BY CHINEDU NWOKORO
He aburu
eri awuhu usa. So our elders say. A kindred cannot be said to have insatiable cravings
for what it loves to eat. Yes, Owerri people love eating okporoko.
They love
eating ugba. And they love drinking palm wine. But, must their understanding
and their politics seem like the consumption of these delicacies? Mbanu. It
should not. However, this is what played out in 2011 that produced Mr. Rochas
Okorocha as Governor of Imo State.
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Ugba na Okporoko |
Some
people have said that Owerri politicians, from Mr. Martin Agbaso to Capt.
Emmanuel Iheanacho down to the inconsequential Owerri-West, Owerri-North, and
Owerri-Municipal “stakeholders” were greedy and shortsighted in the run-up to
2011 gubernatorial election. This cost Owerri zone the ticket of a party, the
All Progressives Grand Alliance, (APGA), which was a credible alternative to
Mr. Ikedi Ohakim’s Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), and which was firmly in the
hands of Chief Martin Agbaso at that time.
Today,
many are crying that Okorocha has been a disaster to Owerri in particular and
Imo State in general. People are now remembering that former president, Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo, was reported to have quipped that he gave Imo people a smaller thief
and they said they preferred a bigger thief in obvious reference to Ohakim and
Okorocha, respectively. Governor Okorocha’s destructive activities in Owerri in
the name of urban renewal
are making Owerri people in particular and Imolites
in general to remember where the rain started beating them. Sure, it started
beating them when Agbaso surrendered his ticket to Okorocha. This is the truth!
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Rochas Okorocha |
Had Agbaso
not surrendered the APGA ticket to Okorocha, he would have easily won, because
the platform was already enjoying mass following. People were endeared to APGA,
because Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu was involved.
Besides, Agbaso had
previously ran on the platform in 2007 and won, but the election was cancelled.
In a re-run which he ought not to have participated having won initially and
could have successfully contested it in court, he lost to Ohakim.
![]() |
Chief Martin Agbaso |
If Agbaso
and Capt. Iheanacho had an understanding with Okorocha that he would govern for
one term as some people claimed, he (Okorocha) outsmarted them by joining a new
party, the All Progressives Congress, (APC), before his first tenure elapsed.
Not only did he join a new party, he moved to the new party with the APGA
structure that made it possible for him to become governor. This included
moving with most of the members of the State Assembly, who won their place with
an APGA ticket.
Therefore,
APGA had become a ghost of its former self by the time Capt. Iheanacho used it
to contest against Okorocha in 2015. Dim Odumegwu-Ojukwu whose presence would
have improved Iheanacho's chances of defeating Okorocha or any other candidate
for that matter, was dead. So, in spite of his credibility, Iheanacho lost even
in his base, Owerri.
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Capt. Emma Iheanacho |
We’re in a
season of “no date for a referendum, no election in Igboland” as decreed by the
Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB). However, this does not prevent politicians
from strategizing for future elections.
It behoves
Imo people, especially Owerri people to unite and present a common front to
ensure that come 2019, Okorocha does not continue in office through a proxy.
Already, there are serious signs that he is making efforts in this direction. It’ll take some real work by a technocrat and not a politician, to
redress the damage he has caused in the state. Therefore, the search for that technocrat
must begin now.
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