By Ugochukwu Chimezie
I am not a fatalist and so do not believe that the ouster of the immediate past governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim from the Government House Owerri was pre-destined or an event meant to be decided by fate, as some are making it to appear.
Ohakim has admitted making some mistakes while serving as the governor of the state, this is not out of place, owing to the fact that as mortals we are not immuned from committing errors.
I have had occasions to speak with the former governor since he left office and he has repeatedly said that there was an accident in 2011 and so posers must be raised about the driver of the vehicle, the passengers and the where about of the wreckage of the vehicle.
As a keen observer of events, mostly since the last governorship election in the state and the emergence of the current administration, I have concluded that so many things were written and said about Ohakim so as to make the electorate have a low opinion of him. Imo people acted in a hurry, they did not ascertain the veracity of the things written and said about Ohakim and without looking back, Jesus the Messiah’ was traded for a rogue Barnabas.
Looking at it critically, any right thinking mind will agree with me that Ohakim was not meant to leave office the time he did. The cash crunch and other inhuman policies pervading Imo State today is a punishment resulting from our attitude during the 2011 election.
God at one time was the king of Israel and after sometime the people clamoured for a change, they were not satisfied with the rulership of God, they even maligned God their creator and the one that provided manner for them in the Wilderness.
God fore-warned them, that the king their asking for will pillage them and even take their wives, but they insisted, give us a king, the king was eventually given to them and they suffered so much in the hands of the new king.
Imo people needed a change at all cost in 2011 and so was blinded of the truth as it concern’s Ohakim. There was an accusation that the then governor slapped and detained Rev. Fr. Eustace Okorie, the rumour was everywhere, market women went to town with the false story, heaping curses on a man that knew nothing that happened between some of his security details and Fr. Okorie.
Churches^ especially the Catholic Church took up the matter, Ohakim became the sermon topic in all church gatherings, they said he lacked the understanding of the portion of the scripture that said “Touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm” some said that the cassock meant nothing for the Okohia Mbano born politician. With his media men they begged and denied that the governor was never involved in the mess, but no one listened. Today, the truth which cannot be hidden till eternity has come to fore. Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka who used the incidence to release an album has confessed being deceived by some politicians and even priests. The 10,000 job saga was another evidence of vilification on Ohakim.
The scheme was designed to create 10,000 jobs for the teeming Imo jobless youths, the first of its kind in the state, yet this move was condemned by many even from the period candidates were asked to apply on-line, lies were peddled against the 10,000 job opportunity. But the one on the scheme that spread like wild fire was the lie that Ohakim did not create a single job but rather, poor jobless youths were fleeced by the new face administration through the 10,000 job, none of the youths that got the job then came in defense of Ohakim when the lie was heating up the polity, but when Gov. Rochas Okorocha came and sacked them, they began protesting and today they are in court with the state government.
Then came the issue of Ohakim making unguarded utterances and some felt he must go for this reason, but there was no record of Ohakim publicly calling a serving female senator or anyone at that a prostitute and a husband beater, even when the female senator was seated in the gathering.
Ohakim at no time went to a community and probably was confronted with lack of performance and instead of reacting to issues raised by the people, he abused them, described them as restive and Indian hemp smokers. His sin in this regard was that he described himself as Ikiri, an animal that lives on a tree and also holds tightly on anything it lays hands on. Because of this, detractors gave different interpretations to the utterance, they sold a dummy to gullible electorates that demanded the1 head of a man who achieved and sustained Mbakwe’s feat in cleanliness in the state between 2008-2010.
Replacing his Deputy Dr. (Mrs) Ada Okwuonu with1 Prof. (Mrs) Viola Onwuliri in 2011 was yet another issue that was blown out of proportion, only to vilify Ohakim.
Those in Okwuonu’s camp saw the “removal of their principal to also mean removal of food on their tables and it was at this time that we started hearing, that the governor was intimidating his deputy. That Dr. Okwbonu served out four years with her boss was no more important and that an opportunity was given to another woman from the same Mbaise Community with the then deputy governor was swept under the rug. This was counted as one of Ohakim’s sins that necessitated his Eventual sack.
Today, in Imo, a governor masterminded the impeachment on his deputy for an allegation of bribe the first ever impeachment in the state. It has been discovered that the bribe money was not found in the deputy governor’s account but was traced to the account of the contractor in Dubai and Lebanon, the same contractor was hired by the governor to execute road projects, up till now, nothing was done to the governor, Imo people are not even asking for their money starched away in two countries.
The Economic and Financial Crime Commission EFCC has long cleared the impeached Deputy Governor of any crime, yet he has not been recalled. If it were to be Ohakim hell will let loose. It is as if Imolites are under a spell.
The falsehood against this man of character was driven too far, even after leaving office he was still demonized, he told Imo people that he left over 26 billion in the state coffers, but the Okorocha administration said he left empty treasury and yet the said amount was contained in the hand over, 20 page document handed over to the rescue government.
Politics in my thinking should be devoid of blatant lies, facts should not be distorted because someone wants to curry favour from the people. Ikedi Ohakim did his best to keep Imo on the path of progress the four years he was saddled with the burden of governance. I can’t remember Imo under Ohakim with any record of political assassination or contract killing, only last week was a former Imo lawmaker and an aspirant of a political office murdered in cold blood. Imo economy as it is now is in near comatose, it was not so from 2007-2011, the state then was a tourist destination, almost every conference or seminar facilitator considered Imo, as venue. The tourism industry then experienced a boom. Hotel occupancy rate rose from less than 22 percent to about 91 percent. Total hotel rooms rose from 2200 in 2007 to 11,000 by the time Ohakim left office in 2011. Real Estate Value rose to over 300 percent by 2011, all that1 has now crashed and yet some ignorant persons continued to shout my governor! My governor!!
I have seen the flyover started by the new face administration from Egbeada, through Orji Mechanic Village to Uratta, such solid project is not an impressionistic one, if completed it will serve future generations. I have envisaged how economically beneficial that flyover will be and how it will reduce drastically the gridlock being experienced in major roads in Owerri and environs. I have repeatedly asked questions on the economic gains of the large roundabouts and squares built with the people’s money.’
Today, airline operators in the state labour to do a flight to Abuja and Lagos everyday, but during the last administration private sector business flourished, these airline operators were doing two flights one in the morning and the other in the afternoon and there is no doubt, that airline business makes the state economy strong. The Yar’adua road constructed by Ohakim over seven years now, has outlived all the roads done in Owerri, less than four years in the live of the current administration.
Failure should not be made an abode and it’s commendable that Ohakim did not make his 2011 failed bid to serve for two tenures relegate him and send him to political oblivion, he braced up and today he walks with his shoulders high, he did not allow the numerous lies peddled against him to make him bury his head in shame.
Indeed he was vilified, the EFCC gave him a clean bill of performance, he is not haunted by any crime institution since he left office, this is unprecedented and I think 2015 will present another opportunity for Imo
