Okorocha Denies Allegations Of Money Laundering

Okorocha: Imo State governor

Imo State governor, Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha, has described as unfounded the rumour peddled by some people that he was arrested in London by Metropolitan Police for money-laundering.
 

Gov Okorocha, who stated this while speaking with journalists at Sam Mbakwe Cargo Airport shortly on arrival from Abuja, said the rumour was orchestrated by the enemies of the state whose stock-in-trade is blackmail.

“The rumour circulated through SMS that I was quizzed in London over $10 million is unfounded and another blackmail by those who fought me during the electioneering period. They are the same people who at the wake of my election rumoured that I had stepped down,” Gov Okorocha said.

He explained that his mission in London was to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with a UK-based company to float a state government-owned airline that will be known as Imo Air.

While he attributed the rumour to the handiwork of some displaced individuals who are plotting to return to Government House through the back door, Gov. Okorocha enjoined the people of Imo State to remain calm and law-abiding even in the face of provocations as justice and fairness will prevail at the end of the day.

“I believe this latest attack on me is basically because of the judgment we are expecting at the Supreme Court. I have not seen where blackmail and rumour-mongering translate to mandate or victory. I have implicit confidence on the judiciary to dispense justice and fairness over the matter,” the governor concluded.

Okorocha: Ohakim, PDP can’t truncate my mandate

Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State has expressed optimism
that the mandate given to him by Imo people will not be truncated by
the discredited former governor, Ikedi Ohakim, and some enemies of the
state in the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP.

The governor, in his reaction after adoption of briefs at the Supreme
Court in Abuja today, re-affirmed his commitment to transform Imo by
embarking on people-oriented projects and programmes.

Governor Okorocha also expressed his belief in the ability of the judiciary to deepen
democracy in Nigeria by upholding justice and fairness.

He urged Imo people to remain calm and law-abiding in the face
of falsehood, blackmail and provocation by Imo PDP and Ohakim.

Igbos: Suffering From Collective Amnesia?

By Chuks OLUIGBO

The other day I read a comment on facebook by someone I presume is a concerned Igbo person. It said: “I have said it several times, let Igbos leave the northern states and come back home. There are so many towns in the east where they can settle and do their businesses. They have the population which is an economic advantage. They can engage in manufacturing to cut down massive importation from China. Any Igbo who remains in the north chooses to commit suicide.” And I thought, with all the killings going on in parts of the North at the moment, is it possible that any Igbo person would actually wish to remain there? We will return to this later.

Igbo people, no doubt, are known to be among the most widely-spread and travelled ethnic groups in Africa. Today, there is hardly any part of the world that the Igbos are not found, so much so that it has been said that if men live in the moon, Igbos are there. In Nigeria, they are in a clear lead in internal migrations. They are seen in all other ethnic areas, even in the remotest parts, doing one business or the other and contributing to the socio-economic growth and development of their host communities.

This migratory trend among the Igbo will seem to have been going on long before colonialism. However, from the early years of colonial rule, Igbo migrations gathered momentum. The construction of roads and railways, the emergence of new urban centres in Nigeria, the establishment of cocoa farms in Yorubaland, the rise of Lagos as a major trading centre, the quest for Western education, the establishment of the Nigerian Civil Service and the attendant quest for white collar jobs were among the forces that pulled the Igbo out of their traditional homeland into other parts of Nigeria then. By the time of independence in 1960, many Igbo people from different communities had settled in various places outside Igboland. Writing in 1957, R. J. Harrison Church asserted that the “Ibo are found in temporary work all over Nigeria, and some 20,000 are employed in Fernando Po”.

This trend among the Igbo may seem to be an advantage, but it has also been a source of colossal loss to the people as they are jealoused and hated wherever they have found themselves in other parts of Nigeria, particularly in the North where they have been victims of several calculated attacks. The example below illustrates this point. In February-March 1964, during the sitting of the Northern House of Assembly, honourable members of the House variously urged the then Minister of Land and Survey, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Cashash, to revoke all Certificates of Occupancy formerly issued to the Igbo people resident in the region; to stop the Igbo from building hotels in the region; to extend the application of Northernisation policy to petty-traders; to send the Igbo in the Post Office in the north back to Igboland; to repatriate all the Igbo working in the Civil Service of Northern Nigeria; to desist from awarding contracts to Igbo contractors in the North; and to give foreign firms in the North a deadline within which to replace all their Igbo staff with people from other ethnic groups.

The events of 1966-1970 – the Igbo genocide of May-October 1966, and the Nigeria/Biafra Civil War – therefore provided a vent for these pent-up grudges against the Igbo. These events severely affected the Igbo people, mostly those who were resident outside Igboland at the outbreak of the civil disturbances. In their hundreds and thousands, Igbo people scattered in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria began to troop back to Igboland in search of a safe haven. The influx of refugees in Eastern Nigeria, from a conservative estimate, ranged between 1,000,000 and 1,200,000 from the North and half that number from the other two regions – the West and the Mid-west. The death toll is better explained by the assertion that “the resultant genocide is recorded to be second in magnitude only to the Jewish experience in Hitlerite Germany”.

The Igbo people who fled from other parts of Nigeria abandoned everything they had laboured for in the process. Most of those properties went with the war. In the minority areas of Eastern Nigeria, especially Port Harcourt, where 90 percent of the houses were said to belong to the Igbo, the governments of those states seized all Igbo belongings which they branded ‘abandoned property’. But the lessons of the civil war seem to have been lost on the Igbo. We shall elaborate on this later.

Since the end of the civil war, the intimidation, harassment, maiming and killing of the Igbo in the North have not ceased. The Igbo and their property have been the target whenever there are “religious riots” in the North. In many cases, the Igbo have been made to bear the brunt of conflicts among Northern groups and communities. Cases in point are the civil disturbances in some local government areas of Bauchi State between 20-24 April, 1991 in which many Igbo people were killed, despite the fact that the cause of the conflict had its roots in the age­long differences and disagreements between the Hausa/Fulani and the Sayawa ethnic groups of Tafawa Balewa L.G.A. The killing of the Igbo and other non-Muslims in the Sharia-motivated violence in the North in 1999 and thereafter is a further demonstration of this point of view.

Besides these killings, Igbo traders in the North are often made to pay discriminatory shop/store fees. Some state governments have also introduced discriminatory market and taxation policies against Igbo traders. In 1993, for instance, hundreds of Igbo traders in Kaduna took to the streets to protest against the imposition of prohibitive tax and business laws on them. Part of these laws required Igbo petty-traders to supply audited accounts, record of sales and evidences of remittances to the Board of Internal Revenue; original copies and photocopies of Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE); with-holding tax, sales tax and entertainment tax. The protesting Igbo traders closed down their businesses in the metropolis and demanded a review of the obnoxious policies.

Igbo people in Lagos have equally faced similar bitter experiences. For instance, many Igbo traders who began to hawk electronics and allied products in Lagos and its environs at the end of the civil war were often harassed and their wares seized or vandalised by overzealous Yoruba officers and thugs. It was such intimidations that led them to found Alaba International Market. But even in this market, which was built solely by the Igbo, they are still constantly harassed and attacked. For example, in the 1993 demonstrations following the annulment of the June 12 presidential elections purportedly won by a Yoruba, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, Igbo traders at Alaba and in other parts of Lagos had their wares stolen or vandalised and many of them were attacked, maimed or killed.

In the past nine months or thereabouts, the North has again become a danger spot for the Igbos: first, following the post-election violence in parts of the North, and recently, following the Boko Haram bombings. The series of coordinated attacks on Christmas Day 2011 at some churches in the country left several people dead, many of them Igbo. The attacks continued on December 28, 2011, January 5, 2012 and January 26, 2012. In the first week of February 2012, Nigerian newspapers reported the pathetic story of the mass burial in Adazi-Nnukwu, Anambra State, of 13 Igbo victims of Boko Haram attacks. The victims, 12 men and a woman, were reportedly killed by gunmen in Mubi, Adamawa State, while planning for the burial of two of their own who had been killed in the earlier attacks.

Within the same week, Awhum community in Udi Local Council, Enugu State, received six corpses – Steven Offia (a panel beater and spare parts dealer in Yobe State), his wife (Nneka), their three children, and their house-maid. The victims were fleeing from their residence in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, back to their hometown, Awhum, in a bid to escape Boko Haram’s bloody attacks when their car collided with a trailer coming from the opposite direction at Otukpa in Benue State. They were crushed to death by the trailer. Only the second son of the family, identified as Chibuzo, survived the crash, but he was said to be on the danger list at a hospital in Otukpa. These are just few examples.

Since the Boko Haram resurgence, a number of Igbo people and groups have been making frantic efforts to evacuate Igbos who are stranded in parts of the North. First, the chairman of G.U.O. Motors, Chief Godwin Ubaka Okeke, had taken the lead by sending 20 buses which successfully evacuated a number of Igbos from Maiduguri, the Bornu State capital, accompanied by heavy military escort. Some of the returnees also confirmed as at then that many more Igbos were still stranded in Maiduguri and that the killings were being carried out from house to house. Many too, especially corps members, were said to have been sleeping in the motor park for as long as 4 days, with no means to leave the state. Some Igbos who left on their own without escort were reportedly ambushed and killed on their way.

Also, on Thursday, February 2, 2012, over 150 Igbo citizens who were stranded in Maiduguri, Borno State, arrived at Ninth Mile Corner, Enugu three days after the same number of persons returned home due to the upsurge of Boko Haram activities in Northern Nigeria. The free luxury buses were provided by Igboville, a social network group of Igbo professionals in Nigeria and the Diaspora. Some of the returnees who spoke to reporters said they relocated to the bush for many days until they got hint of the free buses.

While receiving the returnees, founder of Igboville, Emeka Maduewusi, who spoke through Mrs Nelo Fina, implored them to quickly resettle in the South-East while the government sorted out the security situation. He called on the South-East governors to ensure that school children among the returnees were absorbed into different institutions in the zone and also pleaded with politicians and well-meaning Nigerians to assist in evacuating Ndigbo still left in the North from danger spots, adding that the evacuation of Igbo people would continue until every Igbo that is willing to leave is enabled to leave.

From all this, the pertinent question is: What, really, is wrong with the Igbo person? From all that the Igbo people suffered in other parts of Nigeria, especially in the North, in the immediate months preceding the civil war, and their harrowing experiences during and immediately after the war, who would have thought that they would ever go back to those areas where their brothers and sisters had been brutally massacred in their hundreds and thousands, and where they had been forced to abandon all that they had worked for barely a few years earlier? But that is exactly what has happened.

So, are the Igbo people suffering from collective amnesia? Is it possible to count how many Igbo lives that have been lost in riots in Northern Nigeria since 1953 when the first Igbo massacre occurred in Kano? Can anyone quantify in monetary terms Igbo investments destroyed in the North within the same period? How many times have the Igbo people been made to abandon all their belongings in other parts of Nigeria to seek safety in their homeland? How many times have they been evacuated from particularly the North? How many times more are they ready to face such evacuation? Why do they keep going back there? What is the attraction for them? Why would any Igbo person prefer to remain in a zone where he is hunted like game? What is in those areas that Igboland is lacking? How can these things be provided to bring the Igbo back to their homeland? How much longer will the Igbo people continue to develop swamps in the West and deserts in the North while Igboland continues to suffer gross undevelopment? What is wrong in developing Igboland and returning home to do business in Igboland?

For those Igbo investors who claim they are waiting for the South-East governors to create enabling environment in Igboland before they could go to invest in their homeland, what enabling environment did the Lagos governor create for you that you are so willing to acquire a swamp for N25m and sand-fill it with another N25m? What enabling environment did you find in the North where your investments are burnt down at the slightest provocation, and your life is not spared too? And for those who claim that they are attracted to Lagos, Kano and other parts of Nigeria because of the population there, how come you have not realised that you are the ones boosting the population of those areas? Have you not noticed how deserted a city like Lagos looks during Christmas when many Igbos travel home? Have you ever imagined what Igboland would be if half of the Igbo investments in Lagos alone were brought down to Igboland?

But there seems to be something fundamentally wrong with the Igbo person. I am tempted to call it foolish wisdom. It reminds me of this folktale in our childhood days about a sheep which had three children. She asked them one after the other: “How many times will something happen to you before you learn your lesson?” “Three times,” the first answered. “Two times,” answered the second. But the wisest of them all, Ebule Ako, said: “As it is happening to me that first time, I’m already learning my lesson.” True, a wise person does not strike his foot against the same stone twice. Unfortunately, while the Igbo people keep thinking they are wise, they have actually allowed the same stone to hurt them a million times. While claiming to be the proverbial Ebule Ako, they have in reality acted like the first two foolish sheep. No wonder Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, that great lover of the Igbo race, during his visit to Igbo traders at the Lagos Trade Fair Complex, addressed them as foolish goats. “Ewu kwenu!” he greeted them several times, because they had again allowed themselves to be used to develop from the scratch the three major markets at the complex – ASPMDA, Balogun and Progressive.

Ndigbo must at this point begin to think home. They must begin to internalise the age-old wisdom that east or west, home is the best, stop pursuing an ever-elusive pan-Nigerianism and invest at home. Unless they do this, they will continue to repeat the mistakes of the past, and Igboland will be worse for it.

Ralph Uwazuruike: South-East Governors Are Sell-outs

By Chinedu OPARA

The demise of the ex-Biafran warlord, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, in November 2011 has continued to generate questions bordering on a generally acceptable Igbo leadership after Ojukwu. Not even the conferment on Chief Ralph Uwazuruike of Ijele Ndigbo (a title which was allegedly converted contentiously to Eze Igbo Gburugburu by Uwazuruike faithful in MASSOB) by the traditional ruler of Nri Kingdom in Anambra State, His Royal Majesty Eze Obidiegwu Onyensoh, on January 14, 2012 could rest the question. Instead, more questions are trailing the conferment, and the search for a true Igbo leader continues. In this interview, the MASSOB leader speaks out on several burning issues affecting Ndigbo and Nigeria at large, including Igbo leadership after Ojukwu, the performance of South-East governors, the Boko Haram nightmare, issues of Nigerian unity, among others.

Uwazuruike: MASSOB leader

Recently, the Igbo race lost its foremost leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu. As one following in his footsteps, how did you feel when you got the news of his death?

Right from the time he was flown to London, I had been in constant touch, I had been on phone on daily basis with the family. I followed it up. Some people could receive that as a very big surprise but for me, I was following developments on hourly basis and before he died, I was called. I was on phone with the wife, she told me the developments, his reactions until 3:15 am when he passed on. Well, it was a shock but I followed it up, I knew when he was in crisis and I knew when he passed on.

Now, some people are saying that his passing on has created a big vacuum and that, given that Ndigbo are known for speaking in different tongues, his death would worsen the situation since he was the only person Ndigbo could listen to?

I spoke on this several times and I have told people that God will always provide. God knows how important he was to us and how irreplaceable he is. So, I believe God in his infinite mercies will show us the way. Even when he was crowned Eze Igbo Gburugburu, there were some elements that objected, but then the majority had their way. With time, I believe everything will work out well. You know, people emerge as leaders through acceptance of their people. So, with time, and through acceptance of the people, a true Igbo leader would emerge. It is not done by proclamation. The masses themselves know who their leaders are and accord them respect and acceptance as Ojukwu was accorded due to his pedigree, his love for his people, the amount of risk he was prepared to take for the Igbo race, the strength he gave to us, the leadership he afforded us. In time, I believe God will show us our next leader.

In other areas of Nigeria, like Yorubaland, there is a kind of succession, but in Igboland, it is not like that. How do you think Ndigbo will handle the issue of Ojukwu’s successor?

Well, you said other areas and mentioned Yorubaland. When Ojukwu was alive, he will tell you that he is Eze Igbo Gburugburu at the heart of Ndigbo, the people’s leader in the heart of the people. When you come to Igboland, we have our foremost leader, Ojukwu, but there are some people who think they are leaders also, there are some people who are in Abuja who by virtue of their position say they are Igbo leaders. You can’t deny them that leadership too. But Igbos know their leader; it is not, like I said, by proclamation or by sort of heredity. For instance, your father was a king and so you have to be a king. You see, there was no election for Ojukwu to be Igbo leader but the people accepted him because of his contributions, because of what he did for the people. It is not a matter of people gathering together to say you are our leader, it is not by election; it is by people’s acceptance, and whoever they accept, you will hear them say it.

A newspaper in Owerri recently carried out an opinion poll and most of those that responded rooted for Senator Uche Chukwumerije.

Well, I didn’t see the paper, but just like I told you before, there are so many Igbos that can emerge as Igbo leader. So, the person you mentioned is a true Igbo son and he has fought vigorously for the wellbeing of Ndigbo. Personally, he has fought vigorously for my release from detention on many occasions. You see, you have told me how people were calling in and saying Senator Chukwumerije should be our new leader. Fine, like that, the people will eventually pick their new leader.

But do you agree with the call that the governors should name Senator Chukwumerije as Ojukwu’s replacement?

The issue is that I’m not here to say who should nominate an Igbo leader; my position is that we will get it naturally. I don’t believe a leader should be announced. The people should choose their leader, and why must you ask some governors to announce somebody? On what law or constitution are they relying? Ndigbo have no constitution and so you don’t have a platform for that.

What future does the Igbo quest for justice and fairness have, now that Ojukwu is no more?

We will continue the struggle. What you have to understand is that people must die. Ojukwu has lived his life and we are feeling so much because of his importance to us. He made himself important to us because of his work, otherwise it is not as if people wouldn’t die. He lived his normal life, he didn’t die by accident, he was not assassinated, so what we should do is honour him and uphold all those virtues for which he lived and life continues. If anybody should emerge as Igbo leader, the people will accept him and you don’t campaign about it. It is not politics.

Some people are saying that you should drop all agitations because President Jonathan has been according Ndigbo their fair share in his administration. Are you comfortable with this?

What agitation do Ndigbo have? Is it about state creation or what?

About Biafra.

About Biafra? Fine, the issue of Biafra is not all about Jonathan. We started campaigning for Biafra before Jonathan came on board, and even if we don’t get it during his time, after him, we will get it. There is nothing like dropping it. It is not even an Igbo thing, it cuts across and nobody has the capacity; I don’t even have the capacity to do it because so many people are involved. What should Jonathan do to favour Ndigbo that is better than freedom? Nigeria should have been under Britain since Britain was favouring them. There is nothing like freedom and there is nothing Jonathan will do to us to make us drop the issue of Biafra. Nothing.

Sometime ago, newspapers carried photographs of your award from Rotary International and we saw how politicians scrambled over themselves to identify with you. It led people to start asking if you were now a politician.

They think Uwazuruike is a success story. They think Biafra is a success story. They think the struggle is a success story, that is why they are flocking around me and that is why people are wondering. I had an investiture and I have a right to invite my friends and I did and almost everybody came. So why should anybody wonder if I am now a politician? What is wrong in being a politician? But I am not one because of the way the so-called politicians play the game. For me, I am continuing the struggle more than ever before.

If we take it that the struggle is now a success story, won’t it be good to let the masses out there know how far it has gone?

In everything you do, you don’t expect everybody to know. You just said people were gathering around me now, so those who are in the dark should continue to be in the dark because there is no way you can bring sunshine to everybody. The few who are still saying Ndigbo no longer know about Biafra, let them continue being in the dark. I can’t tell them anything. I am comfortable with the majority that want to know what I am doing and I will go along with the majority.

So, you are assuring us that Biafra would one day become a reality?

What do you mean if I am assuring you that Biafra will one day be a reality? Why won’t it be a reality? All the independent states who fought for their independence, are they not enjoying it now? So, why must our own be an extraordinary thing if it happens? You must be a student of history by being a journalist. Look at other new states coming up and you are talking of Biafra being a reality. Biafra would have been a reality since. It will be a reality and, you know, if it is not going to be a reality, I can’t be wasting my time on it.

Sometime ago, you criticized Gov. Okorocha for treating Eze Ilomuanya shabbily and government said it did so because the man bastardized the traditional institution. What prompted your action?

I am not a referee between Eze Ilomuanya and Rochas. My position is constant on the issue, not minding whose ox is gored. What I am saying is that traditional stool must be respected and an Eze is an Eze. Other tribes would be watching how we treat our own, a whole Eze, Chairman of South-East traditional rulers whom everybody recognizes, you don’t have to insult him. I don’t mind whoever is there, our so-called governor should respect our traditional rulers and they too should respect the governor. I have no special interest in anybody. Governor this today, governor that tomorrow, they get out of that office but the traditional institution is for life. It is just like somebody insulting the judiciary. I won’t support that. So, I won’t support anybody insulting our royal fathers. And for somebody who is the Chairman of South-East, he represents Ndigbo too, and we must be careful how we bastardize our institutions because of politics. Whatever Ilomuanya must have done may not be unconnected with the fact that he did not support Okorocha; he may have supported somebody else.

Many people feel that Ndigbo do not love themselves and that their actions show this. What should be done to see that at least we begin to speak with one voice?

It starts from all of us, it starts from you too. Ask yourself, what have you done to promote the cause of Ndigbo in your writing, in your office and what have you? What I don’t like is that everybody is saying Ndigbo when you have not sat down to ask yourself speaking if you are a true Igbo man. Majority of our people are afraid of themselves and these are the people you hear saying Ndigbo. Who are these Ndigbo? I was on the road the other day and we stopped because a policeman, an Igbo man, wanted to take bribe on the road and somebody with me spoke Igbo to him and he said he did not understand the language but his names were Igbo. I looked at him and said your name is Elechi and you say you don’t understand Igbo. The man was very serious, he was only interested in collecting the money. Because of the money, he denied his origin. Then I announced myself and he was confused and gave me a salute. I said to him: “See you have denied your identify simply because of N20 and you will be the first person to shout against any other Igbo man.” That happened just recently when I was going to Enugu with my friend, Peter Orji. He never knew I was Uwazurike, that’s why I said it starts from you. As a journalist, you ask yourself, what have I done for the unity of Ndigbo? Then you ask me: Uwazuruike, what have you done for the unity of Ndigbo? And then we ask ourselves that question and we arrive at the answer. Everybody must play his own role to make Igbo great.

You are a stakeholder in the South-East and we are almost exhausting one year of this tenure, do you think the people of the zone are in safe hands with regard to the South-East governors?

Well, the governors, do they tell you that they are Igbos, or that they are working for the Igbos, or that they were planted there by Ndigbo? Most of the governors we have here represent the interest of their master.

So they have masters too?

They have Ogas who put them there. See what is happening in Bayelsa now. The governor was not given the chance for a second term. Yes, people own the party, they have their Oga too. You see, why they are harassing MASSOB is because they want to please the people in Abuja, they are not doing it because they like it. The other day Theodore Orji locked up 51 members of MASSOB simply because they went to Igbo Day at Abakiliki, he locked them up for how many months. He did it because he wanted to please Abuja. He wanted to show them that he is against himself at Abuja. He wanted to show them that he is against himself. He has to kill himself to satisfy outsiders. These are the people you call your governors. Where are they, a bunch of I-don’t-know-how-to-describe-them. But know that true people have not emerged as governors for our people, as governors for Ndigbo. When they emerge, we shall know. At times we make mistakes and bring out people we think are leaders; when they go there, they show you they are not leaders. A leader should be courageous; he should protect his people by all means, at all costs. How many of them can come out and speak out? Ok, look at what is happening in the North now, the Boko Haram thing, how many Northerners, I mean, those who are supposed to speak up against it have spoken up? But if it is here, you will see these riff-raffs jumping over themselves attacking MASSOB. They call themselves governors, Lilliputs, people who ordinarily could not afford three square meals, now that they are governors, they are mighty gods here. Have you ever seen any Yoruba man that talked against OPC? But in Igboland, they jump up and down. Do you ask yourself why they do this? They do it just to satisfy the Hausas and the Yorubas, to get contracts, gain positions, chairman of this board, member of that board, get national honours, all those petty things they get. And it transcends the politicians. Even at the middle level, we are not getting it right. We must purge ourselves of our iniquities. When I look at them, I laugh, but the beauty of it all is that this is democracy, they stay there temporarily and they get out of the place as hungry as they were before they got into that office. You see, even those who were there before who felt like gods, immediately they got out of office, in less than two or three years, they became poorer than most of us and when I look at them, I say: Upon all your bravado, gragra, you are still here, you still enter the same aircraft with us, you still sit in the same compartment I sit. I pity them because most of them feel ashamed coming into Igbo gatherings because they know that they have no face. So, as far as I am concerned, we don’t have governors in the South-East.

Finally, are you comfortable with Boko Haram method of reaching out? Is it the best?

I congratulate them. You can reach out through any method. They are heard, they are feared everywhere. Yes, I should be stupid if I don’t congratulate them. I have said it and I will continue to say it, what is wrong in what they are doing? There is nothing wrong in what they are doing. You say they are killing people, do you know how many people that die as a result of the misrule of our leaders? The roads are not repaired, millions of people die by accident. We have the resources to repair the roads, but instead of repairing the roads, you go to Dubai to buy houses or you go to Swiss Bank and put the money there. Are you helping the masses? Go to hospitals, the drugs are not there. Are they not worse than Boko Haram? Why should I criticize them? They want their own freedom; they want independence. I don’t have any reason to condemn them. Those condemning them are supposed to be condemned first, including the SSS, the police, and the army because they are protecting a failed nation, a nation that should have gone into extinction years back. Nigeria has no reason to exist, and that is why from year to year the worst continues to happen. Now Nigeria is bankrupt, a country that sells crude oil. States that don’t have oil are triumphing but a state that has oil is bankrupt because the hand of God is not on Nigeria. There is nothing you do that will make this country move forward until it divides. It is not a matter of kill Uwazurike or do this or that. When the hand of God is not in a thing, that thing will never succeed. The bringing together of the Southern and the Northern Protectorates in 1914 was not done with God’s blessing. It was done to use the resources of the South to favour the North, and as far as it was never ab initio right, God will never look at Nigeria until Nigeria divides.

 

Imo 2015: Between Okorocha And Other Emerging Interests

By Chinedu OPARA

In what analysts say is a timely recourse to the saying that a journey of a thousand kilometers must begin with a step, leaders of Owerri zone, one of the three political zones in Imo State, have formally declared interest in the state’s number one seat come 2015. The bid was made public on Sunday, January 8, 2012, during the formal inauguration of the Local Government Chapters of Owerri Zonal Political Leadership Forum, OZOPOLF, the political pressure group which says it is going to spearhead the quest. Though fears have been expressed in some circles about the workability of the project in view of the lethal blow inflicted on zoning by the emergence of Gov. Rochas Okorocha, the occasion under reference afforded the leadership of OZOPOLF the opportunity to reassure the masses of the zone that though the task seemed Herculean, it must be approached with a winning mindset.

To begin with, the group says it is convinced beyond all reasonable doubt that the Owerri governorship cause is a just cause. Chairman of the Forum, Prince Charles Amadi, who articulated this position, pointed at the history of the state’s governorship position, especially since the Second Republic in1979. “Since 1979, Okigwe has occupied the state’s governorship seat for a total of eight years and three months through Chief Mbakwe and Ikedi Ohakim. Orlu, by the end of 2015, would have enjoyed it for twelve years, courtesy of Chief Achike Udenwa and Owelle Rochas Okorocha. But, for us in Owerri, it’s been only one year and three months. What a marginalization!” Amadi told his people. Against this backdrop, the OZOPOLF leader said he believes equity and fairness demands that Owerri should be supported by the other two zones of Orlu and Okigwe to clinch the diadem when the next round of elections arrive.

Similarly, the issue of Gov. Okorocha seeking a second term was also addressed by Prince Amadi. According to him, Gov. Okorocha would not seek a second term because he personally swore not to do so during the campaigns for the 2011 governorship election. In addition, he maintained that Owerri zone was very instrumental to the electoral success of the incumbent governor and wondered why somebody whom the people paid in good coin would wake up one day and decide to pay them back with a rough coin.

Amadi also opened up on the strategies mapped out in the effort to make the journey a successful one. According to him, OZOPOLF would go the whole hog in the struggle. However, he assured that the body would provide level playing ground for all sons and daughters of the zone, irrespective of party affiliation or council of origin. In his words, “Every son or daughter of Owerri who is interested should come out, join any party of his/her choice and campaign. OZOPOLF would back all of them till one emerges victorious to become Imo State governor of Owerri extraction.”

In the same vein, the Forum, he said, decided to start early because of its understanding that the job at hand is enormous. Therefore, to make the desired impact with regard to sensitization and mobilization, each and every indigene of the zone should kickstart the project immediately. “Once we move now and go from door to door, kitchen to kitchen, in four years we would have touched every Owerri man and woman and then look forward to victory in 2015,” Amadi concluded.

Sir Ambrose Ejiogu, a Second Republic political player in old Imo State, in his speech drew the attention of all present to the enormity of the task ahead. Still expressing the belief that Gov. Okorocha would keep the gentleman’s accord he reached with Owerri zone, he, however, called on Owerri people to vigorously and committedly undertake the assignment because only they and not Orlu or Okigwe people would give the struggle undiluted attention. Furthermore, he promised that he and other old generation politicians of Owerri zone would reach out to the other zones to press on the need to restore equity, fairness and justice in the Imo political arena.

Surely, there is consensus that planning is sine qua non for success. Therefore, for electing to cast their net this early morning, one could say Owerri political leaders have taken the right step in the right direction. At the same time, however, some analysts are concerned that the road may be too rough, going by some recent developments in the Imo political arena. Some also fear that the zone could be pushed out completely if the incumbent finally buys into the idea being dangled at him by some individuals and groups calling on him to run for a second term in 2015. Those nursing this fear believe that though the power of incumbency is gradually losing stem in our democracy as the last election showed, it nevertheless remains a potent force that could turn the table when the die is cast.

Among the groups that have thrown their weight behind Gov. Okorocha’s second term bid are Orlu Zurume and Odimma Okigwe, two zonal socio-political organizations which hinged their request on what they say is the superlative performance of the governor. Former governor, Achike Udenwa, spoke the mind of Orlu Zurume during the December 27, 2011 reception put together for the Gov. Okorocha by his Orlu kinsmen. Udenwa, who is the first full beneficiary of the zoning system, having ruled for eight uninterrupted years between 1999 and 2007, shocked the people of Owerri zone when he told them to forget 2015 and back Gov. Okorocha to continue beyond 2015. Udenwa, who is also a former Minister of Commerce, reportedly argued that his reason for supporting Gov. Okorocha stemmed from what he has been able to achieve within these few months in office. Before Udenwa made his declaration on December 27, Odimma Okigwe had on November 27, 2011 made a similar call during a reception it also organized for the state governor. Led by Prof Ezeadi O. Ezeadi and Dr. E. J. K. Onyewuchi, Odinma Okigwe equally informed Imolites that its call was being made in the light of what the governor has achieved in so short a time in office.

Expectedly, reactions had trailed and continue to trail these calls. For Sir Geo-Cassidy Josiah, a businessman and member of Gov. Okorocha’s Agenda, Odimma Okigwe and Udenwa are mere sycophants whose call were brought about by selfish considerations and not necessarily by their love for the governor. He was livid at Chief Udenwa whom he said ruled the state for a whooping eight years without commensurate legacies. “Look at Udenwa who ruled this state for eight yeas and performed abysmally. To me, he is not qualified to make this call and this is why I think it was made to attract attention,” Josiah argued. He therefore urged Gov. Okorocha to shun the sycophants and focus on delivering dividends of democracy to the masses because, as he put it, they are the ones to decide in 2015.

Some notable leaders of Owerri zone have also openly advised Gov. Okorocha to strictly abide by the four years agreement he had with the zone. They insist that anything to the contrary could spin off a political turmoil that could shake the very foundations of Imo polity. Former Minister of Interior, Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho, has given this advice in more than one occasion. Recently, at the inauguration of a new socio-political group, the Integrity Group of Orlu, at the Ihioma Civic Centre, Orlu, the former minister spoke extensively on the need to restore political harmony and peaceful co-existence in the state through the strict observance of equity, fairness and justice in the political   terrain. Specifically, he called on Gov. Okorocha not to succumb to the temptation of a second term because it will definitely cast him in negative light before Owerri zone, and indeed all well meaning people of the state.

Barr. Godfrey Dikeocha, one-time Speaker of the state House of Assembly, only recently too rebelled against the idea of Owerri zone being shortchanged in 2015 by Orlu zone. Though Dikeocha later said publicly that he was quoted out of context by newsmen who quoted him as saying that denying Owerri the state governorship in 2015 would amount to calling for Boko Haram, the issue remained that he was clearly opposed to a second term for incumbent Gov. Okorocha.

Further investigations also revealed that Gov. Okorocha’s main bulwark in Owerri zone, Chief Martin Agbaso, is not disposed to a second shot from him. This, we learnt, is because the Emekuku, Owerri North-born political titan is of the view that the governor should keep to the agreement entered into before he (Agbaso) dropped his ambition to allow Okorocha vie for governorship in 2011. It was gathered on good authority by this magazine that the duo reached and signed some agreements before Agbaso, who single-handedly shouldered the responsibilities of APGA in Imo, backed down from seeking election in 2011. Part of the conditions, we learnt, was the choice of his younger brother, Sir Jude Agbaso, as Okorocha’s deputy, and Okorocha throwing his weight behind Agbaso for governorship in 2015.

A high ranking leader of Agenda in Ngor Okpala LGA who pleaded anonymity confided in this magazine that indeed an agreement was reached between Gov. Okorocha and Chief Agbaso over 2015. “Yes, I am aware of that and, in fact, I represented Ngor Okpala at the meeting. My advice to Gov. Okorocha is that he should focus on this tenure as a gentleman and go higher because I think he can play at the national level,” the source said.

Certainly, the above scenario leaves one with one impression: the likelihood of a titanic battle in Imo State in 2015 if Gov. Okorocha eventually decides to run. At the moment, Gov. Okorocha and his camp have refused to give a categorical answer to the issue at stake. At best, what the governor has usually done in response to these calls has always been to ask the question, “What if I finish what I came to do in two years, would it still be proper for me to go beyond four years?” Those who say this position is not convincing enough about Gov.  Okorocha not seeking second term have also asked, “What if he didn’t finish what he came to do in four years?” No doubt, these are two questions heavily pregnant with meanings. However, what cannot be contested is the fact that sooner or later the answers would be in the open for all to see. But whatever is the answer, one undeniable fact remains that Owerri has thrown its hat into the ring for 2015 and is ready to duel to the last drop of its blood. Again, whatever the answer, analysts believe that Imo 2015 guber contest will certainly be a continuation of the gradual but steadily building political culture of do-or-die in Nigeria.