Rochas Okorocha Is Not My Leader, Not My President

BY KENNETH UWADI

Rochas Okorocha

Vultures are evil birds that are always available, and are at their best, nodding their ugly heads in sadistic happiness, only when the news is about death, decay and the resultant availability of flesh. Former Governor of Imo State and the Senator representing Imo West Senatorial District, Rochas Okorocha on Monday 31st January 2022 formally declared his intention to run for president in the 2023 general election. Okorocha announced his ambition at an event held at the ICC in Abuja. He said he remains the best leader to unite and bring Nigeria together. He said he was the most qualified of all the aspirants jostling for the exalted office of Presidency, going by his antecedents in social empowerment investment across all the six geo-political zones of the country. For me the gathering at the ICC Abuja by Rochas Okorocha and his cohorts is the gathering of the vultures.

The essence of any leadership position is to use one’s experience to work for the good of the overall majority, to create enabling environment for the survival and development of a just and balance society, a society devoid of rancour and unwholesome practices, a society that is free of corruption and bigotries, a society that is built on trust and sincerity of purpose and indeed, a society where ethnic and religious differences does not matter. A leader of any type ought to be honest, truthful, reliable and steadfast. And if we need a good leader for Nigeria in 2023, then Rochas Okorocha is not my Leader and not my President.

It is sad to observe that this former governor of Imo that caused severe havoc to the State’s socio-economic and political advancement and made the State to be walking on crutches, that amputated the state by his corruption, mismanagement and inefficiency is the one staging a press conference in Abuja and declaring his desire to extend his evil, havoc and heavy devastation to the entire Nigeria. May God save Nigeria from vultures in positions of leadership planted by the descendants of Serpents in alliance with some negative internal forces feeding fat on the flesh of the people. Some so-called leaders are worse than vultures; they feed only on living human flesh. They mercilessly corner the resources meant for the development of the entire society for themselves, their families and friends, while the helpless poor masses are left to waste away, dying needlessly of hunger, avoidable diseases and extreme suffering.

These shameless and empty leaders are ruled by extreme greed, short sightedness, deep folly, Corruption and other base considerations like tribe and religion. They lack the knowledge, foresight, patriotism, tact and diplomacy needed to build a modern, organized society. They have become totally besotted by extreme luxury and other paraphernalia of office. They enjoy using the best industrial products of the developed world and like moving about in their fine/well planned cities, but would never think of replicating the good things they use, see or observe in these places in their own societies. Yet, Nigeria is well, if not better, endowed with all the relevant natural resources than some so-called developed world. Okorocha is not my Leader, not my President, I abhor corruption! It deprives the world of resources needed for common good or greater good for all Nigerians. Because Nigeria is dear to my heart and because Nigeria is where my heart is, the mention of Nigeria and corruption in the same sentence riles and agitates me inordinately.

My President in 2023 must possess the ability to think on his or her feet, in addition to possessing local knowledge of Nigeria’s many ethnic regions and their peculiar problems. He must be a good team player, communicator and strategic planner, capable of influencing international opinion through a well orchestrated programme of economic diplomacy. He must have a sound knowledge of the workings of the oil sector, and must be committed to a programme of opening up and creating other revenue streams for the country, especially from the agricultural, steel and other neglected sectors. My President must have on top of his or her agenda the provision of basic social amenities for Nigerians, the rebuilding of dilapidated infrastructure, reduction of poverty as well as the improvement of the quality of life of Nigerians. He must make it possible for Nigerians to experience the true dividends of democracy.My president must have a university degree. He should be able to carry all Nigerians along in the formulation and implementation of government policies. My President must not have previous cases or allegations of corruption against him. He should be willing to demonstrate a track record of selfless service, either from years of working in the private or public sectors. He must not have a background in profligacy and dalliance. He must be a morally and ethically upright personality who should also function as a role model to Nigerians.

Mama Roz’s Chronicles: Kidnap, A Widow’s Tale

BY ROZ AMECHI

Emenike Ihekwaba. Image: Twitter

Kidnapping has become an all too familiar evil in our society today and was at some point a way of life in the Eastern part of Nigeria. Many victims made it home safely but sadly some didn’t. Chy’s story takes us through the tragic pain and trauma this experience causes to the family and friends of the victims.

Chy’s Story

When Chy and Emenike met in June 1987, it was love at first sight. In fact, he proposed to her on that first day and she, mesmerised with this tall, handsome and debonair fellow, quickly accepted. They got married a year later on the 29th of October 1988. Like most marriages, the early days were pure bliss but as the years passed, things began to go sour. Her husband kept late nights, drinking with his friends much to her annoyance and irritation. Chy responded by joining the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International (FGBMFI) who taught her how to pray for her husband and marriage. It worked. He gave his life to Christ and joined the FGBMFI rising swiftly to the position of Chapter President. Chy was ecstatic. Her marriage “became new” again, they spoke the same language and their children were happy. Their home had turned into an enviable Christian home and they prayed that they would eventually age and enjoy their grandchildren together. Unfortunately, that was not meant to be.

In the first week of August 2012, the couple sent their children on holiday to the US. Emenike, having risen to the position of Permanent Secretary of the Imo state government, had formed the habit of holidaying abroad with his wife and children. They visited the United Kingdom and the United States as frequently as they could. This year was no different and they had sent the children ahead with the plan that Emenike would join them two weeks later. A week to his travel date, his boss, the Deputy Governor of the state, asked him to postpone his trip as he wanted to travel and the two of them could not be out at the same time so he shifted his dates two more weeks ahead.

On Sunday 26th of August, they had been invited to two events. One was in Mbano for the thanksgiving service of a priest whose ordination they had been unable to attend and the second was a child dedication service in their home church, St Paul’s in Nkwerre. They decided to attend both. Leaving home at 8am, they attended the Mbano service and left at 12 noon for Nkwerre. As they usually did, they stopped briefly at Amaraku market to buy goat meat for Emenike’s favourite pepper soup.

Chy waited in the car whilst Emenike went into the market to buy the meat. It wasn’t long before he returned, with the meat seller who was carrying the meat, to the car. He opened the front door, put the meat in and then went to the back to open the door, when an SUV stopped dramatically in front of their car, blocking their exit route. It all happened so fast. Three hefty young lads in black wearing bullet proof vests with the words “Police” on the front, alighted from the car. Chy was puzzled. She could not imagine what they could have done wrong to justify this aggressive approach and she asked them “what did we do?’. No one answered her. One came towards her door whilst the other two went directly to her husband.

Emenike figured immediately that these were not real policemen and he shouted “Chy run!”. She didn’t need to hear anything else. As if transported by an unseen force, she ducked under the arm of the man by her door and started running. She hadn’t taken two steps before they started shooting. She thought they were shooting at her but she didn’t stop. She just kept running as her husband had told her to. Everyone in the market started running too. There were some women conducting their August meeting nearby, they ran too. It was complete pandemonium. As she ran, her headtie, outer wrapper, bag and slippers all fell but Chy kept running. She saw an open door and went inside. There were people there. She was trembling and her heart was pounding. She didn’t know where Emenike was and she was terrified. After about 15 minutes the shooting stopped and people went back outside again. She asked where the man she was with was, and they told her he had been taken in the boot of the robbers’ car. Hearing that, her heart sank, she fell to the ground and started weeping. Her nightmare had just begun.

A little boy came and gave her back her bag. She looked into their car. Her husband’s phones and wallet were still there. These were clearly not armed robbers so she wondered what their mission really was. Why did they come for Emenike? It also turned out that they didn’t actually shoot at anyone. They just shot at the tyres of all the cars on the street to make sure that no one came after them. A couple of real policemen appeared from nowhere and started interrogating her until one of the bystanders stopped them. “Can’t you see the state she is in? please leave her” he said. They let her go and she returned to Owerri without her husband.

Chy called her brother-in-law who was attending the event in Nkwerre. He went to the scene of the incident. The driver who had also run, had now reappeared and was taken to the police station but a call came from Government House asking the police to release him and the vehicle. So now, all they could do was sit and wait for the kidnappers to make contact. Chy went to the bank and withdrew all her savings. Then she called friends, relatives and colleagues asking them to donate what they could. She wanted to have enough money ready for the kidnappers. She was quite hopeful.

As she sat and waited, she remembered a similar experience she had with her eldest son four years before. It was in September 2009 and armed robbers had come to their house. They took her 14-year-old son and kept him in the bush for 8 days. During that time, she did not eat or sleep a wink. She just sat and prayed; but after they paid one million Naira, she got her son back. She was convinced that the same would happen with Emenike. They would ask for money; she would pay and then he would come home. She never expected things to turn out the way they did.

The kidnappers did not call till the fifth day and when they did, they asked for N50m. Negotiations started at that point. No one had that kind of money and even though he was a government official, the government offered no assistance. It took two weeks, back and forth, and then finally they were given 48 hours to produce N10m. Chy had managed to collect N6m so they had to find the balance. The kidnappers also wanted 3 bottles of Hennessey. They sent instructions about where the money should be dropped off. Chy stared at the GMG bag of money when they finally managed to collect it all. She had never seen so much cash in her life. N10m in cash! She hadn’t even seen N1m. They had strict instructions not to involve the police and they obeyed. The money was taken to them at the drop off spot. Two men on a motor bike appeared and collected the money and her brother-in-law was told to go to Obinze barracks to pick up her husband.

Finally, it was all over. Success at last. They all rejoiced when her brother-in-law called and said he had been given a location. They arranged a clinic for him to go for a check-up. Chy cooked his favourite fish pepper soup with agidi. He was to be picked at 12 noon so by that time, everything was ready and they waited.

At 6pm her brother-in law called to say that he was still waiting and Emenike had not come. Chy was crushed and confused. She couldn’t process that information. Looking back, she remembers that day as the worst day of her life. She had waited for her husband to return from the kidnapper’s den but he never did. Eventually they asked her brother-in-law to come home. It was really all over but it had ended so horribly. They all started wailing. This was not the end they had expected. This could not possibly be the end. But Emenike never came home and Chy never saw her beloved Emy again.

Years passed but her agony did not diminish. She kept wishing and longing to see Emenike; his smiling face and his comforting arms. Every day even now, she looks out for him thinking that by some miracle, he will walk through the door. If he had died, she would have buried him and moved on but this situation offers no closure. The pain, trauma and agony are unimaginable but she has learnt to live with them.

Chy did all she could. She wrote petitions to the First Lady, Dame Patience and her Senator, Chris Anyanwu who contacted the Commissioner of Police but nothing came of it. She paid for policemen to come to Imo state with trackers from Port Harcourt but the required government support was not forthcoming and eventually they left, taking with them all the hope she had.

She suffered from high blood pressure, low blood pressure and heart palpitations but her mother ever by her side, was her rock. She stood by her all those years. She made her strong and taught her how to carry on in spite of all the odds. She herself had also lost her husband when she was only 44 and had buried her son who was to become a reverend father but she overcame those challenges and now encouraged her daughter to do the same.

At the time of the incident none of Chy’s children had graduated but she had to counsel them and tell them they must succeed so that when their father comes home, he would be proud of them. After 7 years she was advised to perform a burial ceremony in his honour. She did that in 2020 and erected a tomb.

Her four children have all graduated now. Her two daughters are married and she has five grandchildren whom Emenike has never seen. Her mother passed away in September 2021 and has since been buried.

In 2014, Emenike turned 60 and was due for retirement. Chy was asked to apply for his benefits and she did, but nothing was paid. She is still pleading with the Imo state government to consider her case and pay the benefits to give her and her children some much needed respite. She is hoping that someone will read this and be moved to reach out to the Imo state government on her behalf.

The Needless Media War Between Okorocha And Ihedioha

BY FRED W. OPARA

The spate of tirade of abuse and antagonism between the immediate past governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, and his successor and former Deputy Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, was re-enacted during the assemblage of Igbo leaders of thought and other national leaders in the recent Ahiajoku outing. It reached a damning crescendo when the Imo State Chairman of the Recovery of Government Properties Committee, was allegedly assaulted in the course of duty by supporters loyal to the former governor at his Spibatt Avenue residence, in Owerri. Still in their usual characteristics, the abysmal handling of the imbroglio by the special advisers on media of the duo left much to be desired. The adversarial nature of the conflict which has resulted in growing polarity between their teeming supporters since the coming to power of Ihedioha’s government is traceable to the penchant to bellicosity than approaches to good public relations and crisis management by their special advisers on media.

It is quite unfortunate that most political special advisers on media in Nigeria share the same pedigree with Adolf Hitler’s minister of popular enlightenment and propaganda, Paul Joseph Goebbels, (1897-1945), with their firm grips over the press during and after their principal’s exit from power. It is on record that Hitler’s virulent anti-Semitism stance and World War II atrocities and wickedness in Europe was Goebbels’ irresponsible and malevolent public relations recipe. In trying to defend the indefensible, most public relations practitioners smear unfavourable, indelible, vitriolic publicity not only on themselves but also on the very personality, product or service they are paid to propagate.

It appears that Okorocha and his indefatigable media adviser have succeeded in taking the war of attrition to Ihedioha and his government. The grand ploy is to use the media to advance his cause as a gudgeon of political victimization and vendetta. It should be rightly emphasized that there is nothing wrong for a government that succeeded Okorocha to demand for eight years report on his stewardship in the State he imperiously held sway as a monarch. In exercising his executive authority, the Civil Service, Agencies and Departments of the State were virtually grounded. As a matter of deliberate policy and grand design to short-circuit governmental apparatuses, he failed to carry the bureaucrats along. He claimed to have given Owerri Municipality a facelift, just one out of the 27 Local Governments in a crude oil revenue-earning State. What other good report is he showcasing for the remaining 26 LGAs of the State in terms of Rural Development, Industrialisation, Science and Technology, Youth empowerment and employment, etcetera?

In his style of political administration, even the Legislature was an inconsequential arm of government and he spared no effort in making the elected representatives of the people a ridiculous bunch in the enviable annals of a State known for her robust legislative history. Throughout the duration of his government, he left no one in doubt that members of his cabinet who constituted the executive arm of government were merely used as political pawns in order to give it a semblance of altruistic leadership. In a State providently blessed with world class technocrats and the intelligentsia, it is ignobly on record that executive functions were either performed by his children, son-in-law, and siblings or by himself. For complete eight years, Imo State was governed by arrant guesswork. There was no conceivable Blue Print for its sustainable development. Obviously, where there was no clear-cut planning, it would be Herculean preparing a handover note to a successor since executive portfolios existed notionally. Suffice it to say that every yardstick in the indices of socioeconomic development such as youth employment, rural development, care for the aged through prompt payment of gratuity and pensions, full engagement of the factors of production, qualitative healthcare delivery system, inflow of Foreign Direct Investments, etcetera, were conspicuously non-existent. Even the much touted free education policy which was one of the basic pivots on which his Rescue Mission government was pillared ended up being a monumental failure for lack of qualitative ingredients for its diligent prosecution and sustainability. In Okorocha’s model of free education, unlike that of Lagos State Government where it is working perfectly, the teaching component, being a critical factor in the superlative actualisation of the laudable idea were starved of motivation which is intrinsic to pedagogy thus resulting in the obvious disconnect in the teacher and student relationship.

In the practice of Public Relations, the piper does not dictate the tune and if it is not premised on truth and integrity is bound to backfire. The negative multiplier effect is to the detriment of both the practitioner and his principal. Goebbels and his wife in trying to keep faith with Hitler based on transparent falsehood, took their own lives after poisoning their six innocent children. World War II ended with Hitler committing suicide with his wife, Eva Braun. The watchword of a good public relations practitioner is the adoption of a wide variety of techniques in presenting his employer in a favourable light to the public based on integrity and the absence of which he is very much obliged to throw in his towel for good. Good name is by far better than silver and gold.

A good public relations practitioner with political media advisory portfolio aptly shapes public opinion on major political and social issues with insistence on his principal to be on the side of the people through the provision of democracy dividends. He is not only the eyes and ears of his principal, but also the stand-alone pressure group of the people for the holistic benefit of the stakeholders in the polity. Muckraking in public relations which is exactly the role being played by advisers on media gulps resources. Agencies investigating public office holders in the country should extend same to their muckrakers because to say that they operate on deep pockets is an understatement.

It is quite unfortunate that most public relations team cum special advisers on media for majority of public office holders fail to educate them on the need to make straight their way in their stint as helmsmen eyeing political relevance and elevation.

Opara writes from Lagos