While
pursuing his feudal aspiration in Imo, Rochas Okorocha would appear to be
reading Igbo history book upside down. Several decades after warrant chiefs
appointed by the imperialists failed in Igbo land, how pathetic that the Imo
governor still thought he could brandish an expired talisman and get a
different outcome.
The
British assumed they were clever then. Since the Igbo were largely Republican
and therefore unamenable to easy colonial predation, they resorted to
assembling local quislings and robing them in royalty to lord it over
their communities. The people, in turn, first chose to amuse themselves by
watching the upstarts adjust their borrowed robes, revolting only after being
asked to pay taxes to the white man.
Armageddon
would be let loose in places like Aba where women famously tumulted in 1929.
Like the
haughty warrant chief of old, Okorocha sought to dismantle democracy in Imo and
erect a counterfeit monarchy. Until his sequined amulet failed him in the
recent APC governorship primaries in Imo.
Even
among foraging gluttons, a code of conduct - even honour - is still expected.
In the case of the Igwe of the Douglas House in Owerri, the trouble is
that he attempted to take too much for the owner not to notice.
If
Okorocha had his way in the primaries, the coronation of his son-in-law
and current Chief of Staff (Uche Nwosu) as possible successor in 2019 could
only have meant a climax to the orgy of the worst political incest
imaginable; one perpetrated without shame or the pang of
conscience.
Until the
cookie crumbled, Nwosu had, in turn, begun to act the part. Whenever bullies
taunted or whipped him in the neighborhood, he crawled back to the big daddy
for a nose-wipe. He still dresses like his father-in-law. He tails him
everywhere and mimics his idiosyncrasies. Perhaps, what remains to
fully resemble the great Owelle is for him to grow a pot belly as well.
Of
course, Nwosu’s candidacy would also mean Okorocha’s daughter potentially
taking over from her mother as Imo First Lady. With the governor anticipatorily
awarding himself the Orlu senatorial ticket as part of his “retirement package”
next year, and the wife also moving to Abuja potentially as House of Reps
member, apart from the distinction of already being the queen’s
mother in Imo. (Speculations had it that another of the Okorocha clan had been
pencilled in as Nwosu’s running-mate!)
Already,
a sitting Minister from Imo (Prof. Anthony Anwukah) is father-in-law to
Okorocha’s second daughter who, in turn, represents Imo on the board of a federal
college of education. The Igwe’s younger sister is deputy Chief of Staff and
doubles as Commissioner of Happiness. His son is APC’s House of Assembly
candidate in Ideato. His eldest sister is said to manage all markets for the
government, while the elder brother handles motor parks. Another sibling
controls sand dredging across the state.
Never in
the history of otherwise fiercely independent Igbo nation has feudal enterprise
been this extensive and audacious.
So,
now, you probably only need Okorocha’s Suharto cap, false smile and gaudy
sash to frame the new perfect portrait of political greed.
By the
way, the credit for coining the word “Oko-croach” actually belongs to a
world-renowned literary deity of Nigerian provenance in a lamentation voiced to
a privileged circle when the latest chapter in Okorocha's long-running circus
opened.
In one of
an earlier two-part series, yours sincerely had indeed expressed puzzle at the
nature of charms Okorocha was invoking to hypnotize Imo people - some of whom
are thought to be scions of giants of Igbo history - into slavish
acquiescence. Added to that is the obscenity of naming not a few of the
public buildings built by Okorocha after the Okorochas.
A
spectacle made more pathetic, one further observed, by "a lack of
sophistication in seeking to pass off a purely personal commercial transaction
at the expense of Imo taxpayers as something done to profit the public."
In the
other piece, one added: "The great puzzle is why all the political elders
in his party appear to oblige him with the conspiracy of silence as he slides
from one sacrilege to another. What else, if not contempt for urban dwellers,
would have made the proverbial bushman stroll into town in loincloth."
Added to
that is the infamy of erecting statues indiscriminately for those
classified as heroes/heroines by Okorocha’s questionable standards. Or folks
engaged in private business with him or those seen as potentially
helpful in whichever direction the Igwe might wish to spread his
commercial tentacle later.
Not
surprising, one of those so considered is the shifty Jacob Zuma, who has since
been dethroned as president in South Africa on account of monumental
sleaze.
What made
it even more laughable - if not treasonable - is that hundreds
of millions of Naira was being splurged on such obscene statues and
the unveiling ceremonies at a time workers were owed huge backlog of
salaries and cheques issued pensioners were bouncing all over Imo.
Having
thus subjected the acclaimed "heartland" of the South-east to such
unscrupulous privatization racket in the past seven and a half years,
Okorocha apparently could not think of a better finale than having his
son-in-law succeed him.
But the
Igwe underestimated the guile of the so-called Allied Forces. They understood
the power of ambush and surprise. By plotting stealthily and pooling their
forces together, they succeeded in outfoxing the garrulous Igwe to the party
ticket eventually. Alas, the huge war-chest of dollars could not save Okorocha.
(Someone alleged he was offered a bribe of $2m to rig the primaries but chose
to vote his conscience.)
Now, with
his imagined fantasy political castle fast turning a mirage, it will
perhaps require a miracle of biblical proportions if Okorocha will not
have to depend solely on overdose of sedatives to battle insomnia for the
remainder of his tenancy at the Douglas House.
His
possible anxiety would not be hard to situate. Denied the pleasure of
picking his successor, Okorocha now has to face the worst nightmare of an
insecure outgoing governor - the possibility - if not certainty - of a hostile
take-over. Won’t the book of contracts be revisited? Won’t the unmarked graves
be discovered and excavated and the hidden skeletons uncovered with malicious
glee?
Back in
2011, Okorocha hardly waited to be sworn in before exercising power. Long
before the inauguration day, not a few banks received threat letters
from the “Office of Governor-In-Waiting” against honoring cheques issued by the
then outgoing governor.
Now,
opponents seem too impatient to even allow elections hold before pulling
Okorocha’s legs. One of the opposition candidates has tellingly
adopted the slogan, “Recovery Mission”, in what hints darkly of a
revanchist plot against Okorocha’s “Rescue Mission”. He took a step further by
announcing a “caveat emptor” on all the transactions by the present
administration, with particular reference to land deals or disposal of
government assets.
Meanwhile,
Okorocha, who sermonises on equity and justice outside, has continued to
practise evil and impunity at home. Okorocha who has been thumbing his
nose serially in contempt of court orders on the deputy governor (Eze Madumere)
is also the one on the rooftop today flaunting, without shame, court papers
purportedly restraining the national leadership from barring Nwosu’s
candidacy.
But
without quorum and against a subsisting court order, Okorocha’s own faction in
the state assembly had declared the deputy governor (Eze Madumere) impeached in
July for nothing more than a temerity to eye the stool reserved for his boss’
son-in-law.
Reminded
of the futility of the exercise in the eyes of the law, the crafty Igwe thought
he could outsmart justice. By the time the law would arrive to rescue DG, he
seemed to have calculated, the tenure would have lapsed, thus rendering the
whole exertion a mere academic exercise.
But in a
rare apportioning of poetic justice, the law rose redemptively for the DG
a few weeks ago by quashing Okorocha’s kangaroo impeachment and restoring
Madumere to office. Ever lawless, the Igwe responded by inventing new avenues
to mock the law. According to reports, staff and security team attached to the
DG’s office have been posted out. So, technically, that office now stands
abolished! The Owerri prince is however free to parade himself as DG, if that
will make him happy.
Obviously,
Karma has now arrived the Imo gate.
Alas,
IBB's admission of historic crime?
Assailed
all these years by the ghost of June 12, artful Maradona of Minna would now
seem resolved to prey on the nation's amnesia. So, while the public seem
fixated lately on President Muhammadu Buhari’s certificate controversy, General
Ibrahim Babangida chose to dabble into poetry curiously for Chief
Arthur Nzeribe at the weekend on the latter’s 80th birthday.
And what
adjectival superlatives did the erstwhile self-styled military president not
deploy in praise of the maverick politician. Samplers: “Since our
paths crossed decades ago, You have remained a dependable ally”... “You still
stretch your hands of fellowship, The beauty of true friendship nurtures your
heart”... “A man with a different attitude, A Nigerian with a different
orientation, whose understanding of the human mind, Gives you the cutting
edge”.
For the
millennials (Nigerians below 30), Babangida’s referenced fulminations might not
resonate much. The more impressionable among them might, in fact, even be
tempted to consider him for a junior literary prize for a slightly audible
nursery rhyme there.
But
certainly not with the older generation of Nigerians who are
politically aware or were old enough to discern the momentous events that
defined the country in the 90s, beginning with the climax of
Babangida’s phony transition, and eventuating in the June 12
crisis.
One, older
folks could not have forgotten the leprous organisation called Association of
Better Nigeria (ABN) led by Arthur Nzeribe. It was the shadowy group - a
Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of sorts - that was used to undermine the
political process, set the cat among the pigeons and procure series
of “black market” court rulings to scuttle the electoral victory of MKO
Abiola in 1993.
Of
course, even though the chicanery was quite too obvious then, Babangida and his
cult of dissemblers had continued to publicly disown the group till
his disgraceful fall from power on August 27, 1993.
A coward,
the general simply lacked the balls to come out directly and tell the nation he
was interested in transmuting into a civilian president, rather than setting
Nigeria on a circuitous transition programme that almost bankrupted the
nation.
With
this Freudian slip of terming Nzeribe “a dependable
ally”, Babangida has only inadvertently confirmed what many had known all the
years: Nzeribe was his collaborator in scuttling the wishes and aspiration of
14m Nigerians who voted on June 12, 1993.
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