For over four months now Governor Rochas Okorocha dissolved the Imo State Executive Council, many have been keeping vigil, waiting for the day he would announce the list of his new Commissioners.
That was done last week, and as natural, it was trailed by wailings and approvals, as he was bound not to accommodate everybody in the short list.
However, the lucky ones have been unveiled and now waiting the affirmation from the House of Assembly, before being allocated potfolios by their Boss.
Okorocha in the first place, disappointed a lot of individuals and groups. Because the Governor had earlier asked for a 3-man list from each of the twenty seven local government areas, from where all appointees in his remaining months in office would be selected from.
Unfortunately, most of those who made the Commissioners list were nowhere in the picture to be so announced. But the Chief Executive has the right to hire and fire and therefore has hired his latest lieutenants. Chapter closed.
From all indications, Okorocha has learnt his lessons, because the story that he would create twenty seven ministries, so as to appoint one Commissioner from each LGA turned out to be a farce.
With the bleak situation in town, such a frivolity has no bases, as there are no funds to carry such a humungous number of appointees with their plethora of financial demands.
Okorocha did such wastes before, when he first assumed office and appointed over Eighty (80) Aides than even himself lost count of, as some of them had no offices only to hang under trees at Government House Owerri.
Now is time for real business, as many people fail to realize that Okorocha is under intense pressure presently more than in 2011 when the euphoria of being a freshly-minted Governor dominated his actions.
Having spent over six years on the saddle, Okorocha knows that in very few months, the journey of being a Governor would be terminated, and then comes the period of reckoning; which is life after power.
Therefore, while All Progressive Congress APC members only bother about appointments and positions, Okorocha worries about what will become of him after May 29, 2019, and therefore plotting ahead on how to protect his legacies and himself from “Hyenas and Jackals” after stepping out of the protection of “Imunity” and exposed as a “common man” which power shielded him from these past years.
Indeed, whatever Okorocha does now is controlled by the major project that today stares him in the face; which is 2019 election, where he would try everything in the books to leave behind a trusted ally, who would protect his back, while he sojourns into other ventures.
From experience as a former Chief Press Secretary to a Governor I learnt that it is easier for a Governor to emerge in a first election, but much more difficult to win a second term and harder to foist a successor while quitting the scene.
And even if such a departing Governor succeeds in leaving a stooge behind, what is the certainly that the man planted on the seat would continue to remain a robot on the throne after a few months?
Therefore, from the thirteen men and women Okorocha sent their names to Rt Hon Acho Ihim and his fellow travelers at what used to be Imo House of Assembly, it indicates that 2019 elections dominates Okorocha’s permutations now, and not even completion of the various roads abandoned in the Owerri metropolitan town.
And to Okorocha, his major fear as 2019 approaches is Okigwe zone.
And majorly Isiala Mbano LGA where his present nemesis within the Imo APC, Senator Ifeanyi Araraume comes from.
This is the reason only Isiala Mbano LGA produced two Commissioner designates in the persons of Hon (Mrs) Joy Mbawuike and Dr (Mrs) Angela Uwakwem.
Mrs Mbawuike is loved by her people right from the grassroot. She was the candidate of the former Governor, Chief Ikedi Ohakim and won election under PDP for Isiala Mbano State constituency but was removed from the House, through the design and machination of Senator Ifeanyi Araraume and Okorocha, when both men drank from one political cup.
Today, Araraume’s prodigee seats at the Imo House of Assembly for Isiala Mbano LGA.
So, Okorocha has recruited Mrs Mbawuike as his point woman, to use her grassroot followership, and 2015 failure to witch hunt Araraume, who is touted to be interested in the 2019 Imo Governorship seat against Okorocha wish.
Even when Ohakim was Governor, Isiala Mbano never produced a Commissioner based on the unwritten law that no LGA produces Governor and Commissioner at the same time.
But all in a bid to checkmate Araraume, Isiala Mbano now has two Commissioners.
Nnamdi Obiareri who comes from Okigwe LGA, is a tested politician who does his best to make sure that whoever he is supporting wins, provided he is given an appointment later, or else he jumps to the next Boat without qualms.
Therefore, his present romance with Okorocha is on pay-as-you go bases. But whether he works hard is not under contention. He does.
So, with him and Acho Ihim in Okigwe, Okorocha is convinced he has found allies who will help him deliver Okigwe, with the help of other appointees from the LGA.
Hon Jones Uzoka is a former member of Imo House of Assembly, who seems to have had a little political nose-diving, but Okorocha has resuscitated him now, and he is bound not to disappoint Okorocha in Ohaji/ Egbema LGA. Although it is a tall task for Uzoka.
Cyril Okafor (Cympox) is a tested political old Horse of the old All Peoples Party APP Days led by now frail Dr EJK Onyewuchi.
Cympox does not play politics of begging, because he is through bred professional pharmacist with a second address apart from politics. In politics, he is known in his Orsu LGA as a grassroots man.
The potfolio Okorocha will hand him is not an issue. What matters is how he will reignite the political magic that made him council chairman in 1999.
Chidi Nwaturuocha is from Aboh Mbaise. He is not only a youth, but a former Student Activist, who is cherished by his former school mates at Holy Ghost College Owerri.
I think Okorocha brought him because of his youthfulness, and would complement Jeff Nwoha of ENTRACO, Henry Okafor of Imo House Authority and Kingsley Uju to mobilize Imo youths for the 2019 election war for Okorocha.
But for Aboh Mbaise where he comes, there are too many political Bulldozers from the Area for youthful Nwaturuocha to make hey.
Well, Chief Obinna Mbata is such a gentleman that you would wonder if he is a politician. He is from Owerri Municipal which has become notorious for playing opposition politics since 1999.
Mbata may be on the list to continue to manage the Accounts and Funds of the State as Commissioner for Finance, while the rough necks take care of the Owerri Municipal political “roforofo”.
For Buka Iwuanyanwu, he was former APC chairman for Ehime Mbano LGA. He is said to be picked by Hon Chike Okafor.
With his elevation to the office of Commissioner, he can function both as a technocrat, but mainly as Okorocha’s eye in Ehime Mbano, having had records of party members in the LGA. His influence would be also needed to flow into Isiala Mbano to hold down the Lion of Ishiebu, Ifeanyi Araraume.
Chief Tony Umezuruike from Owerri North won APC House of Representatives ticket for Owerri Federal Constituency, but it was snatched from him and handed to Chief Ololo, Okorocha’s brother in-law in Egbelu Obube.
But it is not in doubt that Umezuruike is a political grassrooted politician who had worked as Chairman of Owerri North LGA, Coordinator of Development Centre, and had also worked as Imo Liaison Officer in Abuja.
However, he has a task to put eyes on some Okorocha’s perceived enemies in the LGA, which include some former appointees under Okorocha’s administration whose ambitions the Governor frowns at.
But has Umezuruike the power to clip the wings of the various political heavy weights in Owerri North? Who knows, provided Okorocha provides the “logistics”. You don’t send your soldiers to war front with rubber bullets.
I will continue with others next week.
