•Why Uzodimma should be re-elected

Against The Backdrop of the renewed interest on The Imo Charter of Equity, Which put together by political leaders of the state at the beginning of the current Republic but which seems to have collapsed, former Governor Ikedi Ohakim, in this interview, spoke on the development amongst other issues.

You recently released what you dubbed an open letter to your brethren in Imo State; I know this is not your first time of writing Imolites since you left office as governor. What was your chief motivation for this particular one?

Well, there is a remote reason and there is an immediate reason. The remote reason is that it is in continuation of my promise to do everything I can to contribute to the wellbeing of Imolites who have continued to appreciate and show me love twelve years after I left office. When on January 2, this year I escaped assassination but lost four of my security details in the hands of some hoodlums, the outpouring of love and concern Imolites showed me was quite overwhelming. Imolites are a wonderful people, sincere, hardworking and God-fearing and I am a beneficiary of these attributes.

So , I will stop at nothing in the pursuit of the welfare of this wonderful people. The immediate reason is that we have once again begun to witness dangerous political maneuverings, lies and destructive propaganda in the current political season. So, after thinking it over, I decided to draw the attention of my people to the situation so that together we can reason things out.

So, what are the main issues this time around?

I don’t know whether your paper was represented at the meeting I had with a selected group of journalists recently in Owerri. I spoke on four main issues, namely: security, power rotation, youth restiveness and, of course, the November governorship election. On security, my worry is that some of our people, including members of the elite, create the impression that it is a peculiar problem to the state. Some even go further to insinuate that the governor deliberately hoists insecurity on the state. Nothing can be more nonsensical. Governor Hope Uzodimma is, himself, a victim of insecurity in the state. I am also a victim. I am in a position to know that the government is doing everything possible to tackle the situation. I can assure you that the government is on top of the situation.

As a matter of fact, verifiable statistics with the Nigeria Police does not show that Imo has the highest number of crime in the Southeast. As a private citizen, I move around the Southeast and I can say without any fear of contradiction that on the matter of insecurity, our dear state, Imo, is not worse off. That does not mean that we should give any room for complacency but we should not blackmail ourselves and act in a manner that would rubbish the collective integrity of our dear state and its people.

I have been personally involved in several meetings on the matter of insecurity in the Southeast and I know that the governors are doing quite a lot. Whether we like it or not, the matter rests squarely on the shoulders of the Federal Government; which is why I would once again restate my position that we need state police.

There is even this false narrative in some quarters that insecurity in the state arose because of the manner of Uzodimma’s ascendency to office. Nothing can be more fallacious. It was this wrongly headed claim that led to the perfidious attitude of some opposition elements cheering the unknown gun men, when they initially arrived the scene, instead of rising in condemnation. However, I believe that we now know better; so that rather than turning the insecurity issue into campaign rhetoric, we should be sober and look forward to putting to an effective use of the lessons of our experience in the recent past.

I am also worried by the type of language in which some amateur writersand political players couch their comments on the issue of insecurity in the state. Their language de-markets the state, almost tending to make it a pariah. In short, the utterances from many of our key politicians are more terrorizing than the sounds of gun shots from these blood-thirsty hoodlums.

Perhaps not many people will agree with you that the problem of insecurity should not be made a campaign issue, in the sense that the people themselves would like to believe that a new administration may do better in handling the matter.

No new person or administration will or can do any better under the circumstances we find ourselves in the country.

As I said earlier, the matter rests squarely on the shoulders of the Federal Government. Until we change the existing security architecture in the country, not much will be achieved. I know the key candidates running in the November 11 governorship election. They are on a legitimate pursuit and I know they are capable. The optimism and promises to do something better is good and expected but I believe we are better off consolidating on the collective experience in the last three years. The current governor has this good rapport with the federal authorities and I think it will be better we continue to leverage on that. You can imagine what the situation will be if we elect a new governor probably of another political party who does not enjoy the rapport Hope Uzodimma has with the Federal Government. The situation will be worse. I know what I am talking about. I was once a governor.

Let’s come to the Imo Charter of Equity which is one issue that is occupying public space in Imo State and which you dwelt on extensively. Your panacea is that it can only work if Governor Uzodimma is allowed to do a second term. But the following day after your briefing, a group in Okigwe zone, your own area, endorsed the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Samuel Anyanwu. Besides, quite a good number of Owerri zone people believe that the implementation of the Charter should begin with the 2023 governorship election. Apparently there is no consensus.

Of course, there is no consensus which is the reason I am raising the alarm that the charter will collapse again if we follow that route. In any case, the purported endorsement of Senator Anyanwu was promptly refuted. So, I don’t want to talk about that. Only a sitting governor acting responsibly can make it work. It is not about Uzodimma. We should borrow a leaf from the past. The Imo Charter of Equity worked in 2007 when power was transferred from one zone to another because the then governor, Chief Achike Udenwa, insisted that power must shift to another zone and he had the lever of power to ensure that. I was a beneficiary of that statesmanlike act. But in 2015, what happened? First, Rochas Okorocha, who had earlier promised to do only one term of four years, reneged.

In other words, he failed to act responsibly with the lever of power in his hands like Udenwa did. The worse happened in 2019 when he was expected to ensure that power moved to another zone after doing eight years. Rather than see to that, he brought another fellow from the same Orlu zone who happens to be his son-in-law to take over. Then a scrambling for power began and in the end you know what happened. The thing returned to Orlu after a tantalizing stint of seven months for Owerri zone. If Okorocha had used the lever of power responsibly, the office of the governor would have seamlessly moved to another zone. So, by the time of the 2019 governorship election, the Imo Charter of Equity had completely collapsed; after we had used it to share power in 1999, retained in Orlu zone in 2003 and shifted power in 2007. For it to work again, we have to take into account the factor of the sitting governor and a political elite working selflessly for the interest of the state. I can say without any fear of contradiction that attempting to begin the implementation of the Charter with Governor Uzodimma on the ballot will only end up retaining power in Orlu zone even after 2028.

As I have noted, the candidates from Owerri and Okigwe zone are capable. They are on a legitimate pursuit and there is no suggesting here that they should withdraw. I am only directing my submission to the Imo electorate, especially in Owerri and Okigwe zones. Any scrambling for the office of the governor of Imo State without taking into account Governor Uzodimma’s legitimate bid for reelection, will amount to saying“to your tents oh Israel”. Today, he has a higher chance of winning the election and if he wins, through a scramble, the Charter will collapse again.

But you were a sitting governor when you lost in 2011. Why do you think his own will be different?

First, I did not lose that election. I don’t know where you were then. Go and ask those who were here. What happened in Imo State in 2011 was an aberration. It is the same set of people in Owerri zone who are asking for power today that truncated it. Go and read my letter in full. Some political and religious leaders in Owerri zone went and brought Rochas Okorocha from Orlu zone even after Udenwa, from the same Orlu had done eight years. They said I was not wanted again after accusing me of flogging a Reverend Father. They made some people wear fake Catholic Priest cassocks and took them to Abuja to say that Christians in the state didn’t want me to return. But the question is, assuming without conceding that I committed such an ‘unpardonable’ offence, why didn’t they rally round any other candidate from my zone Okigwe to ensure that power remained there in order to complete eight years for the zone.

For the 2011 election, we had other candidates from Okigwe zone. Why didn’t the Owerri people back one of them since I was not wanted. When they were confronted with the arguments that it would be better to have Okigwe complete another four years and hand over to Owerri in 2015,they claimed that Okorocha, who is a Catholic, had sworn before the Blessed Sacrament that he will do only one term and hand over to a fellow from Owerri zone. So, as far as they were concerned, Owerri zone will lose nothing, provided I was gone. But what happened in the end? Didn’t Okorocha renege? Those who came up with that self-serving reasoning are the ones to be held responsible for the collapse of the charter of equity.Even though I was being vilified, I warned then that it would be impossible for Okorocha or indeed any fellow angling for power in our society to live by that promise. But my voice was drowned.

The Catholic faithful in the Owerri Catholic Archdiocese went into frenzy. The priests in the diocese organized what they called Black Mass during which every parishioner that attended wore black attire and they matched through the streets of Owerri abusing me. In the end, not only did Okorocha renege on his promise to do only one term and hand over in 2015, by 2019, he brought another fellow from the same Orlu zone that had held power for a total of 16 years out of 20 to take over from him, to the total consternation of everybody and there was political pandemonium.

Were you vindicated?

Of course, I was vindicated. The false accusation against me was demolished by one of the instruments they used to propagate it, Reverend Father Mbaka, who came out openly two years after that episode to say that I did not flog any Reverend Father. Remember that they used him to wax a record of which they printed over five million copies and distributed all over the country. But Father Mbaka came out boldly about two years after to say that there was nothing like that. Well, I have put all that behind me to come out once more to work for the well-being of the good people of Imo State. My message to our people, especiallyin Okigwe and Owerri zones, is that it will take only a sitting governor, acting responsibly as Udenwa did, for power to move to either of the zones. The fact that the sitting governor is Uzodimma is a matter of accident and I have no doubt in my mind that he will act responsibly.

Do you see Governor Uzodimma’s re-election as a fait accompli?

There is nothing like fait accompli in an election but I support his bid whole heartedly and he has tremendous support from the people across the state. Apart from the imperatives of the Charter of Equity as I have tried to explain, he has done quite creditably well, especially in the area of infrastructural development and the people are quite happy with that. He has not gotten everything right but he has crossed the learning curve.

Does that make him the best?

I have looked at the entire gamut of challenges our state and its people are facing currently and I have come to the inescapable conclusion that Uzodimma is our best bet for Imo Eleven-Eleven. I am not asking the other candidates to withdraw but what I am saying to the generality of our people is that if we want equity in power sharing to work in our dear state, Governor Uzodimma should be allowed to complete his statutorily allowed eight years as a strategic sacrifice so that at the end, he will, like Udenwa, superintend over a smooth shift of power to another zone. In the life of a people, four years is nothing. I believe that we can make that sacrifice while looking at the bigger picture. I am appealing especially to our youths not to allow any individual, group or section of the state to cut short our collective dream in pursuit of their own self-serving interest.

Talking about the youth, don’t you think that many of them have lost interest in elections in Nigeria going by what happened at the 2023 general elections?

So, who will bell the cat if the youths throw in the towel? Is it the elders? I agree that things are not going as expected especially for the youth but losing interest in the affairs of the country or their states should be out of it.

I am personally full of sympathy for our youths and anybody who calls himself a leader today should feel very concerned over the plight of our young ones, principally on account of the acute shortage of job opportunities. But let me hasten to add that our youths, in Igbo land especially, should stop blaming Igbo leaders and elders for their plight. They should know that the unemployment scourge is a direct result of the flawed structure of the country as a whole which is not the making of Igbo elders or leaders. Our youths should rethink their strategy for getting the society to look into their problems. Youths from the beginning of mankind have always faced challenges. During wars, it is the youth that go to the battlefield. Some of us fought in the Nigerian civil war even as teenagers. It was the youth that were sold into slavery. So, there has never been a time in history when things were so rosy for the young people.

In any case, you would agree with me that even in the face of the current challenges, a lot of young men and women have continued to excel; in the professions, in commerce, academia and what have you. So they should remain steadfast and refuse to be pushed into destroying what their elders and parents worked hard to build.

It is young people that look after the elderly. It is a taboo for the young to do things that cause difficulties to the elderly. When youths decide to enforce sit-at-home, for example, the ultimate victims are the elderly and children because sit-at-home prevents people from going out to earn their living and in the process take care of the elderly.

Having said that, let me state that it is also high time, we the elders, especially those in authority, changed our tactics and strategy for finding a lasting solution to the problems of the youth, particularly that of unemployment. The situation has become quite drastic and as such, the approach has to be drastic. More importantly, we must stop playing politics with the problems of the youth.

Is it really about Politics?

Yes, it is political and let me give you a practical example. Up till this moment, nobody has given an explanation as to why the ten thousand youths, mostly university graduates, that were absorbed into the state’s public service during my administration were dismissed by the one that came after. Even the Imo Rural Roads Maintenance Agency that employed thirty thousand youths to maintain our rural roads on daily basis, was scrapped. Could anything be more callous than that, especially when it is realized that most of the affected young men and women are still on the streets chasing non existing jobs. We played politics with that programme which enabled us to simultaneously rehabilitate and maintain rural roads in every part of the state, resulting in both political and social impact that amazed. Today, without that programme and without enough funding, our rural roads are being washed away by erosion. Those youths were also heavily deployed for our climate action programme which we christened Clean and Green Initiative.All the youths involved in that programme were also sacked. Even trees planted on some of our streets and major roads especially in Owerri, the state capital, were uprooted by officials of the succeeding administration. Now, tell me, was all that not politics? (Daily Sun)