expressed over the radio during the Tuesday December 3, 2013 episode pulled out HRH Eze Ohiri from his cocoon to not just clear the putrid air but at the same time bestow encomiums on the Imo State governor, His Excellency Owelle Rochas Okorocha for his great exploits. Interestingly, about three quarter of the airtime purchased by HRH Eze Ohiri for the image-laundering refuting re-jonider was spent on reeling out the litany of Owelle’s landmark achievements since inception of the office as the Imo State governor. At this juncture, one may be poised to question the rationale behind Eze Ohiri’s unwanted advocacy and praise singing especially as to the nexus of such defenses with the topic of discussion at that moment. It is ludicrous to note that such an abrupt digression from the key issue under discussion did not only diminish the status of the Igbo traditional institution epitomized by Eze Ohiri in his pretext to stand in the gap but went further to substantiate the viewpoints as already expressed by the majority of callers that their prestige and integrity is highly depleted by their collectively questionable dispositions. In that frantic effort, rather than salvage the unsavory status of Igbo traditional institution, Eze Ohiri only succeeded in worsening the case for it. How and why? Simply because keen listeners whom I was in contact with testified that HRH Eze Ohiri in that intrepid outing manifested much partisan politically while engrossed in the guilt of praise singing which was quite out of the point with respect to the topic of discussion. Also, apart from the fact that the Igbo traditional rulers were accused by many of being over-politicized, HRH Eze Ohiri’s inept digression into praise singing is not only sycophantic but more indulgent in irrelevant hedonistic irredentism capable of enmeshing the institution into the worst ridicule. In his assessment, HRH Eze Ohiri did not see anything wrong with frequenting the Imo government House calling on the Governor in whatever guise, either is it degrading to condescend so low as a voluntary mouth-piece of the incumbent in the guise of testifying to the truth. Suffice it to remind us that Imo indigenes are consciously watching, witnessing and reckoning both the physical and intrinsic achievements of the incumbent even without extraneous aids. We are not Dafts and achievements speak for themselves. Except for the contrary, the chairman of Imo State council of Traditional Rulers may as well double as the Commissioner for Information and Strategy or the leader of an imperative Good Governance Tour of the twenty seven (27) L.G.As to enlighten Imolites more indebt at the grassroots. Instructively, it is not enough to recount on the radio the chronicle of Owelle’s landmark achievements, rather a careful education of the masses on the economic impacts of such achievements is germane given the harsh realities of high rate of unemployment, hunger, poverty, austerity befacing Imo State and the implications of embarking on elitist projects in the acclaimed agenda; ‘My people my people’. Admittedly, the transformative programmes of the Rescue Mission agenda entails the re-concessioning of Imo Concorde Hotel, the building of Sam Mbakwe multi-purpose Hall, Bongo Square, the freedom park, the Imo Advanced College of Professional Studies (ICAPS), the Ikemba Ojukwu Center, about 300km roads in progress, many roundabouts in the cities and Urban centers, the Owerri Municipality beautification projects, and others all encapsulated in the Utopian 730 projects in 730 days gambits. Essentially, the social or economic impact of the myriads of projects either nearly completed, partially completed taken-on in one fell swoop, such a quantum and unsustainable dimension, when eventually abandoned, will only end up in exacerbating our economic woes as a state. How much employments are they capable of generating at least to stem down the surging rate of our teeming unemployed youths roaming our streets and idling away? How many certified skillful professionals can ICAPS generate and how are they to be empowered as to impacting the economy? The importation of school uniforms and lockers or stationeries for primary and secondary schools is a heinous encouragement of capital flight and discouragement of infant industries (local tailors and furniture makers or carpenters as the case may be. The ploughing of the entire state federal allocation into massive infrastructural development is a welcome move but amounts to another economic waste when those projects are sub-standard and ill-implemented. The abandonment of existing Health centers and General Hospitals for the constructions of 27 new General Hospitals to unverified concessioneer is sheer misplacement of priority with obvious negative socio-economic implications. According to Abraham Lincoln; “Character is like a tree and Reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing”. The Igbo traditional rulers have sown the seed of degenerated integrity and are reaping the fruit of disrepute among counterparts elsewhere in Nigeria. Characteristically they have indulged in dirty politics on the turf of our fatherland which today sprouted as a tree of infertile sycamore and the shadow of their traded reputation is hunting them about. Consequently, the constituents of Traditional institution in Igbo land now floats like chaffs on the wings of their shadows as traditional rulers. But, the reality is that they are mere traditional followers of the democratic and political institutions. A man is but the product of his thoughts: what he thinks, he becomes” (Mahatma Gandhi). If the traditional rulers in Igbo land, as Eze Ohiri portrays think it right to serve as tools of propaganda and politics to politicians, so be it. One thing is certain according to Franklin .D. Roosevelt; “Repetition doesn’t transform .a lie into a truth”. If you insist on demolishing everything including the good ones left by your predecessor only to score cheap political points, the sensibility of the discerning is tempered to the point of refutal or revolution or rebellion. A free education up to tertiary level is wonderful, but, at whose expense? Because nothing goes for nothing, what goes around comes around eventually. The ultramodern structures (classroom blocks) for schools across our LGA is quite acceptable and laudable much as they are built out of a properly planned fiscal and financial background that will be sustained by subsequent governments. Finally, with the sagacious words of Donald Trump; “Part of being a winner is knowing when enough is enough. Sometimes you have to give up the fight, walk away and move to something that’s more productive.” So far, Owelle needs to take a cursory look at the other alternatives to this byzantine Rochanomics that negates due process and violates the rule of law. But HRH Eze Ohiri should endeavor to rid the Institution of Traditional Rulers in Imo State of the vestiges of parochial characters of subordinated by divorcing partisan politics, and restore the sacrosanctity of Ndi Eze Igbo.
