Ohakim The Woodpecker

By Chuks OLUIGBO

Whenever I remember Ikedi Godson Ohakim, the outgoing governor of Imo State, the story of Oturukpokpo the bird comes to my mind. In Igbo folklore, a certain bird called Oturukpokpo (the woodpecker) once went about boasting to other birds that on the day that his mother would die, he would pull down the iroko tree with his long beak. Of course, the birds were marvelled and so waited anxiously for the day to come so that he would make true his boasts. Unfortunately, the day his mother died, Oturukpokpo developed a very big swelling on his long beak.

 

There was also another boastful character in Igbo folksong. She was named Okwuuka (Talkative). Okwuuka was a very beautiful bride, literally the cynosure of all eyes in the village. On the day she was taken home to her husband, her parents gave her a goat. When Okwuuka became pregnant, she went around the village boasting that on the day that she would give birth, her husband would kill her goat to celebrate her safe delivery. Other women envied her because it was a rare thing for a goat to be slaughtered for a woman at her first birth. They also waited. Unfortunately again, on the day she was delivered of the baby, there was not enough money to get her out of the hospital and so her goat had to be sold so as to make up.

Such is the story of Ikedi Ohakim, another boastful character in Nigeria’s recent history. Until the final declaration of Imo governorship election results on Saturday, May 7, 2011, the name Ohakim had become synonymous with pride, arrogance, empty boasts, and sheer vainglory.

The circumstances under which Ikedi Ohakim came to power in Imo State in 2007 were, and still are suspect. Every sincere Imo person who followed the events of April 2007 in Imo would say the same thing. But Imo people accepted Ohakim because they needed a change at all cost.

When Obasanjo and his PDP twisted Peter Obi’s arms in Anambra in 2003 and gave the Anambra governorship seat to Chris Ngige, Anambra people embraced Ngige because they wanted Chinweoke Mbadinuju out of office at all cost. Ngige knew this, and so, even though his government was illegal, he endeared himself to the people of Anambra via large scale infrastructural development, especially road network. Anambra people may never stop loving Ngige, and they showed it again in the just concluded general elections when they had to choose between him and Dora Akunyili, who is equally no less an achiever.

But Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State chose the path of empty boasts, thinking he was smarter than all Imo people put together. Rather than work for the development of Imo State, he talked down on everybody with his foul and boastful mouth. Many times he boasted that he was ikiri aka mpa, the Igbo equivalent of the animal called idiot, which is believed to hold fast to whatever it grabs, even at the point of death. Many times he boasted that he held power passionately to his heart, and that no man born of a woman could take it away from him. Many times he called himself agu ji egbe (a gun-toting lion), a euphemism for his ‘indomitable’ nature.

At each turn in his four years of misrule, in every forum he had the opportunity to speak, in every opportunity he had to appear on the radio or television, Ohakim boasted about how his administration was turning Imo into a one-city state, a modern model state and the tourism destination of the world. He flooded the entire state with billboards showcasing his many ‘giant strides’ like the dredging of the Nworie River, the Oak Refinery, the Oguta Wonder Lake Resort, the Imo Boulevard, etc. Meanwhile, practically, there was nothing on ground. Those projects were only on paper. In the height of the media hoopla about the Oguta Wonder Lake, I personally took time out to visit the site. As I told some friends later, I saw the lake, no doubt, but I saw no wonder. I wasn’t surprised therefore when Samuelson Iwuoha, alleged victim of Ohakim's brutality, said that the man was ruling Imo State “as if he is selling drugs in an ABC bus”. I agreed with him.

The highpoint of Ohakim’s arrogance came during the just concluded elections. Prior to the presidential poll, he was on air to boast that he and his PDP would deliver 90 percent of the votes in Imo State to President Goodluck Jonathan. When the results were declared, PDP got 1,381,357 votes in Imo, 98 percent of registered voters. Questionable as the figures above are, given that only 750,964 votes were recorded at the guber election in the state, which is certainly closer and more important to the people than the presidential poll, my explanation for that is that virtually all the parties in the state were pro-Jonathan, and so felt they had nothing to lose. There was nobody around with an overriding interest, so every party in the state became complicit in what is now obviously inflation of figures in favour of Jonathan.

But Ohakim did not understand this. He felt he had outsmarted Imo people as usual. And so, in his usual nature, he went back on air to boast again that he promised to deliver 90 percent of Imo to Jonathan, but he had delivered 98 percent.

During his campaign, he boasted everywhere he went that he was fully on ground while his opponents were floating in the air, so to speak. He boasted that he had all the structures on ground to win a re-election. Pride and arrogance were evident in every single statement he made. Like his mentor, godfather, and ally-in-chief in Orlu zone, Senator Francis Arthur Nzeribe, who, according to reports, would always arrogantly tell the people of his Orlu Senatorial District during campaigns whenever he wanted to go back to the Senate that he had come to inform them that he was going to the Senate (for instance, his campaign slogan in 2007 was ‘Orlu Kwere Ekwe’, i.e., Orlu people have consented), Ohakim literally made it clear to Imo people that he was not campaigning for their votes. In his mind, as the Director-General of his campaign organisation, Chief Ralph Obioha, once said in an interview, victory for him was ‘a done deal’.

That was probably why on the day of the guber poll, April 26, after casting his votes in his Okohia, Isiala Mbano booth, Ohakim flew off again on his boastful path when he said in the full glare of the camera: “I will win hands down. I will win with very wide margin. I have the people. Politics is about structures, because I have the structures. It’s not about someone dancing in front of TV camera.”

Obviously, he had thought it would be business as usual; that his foot soldiers (appointees) at the grassroots would as usual muzzle the opposition; that the PDP rigging machine which he put to good use at the presidential poll would work for him at the guber poll. Little did he know that Imo people were tired of him and his New Face and so were battle-ready.

The day came, and Ohakim fell flat on his face. Imo people stood up to say ‘enough is enough’ using their votes, thanks to Prof Attahiru Jega and his INEC for a transparent electoral process. Not even the huge millions that Ohakim, known in many quarters as a stingy man, generously doled out to the Imo electorate could save him from the people’s angst.

The chips are down and Ohakim, like the woodpecker, has developed a swollen beak. It may yet be the end of his political career. Now he must bury his face (as well his long boastful mouth) in an everlasting shame when he bows out of Douglas House come May 29.