By Jude Okoro
Almost two years after Chief Ikedi Ohakim was humiliated out of office by Imo people, the understanding was that he would have learnt his lessons and purged himself of the hubris and self-destructive attitude which cost him the mandate he never earned in the first place. But going by his current grandstanding and posturing which suggest that he is nostalgic about Government House, Owerri, it appears he is bereft of the gift of introspection which ought to tell him that the dream of returning to office is merely utopian.
In fact, the mere thought of that sacrilegious fantasy implies that Ohakim is still under the illusion that the disgraceful defeat he suffered in the hands of Imo people was a mere happenstance. In other words, is he under any illusion that he is such a political disaster that if he stands election in Imo for 20 times, he will also be rejected 20 times? Does it mean he wants to wish away the pains he inflicted on Imo people through his four years misadventure and misgovernance?
There is no doubt that the disappointment that parades itself as the current Imo State Government emboldened Ohakim to begin to have this malaria infested dream of returning to power. If Governor Rochas Okorocha had concentrated on his job of serving Imo people instead of engaging in avoidable controversies, financial recklessness and executive impunity, Ohakim would not have shown his face in public, talk less of harbouring the utopian idea of staging a comeback to power.
Unknown to Ohakim (or he knows but is playing the ostrich), Imo people did not vote for Rochas Okorocha as a person. They voted against Ohakim.
The people, goaded beyond endurance by Ohakim tyranny and crass incompetence, revolted against him and kicked him out of Imo Government House. And in deference to late Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, they opted for APGA. That was how Okorocha became a beneficiary of the people’s anger and frustration.
But Imo people soon made a depressing discovery to wit-that Okorocha was not the messiah, hence the current loud protest against the Imo State Governor who has been caught with the same bug that plagued his predecessor. Whereas Ohakim was an arrogant horror who scornfully looked down on Imo people as conquered serfs, Okorocha is what Igbos refer to as eze onye agwalam, a man who believes he has a monopoly of knowledge. He has turned Imo into an experimental object, ruling without respect to the constitution and daring anybody to challenge him.
Regrettably, Ohakim is not the fit and proper person to challenge Okorocha to take back power. He is carrying a huge baggage and has indeed become a liability not only to those who otherwise would have marketed him, but himself. Having cashed all his credit cards with the people, Ohakim truly has squandered his goodwill and turned himself into a political leper.
Apart from the majority of Imo people whom he impoverished and sent to their untimely graves by taking away their means of livelihood, he estranged himself from those who helped him into office. Those he betrayed included Prof Maurice Iwu without whose effort he would never have been governor.
Prior to the magic of April 21, 2007, Ohakim came a distant fifth in the April 14, 2007 governorship election won by Chief Martin Agbaso. Others who suffered betrayal in the hands of Ohakim were former Governors Achike Udenwa of Imo State and Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State respectively It was (and still is) a matter of shame that Ohakim was the only South East Governor to lose re-election. It was glaringly clear after his being foisted on Imo people that the man was driven by inordinate ambition, hence he deployed his energy through massive looting to feed his greed.
He was barely two years in office when he started dreaming of being vice president in 2011 with late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. That was why he waged a war of attrition against then Vice President Goodluck Jonathan whom he coveted his position. Thus, when Nigerians were clamouring for Jonathan to be made Acting President in the absence of a dying Yar’Adua, Ohakim hired his goons to stage-manage protests in support of the missing president.
Having therefore earned a notorious reputation as a serial betrayal and back-stabling politician, Ohakim went into the 2011 governorship election a political orphan. Neither his abysmal performance as governor nor the tag of an emperor who even desecrated the House of God by publicly flogging a Catholic Priest could aid him in his re-election bid. Even his party (PDP) considered him a liability and turned against him. His fire brigade approach at effecting rapprochement with the leaders of the state failed woefully.
Has Ohakim ever wondered why Imo people trooped to the streets to celebrate his downfall? The people poured into the streets in jubilation that the task master was no more. Not even since the death of General Sani Abacha has a people rejoiced at the misfortune of a fellow man.
Stripped of integrity, under what aegis does Ohakim hope to perch to take him back to Government House, Owerri?
The truth of the matter is that Ohakim was a mistake ab initio. Iwu and Udenwa goofed when they thrust power to an economically wretched and politically bankrupted personality. He was merely out to massage his personal ego with power and not to use it for common good as required.
That was why he declared in a live television that he had had the best of women, wine and wristwatches and therefore cared less for the feelings of the people. That was why he ran the government single-handedly with his brother, Emma Ohakim. It was as well because no sane person would want to be identified with the putrefaction known as his administration.
Tragically, Ohakim’s personal idiosyncrasies, greed and incompetence robbed the good people of Okigwe Zone where he hails from, a second chance at Imo Government House. He scarified the genuine aspirations of educated, cosmopolitan and honest people on the altar of political rascality and sheer childishness. Though some elders of Okigwe Zone have already cursed him for the crude abortion of that legitimate right, there is need for the entire people to collectively disown Ohakim and bar him from using their name in vain.
The era of Ohakim is happily over. What remains is for him to be brought to justice to account for his misdeeds. Former Governor Sam Mbakwe and other founding fathers of the state would turn angrily in their graves if Ohakim’s name is ever mentioned, even in whispers, that he wants to rule Imo State again.
Okoro is an Abuja-based Analyst