Ikedi Ohakim: Who Can Tell?

By

Joachim Ibeziako Ezeji

santajayinc@yahoo.com

Once, long ago in old Russia, a Baron decided to expel all the Jewish peasants from his estate. The Jews pleaded with the Baron, but he sat there petting his favourite wolfhound and waved them away. As they were leaving, a rabbi said: “You know, we can make dogs speak.” Intrigued, the Baron allowed the Jews to stay for a year and teach his dog to talk. Outside the Baron’s castle, the Jews wailed: “Rabbi, how can you make such a promise? We’re doomed!” The rabbi replied, “Anything can happen in a year. The dog could die. Or the Baron could die. Who can tell?”

In view of this background I wish to state that I do not envy Governor Ikedi Ohakim. I am also not interested in the ‘chop-I-chop’ stampede being experienced around him at the moment. I only pray that he survives the many landmines I see everyday on his path, retain his focus for Imo (if at all he has any) and work for the greater good of all communities and people in Imo.

Ohakim’s recent outbursts and lamentations on the dwindling fortunes of the state over the past 10 years while in a meeting with a group of Imo elders recently is salutary. It is the very first official unveiling of the Udenwa’s abysmal failure as a governor for 8 years.

Gov. Ohakim had revealed that the immediate past administration of Chief Achike Udenwa left a debt portfolio of N24 billion. He was particularly irked that “the state is indebted to the tune of N10 billion in pension and gratuity arrears dating back to 1994”. He also told the stunned Imo Elders that “debt owed to contractors amount to over N14 billion”, adding that “we have over 250 un-energized transformers lying waste in many communities and over 300 dysfunctional water schemes”.

In his own words, Gov. Ohakim said: “As I speak to you, this state is saddled with a bloated, disgruntled, demoralized and ill-motivated workforce riddled with ghost workers. Imo State is the only one in the federation with a ratio of 80 per cent of its revenue going to recurrent expenditure and only 20 per cent left for capital projects”.

While wondering how the state can develop under this type of scenario, Ohakim however said that he has set up audit committees for the state civil service and local government councils. “Most of our educational institutions are in dilapidated state. We have 1,200 public primary schools, 312 senior secondary schools and 315 junior secondary schools that require rehabilitation”, Ohakim fumed.

According to the Governor, “the state has 6,458 teachers, 128 doctors with only four consultants in the whole state”, stressing that “health institutions are in sorry state”.

I am however a bit puzzled on what points the governor wants to score bearing in mind the propensity of the average Nigerian politician to score cheap points without any serious or appropriate work. As acerbic as those outbursts were, they are the stark truth though I doubt the zeal to improve the situation by Ohakim. I think the governor is either giving excuses for his likely failure or out rightly playing to the gallery.

With those words Gov. Ohakim did not say anything new. He was merely chorusing what most of us have been saying over the years from the sidelines especially during the dark years that was Udenwa’s.

Most of these elders, of course those of them that attended the forum were handpicked, a favour they must have appreciated so much, have all been keeping mute over these years that the locusts have fed fat on our common heritage and fortune. Therefore using a hand picked elder’s forum to lament over a system that brought him into office is not only self serving but deceptive.

I still doubt if Ohakim is exercising a mandate legitimately gained. This feeling is not restricted to me alone as many other people have insisted that the last general elections were a total charade. Sadly that is part of the political gangrene that has infested our land. Therefore, can any good come out of an evil? Even if it does, such would always be an evil offspring, and certainly be unacceptable to God. Till the Imo Election tribunal is done with, how focused or committed would an Ohakim as Imo Governor be?

Already, speculations are rife that Maurice Iwu was instrumental to Ohakim becoming the governor. Part of the deal we now hear was that Ohakim would choose as the Secretary to State Government (SSG), Iwu’s younger brother, Cosmas. Also, Iwu was supposed to nominate most of the Imo State Commissioners. Maurice Iwu, also as part of the deal, would have 13 local government chairmen. 

As things stand now, Mr. Cosmas Iwu, younger brother of the INEC chairman is the Secretary to the State Government. One of Iwu’s daughters is also an executive assistant to Gov. Ikedi Ohakim. There are also unconfirmed reports of the payment of some money monthly to Iwu and his share of the commissionership slots. 

Corroborating this, Chief Victor Umeh of APGA in a recent newspaper interview said: “On the governorship election conducted on April 14, 2007 in Imo, our candidate, Agbaso, to the surprise of all Nigerians, was the front-runner. PDP had no candidate. Chief Agbaso polled 448,000 votes. We have all the result sheets authenticated by INEC officials in black and white that worked on that day”.

Going further Chief Umeh said “But the fact that he (Iwu) was short-sighted; he was desperate to foist somebody on the people of Imo, his brother, who has now rewarded him by appointing of Cosmos Iwu, his young brother, as Secretary to State Government (SSG) in Imo, and people are watching and saying nothing. By the election of April 14, the man who is the governor today (Ohakim) got 10,000 plus something votes. And two weeks after, he got 778,000 votes to win the governorship election”.

Chief Umeh then concluded with these words: “They should go and tell it to the marines; Nigerians are wiser now. This is a country that has developed minds. All that the people have not done is to stand up against injustice, fraud and wrong actions. There is nowhere you do all these things and have peace. They did it and the governor is there. The brother of Iwu is today the SSG, a good reward for the INEC chairman. All this things will come to naught. The magic is such that in a place like Imo, one person who got 10,000 votes before suddenly got 700,000 votes in the next two weeks. The people changed their minds overnight. That is the magic called Prof. Iwu”.

I also want to know if Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu was at that Imo elder’s gathering. If he was, then his recent media interview on the Imo situation, where the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) produced the governor in a PDP-dominated state underscores the magic that was Prof. Maurice Iwu and the miracle that is Ikedi Ohakim.

The Chief had said “Well, the case of Imo State is a special one. It is a case that will take students of political science many years to study. In Imo, PDP has the entire state. PDP has all the senators from the state. In the House of Representatives, they are all PDP members. In the state House of Assembly, there are 27 members and PDP has 26 of them. Yar’Adua won over 90 per cent of the votes from the state. So the state automatically is PDP".

I am therefore afraid that governing Imo till 2011 when the next elections will hold will be a tough battle for Ikedi Ohakim if at all he eventually survives the legal onslaughts of the likes of Chief Martin Agbaso, Ralph Obioha and Ifeanyi Araraume at the election tribunal.

An inevitable problem will be how best to broker rancour-free deals  with the already over-fed and greedy PDP hawks idling around the corridors of government in Owerri, as well as the dominated PDP House of Assembly. It is certain they may likely exploit the Governor’s frail political base to keep him on his toes; not really for the interest of the common man on the streets but for their selfish ends.

The same fear holds for Prof. Maurice Iwu who for now seems to hold the ace as far as the tribunal is concerned. Stories about his political demands from Ohakim are no doubt disquieting. Anything can happen as the coming weeks unfold. Who can tell?