By Collins Ughalaa KSC
Many people believe that politics is a zero-sum game, a game of interest where yesterday’s villain can become today’s saint as far as interests are not in conflict. This perhaps explains the maxim espoused by the British scholar Henry John Temple that there is no permanent enemy in politics, no permanent friend in politics, only interest. As a game, politics is an unpredictable one, and the game is not over yet until it is seen to be over. It is a game full of hopes and optimism because anything can happen along the line. This incurable optimism pushes many politicians to do things and behave in ways that are oftentimes considered weired.
As incurable optimists, politicians believe that the game is not over yet, and there is no loser yet, even when the umpire had already declared someone the winner of an election. Our political trajectory is replete with stories of people becoming the winners of an election and ousting hitherto declared winners. Politicians believe that the game is still on even when they lose eventually. Someimes it works for them and they rise like the phoenix and stage surprising comebacks. It is on this note that we take more than a cursory look at the current political moves made by Capt Emmannul Ihenacho, whose political journey has been unimpressive, and we ask: what is he up to this time around?
Ihenacho may be a successful businessman in his own rights, but he has not fared well in his political career. His first major political outing was his nomination for a ministerial position in November 2008, which suffered a stillbirth. At the time of his ministerial nomination in 2008, Amb. Kema Chikwe, who comes from the same clan with him, was Nigeria’s ambassador to Ireland, and Chuka Odum, who is also from Imo State, was the Minister of State for Environment, Housing and Urban Development. Criticism mounted against Ihenacho’s nomination, centring around the fact that these other two appointees of the Yar’Adua administration were from the same state as Ihenacho. So, he was dropped, marking his first political miscarriage. Luck shone on him once again as he was nominated for a ministerial position on March 6, 2010, under Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and was subsequently inaugurated as the Minister of Interior. But he did not last on the ministerial job as he was booted out on April 18, 2011. The sad note about the sack was that it came a week after Jonathan had been reelected and the official reason for his sack was said to be “a number of lapses in the political leadership of the ministry traceable to his personal and official conduct”.
The letter sacking Ihenacho came short of saying that the president did not have confidence in his ability, but so much had been said already. Some pundits have since opined that the reason for his sack was quite unusual, especially when you consider the rumour that Ihenacho had reportedly done some dirty politics for Jonathan to oust then Governor Ikedi Ohakim who became Governor of Imo State based on the charter of equity in practice in Imo State at the time. Other pundits have even suggested that Ihenacho deserved his sack as minster because he abdicated his functions and ran to Imo State to bottom-feed. Whatever pundits may say, the fact is that as the minister, Ihenacho, no doubt, was the political head and leader of the ministry. The public statement by his employer that a lack of political leadership at the mimistry traceable to his personal and official conduct was the reason for his sack seemed to many a clear vote of no confidence in him and a sour grape in the mouth. If Ihenacho could turn back the hand of the clock, he could do that just to wipe this out of the records. This is why, despite his famed success in business, he keeps staging a comeback to politics.
As part of his strategy to change the narrative, redeem himself and prove to Jonathan that he can indeed provide political leadership, Ihenacho returned to Imo State, left the PDP, and joined the All Progressives Grand Allaince (APGA) in 2014, where he became the governorship candidate for the 2015 gubernatorial election. Sadly, he was not able to redeem himself with the governorship election and prove Jonathan wrong as crisis erupted in hs new party, largely due to his poor political leadership. The crisis became an intractable tide, and when the election was held on April 11, 2015, he was already knocked out with a meagre 26,000 votes. It was so bad that he was not in the picture for the rerun election that followed. Having lost the 2015 governorship election, Ihenacho swore never to get involved in politics again, but deep down his mind, he knows that he has not proved Jonathan wrong and still needs to redeem himself politically.
Those familiar with Ihenacho’s political trajectory know that he is still working on his redemption script, and if he can become the governor Owerri Zone wants to produce in 2027, that would be his greatest redemption story. This may account for the reason he has made himself the leader of Owerri Zone, convening meetings in his house and making decisions on where the next governor should come from. What is worrisome about Ihenacho’s new dance, however, is his claim that he believes in the charter of equity, whereas he does not. If Ihenacho is a firm believer in the charter of equity, he could have allowed Okigwe Zone to complete their tenure in 2011. If, for any reason, he did not like Ikedi Ohakim as a person, he could have supported another person from Okigwe Zone to succeed Ohakim. But what did he do? Reports and confessions indicate that he led the conspiracy against Ikedi Ohakim and reportedly blackmailed him before President Jonathan.
Don’t take my words for it. In the buildup to the 2019 governorship election, Dr. T.O.E Ekechi, former Chief of Staff to Capt Emma Ihenacho as Minister of Interior, granted an interview to a newspaper in 2018. In the interview, he recounted how the idea of Okorocha becoming the governor was born and how the conspiracy to remove Ohakim was hatched. He said: “It is on record that I was a close ally to Rochas Okorocha. As former Chief of Staff to the Minister of Interior, Capt. [Emma] Ihenacho, we worked with Okorocha at the instance of the former President Goodluck Jonathan. A committee was set up to evaluate Jonathan’s chances of winning the presidential election in Imo State, judging from the activities of the former Governor Ikedi Ohakim, who was then in PDP. Ohakim showed signs of dislike against Jonathan when he was transiting from Vice President to President. As secretary of the committee, I became very close to Okorocha. When it became obvious that Ohakim could not win the 2011 governorship election, Okorocha moved to APGA, and the committee supported him. I donated my house for meetings to show personal support.” Ekechi is noted for his brilliance, and we believe that mentioning his office as the Chief of Staff to Capt Emma Ihenacho as the Minister of Interior when the conspiracy was hatched against Ohakim, was not a careless talk. He meant to drive home the point that the minister was fully involved in the conspiracy and that he was on the committee because of his position.
Whereas we do not intend to elevate Ihenacho as the sole conspirator against Ohakim, it is important to state that as the only minster from Imo State at the time, Ihenacho was indeed in Jonathan’s Federal Executive Council, and we think it was impossible for his Chief of Staff to be a member of such a sensitive committee to the point of being the secretary, without his clear approval. The conspiracy was hatched and executed without recourse to the charter of equity, and we believe strongly that Ihenacho does not believe in the charter of equity. His current pretence to believing in the charter of equity shows that he is trying to rise from the ashes of his political career to launch a surprising comeback and become the governor of Imo State so as to give himself closure, redeem himself from the claim that he was not able to provide political leadership at the Ministry of Interior, for which reason he was shamefully sacked.
Conversely, we are strong believers in the charter of equity, and we believe in the doctrine of clean hands. We believe that those who come into equity must come with hands. Lawyers would say that the clean hands doctrine is based on the maxim of equity, which states that one “who comes into equity must come with clean hands.” They add that this doctrine requires the court to deny equitable relief to a party who has violated good faith with respect to the subject of the claim. A court can, therefore, prevent a party from obtaining relief when that party’s own wrongful conduct has made it such that granting the relief would be against equity and good conscience. This is our firm belief, and if we place Ihenacho’s hands on the scale of equity, what we would see is :mene, mene, tekel upharsin.
