Following the dramatic changes in the political fortunes of the various gladiators in the ongoing power tussle within the Imo State chapter of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Dare Odufowokan, Assistant Editor, examines the immediate and future consequences of the outcomes of the elective ward and local government congresses held across the state recently.
BEFORE now, Governor Rochas Okorocha bestrode the political firmament of his homes state of Imo like a colossus. To many within and outside the Southeastern state, he was not just like any other governor in the country, he was more of an Emperor-governor who has his people where he wants them politically. According to Erastus Mike-Merah, an Owerri-based pro-democracy rights campaigner, it was a common parlance in the state to say ‘Imo is Okorocha and Okorocha is Imo.”
But all that was before the commencement of the just concluded congresses of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state. It started like a rude joke when news started filtering in that the ‘Allied Forces’, the new coalition of individuals and groups opposed to the governor’s administration in the state, may have found a way to floor Okorocha’s Rescue Mission camp finally.
The news generated heated debate as supporters of the governor swore he was unbeatable and that the membership of the much talked about Allied Forces in the state is not strong enough politically to grab the structure of the ruling party from the firm hold of the governor. This was just as those with sympathy for the opposition vowed that Okorocha will have no answer to the political gimmick to be employed against him by those seeking his political retirement in 2019.
The argument raged back and forth. “It was actually a moment of serious apprehension for the people of Imo State. Even people with little or no interest in politics got interested in what was going on. Talks about a possible demystification of Okorocha wasn’t something anybody within the state will ignore. That was how larger than life he was among his people,” Mike-Merah said.
However, by the time the dust raised by the ward and local government congresses of the party in Owelle Okorocha’s state cleared, there was little or no doubt left that he has been politically curtailed by the Allied Forces group given the outcome of the two congresses and the unexpected inability of the governor to get help from neither the national leadership of his party nor the presidency during what many pundits have come to term as the political battle of his life.
“Governor Okorocha today is fighting for his political future. Those opposed to his politicos and style are doing everything possible to frustrate his plans for 2019. That is actually what is playing out. It is not really a crisis within the ruling party here in Imo State. It is a power tussle between two prominent groups within the party namely the Governor’s Rescue Mission camp and the opposition Allied Forces. Largely, members of the party are mere onlookers and will align with the winners as usual.
“The struggle is about who governs Imo from 2019. The struggle is about whether Okorocha should go from Government House to the senate in 2019. The struggle is about who should call the shots within the ruling APC henceforth. It is a battle that has pitched Okorocha against some of the leading lights of politics in the state including the National Organising Secretary of the APC, Senator Osita Izunaso.
“The governor, in his bid to retain what many observers within and outside the ruling APC have described as ‘absolute control’ of the party, has also, by his own submissions on many occasions, declared that he is at war with serving Senators Hope Uzodimma and Ben Uwajumogu, APC governorship aspirant, Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, as well as former Governors Ikedi Ohakim and Achike Udenwa. That is the true state of things in Imo State,” Mike-Merah explained.
Going into oblivion?
So humbling were the outcome of the APC congresses in the state for the Rescue Mission camp that leaders of the ruling party on Thursday warned that Okorocha risks being suspended or expelled from the party if he continues with what they described as “activities capable of destabilizing the party ahead of the 2019 general elections.”
But his supporters say some ‘mischievous’ politicians are merely exaggerating the events of the past two weeks in the state to gain political mileage. According to Okey Apugo, a former state official of the Progressives Peoples Alliance (PPA) in Imo, “the coalition of Okorocha haters calling themselves Allied Forces in Imo today are not capable of subduing the political influence of the governor in the nearest future.
“Imo politics is not just about what some people rush to the television or newspaper to tell the public. We know our leaders and these jesters calling themselves Allied Forces are not among them. The only reason for their coming together is to take over Imo state again and rip us off as they’ve done in the past. We know them and we will always reject them. Okorocha will come out of this current blackmail and backstabbing stronger,” he added.
On the contrary, prominent leaders of the party insist that they have made Okorocha politically irrelevant in the state following his inability to manipulate the party congresses in his favour this time. They said they are not after the governor but are determined to rescue the party from imminent collapse in the state. Okorocha, according to them, was leading the APC to electoral defeat in the state and something needed to be done.
Dr. Theo Ekechi, former Information Commissioner in the state and one of the leading lights of the Allied Forces, while speaking after a close-door meeting with the APC national leadership on Thursday in Abuja, said the stakeholders had overwhelming evidences against Okorocha. This, he said, had made it impossible for the governor to get attention from any quarter in the state and in the South-East region.
“There have been wide jubilation in Imo because we have rescued the party from Okorocha, we have made it impossible for him to get help from anywhere. He cannot run to any political figure in the state because none is with him, he cannot approach any clergyman in the state. In his desperation, he ran to Sokoto, Daura and even to the Vice President, but help has refused to come,” he said.
Asked by The Nation to explain where himself and other prominent stakeholders in the party are determined to hijack the APC from Okorocha ahead f the 2019 elections, Ekechi, while saying nobody except the governor, is interested in hijacking or pocketing the party in the state, said Rochas’ actions and inaction was responsible for the problems facing the party in the state and the South-East generally.
Beyond intra-party politics, Ekechi alleged that the state was being mismanaged under Okorocha, adding that the governor was running the state like a personal estate. He said it was for these reasons and many more that concerned Imo elders rose up to help the APC before things get out of hand. “And everybody who cares to tell the governor to check himself automatically become and enemy of his administration,” he added.
More trouble from Abuja
And rather than offer the embattled Governor some respite from its national headquarter, the APC, through its National Working Committee (NWC) added to Okorocha’s headache when it warned the governor against transferring the frustration emanating from his mismanaged relationship with his people on the party’s national leadership. It was so bad that the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, accused the Imo helmsman of being malicious.
“With due respect, Governor Okorocha is being malicious and unfair to the NWC. If he has mismanaged his relationship with his own people, in a way that they now constitute an encumbrance to him, he should not transfer his frustration to the NWC. It is certainly not right to set fire to the village because you want to kill a rat. If Okorocha has any specific grievances, he should come forward with them rather than making this generalised accusations,” Abdullahi said.
The NWC was reacting to an earlier threat by Okorocha to expose some NWC members. The governor had accused the APC national chairman of lying, adding that “this means the party lied that they have gotten the result. Everything there looks funny, it looks like some kind of mischievous connivance of people trying to make up things, cook up stories and tell people that this is how I lie.” He further accused the NWC of conducting the congresses for themselves rather than ensuring the promotion of the party.
Okorocha alleged that as a result of the vested interest of the NWC in the congresses, the whole process have been messed up. “The secretary of the appeal panel came to the national secretariat and she was interviewed where she said there was no congress in Imo State, adding that there was even no material not to talk about congress being held. She stated that those who submitted the result sheet should tell the security agencies how they conducted the congress and got the result sheet.
“I see the chairman as a man of integrity, and he must be very careful not to allow this Imo State matter remove his integrity in this country, because as he’s aging, he should not to allow this to dent his political image as history would not write well about him. For him to come out publicly to tell the world that there was congress when there was no congress and that he has received result sheet when they have not seen result sheet, that is not good for our party.”
But Abuja based lawyer, Anthony Chyma, says the NWC was unfair in its treatment of Okorocha’s complaints and called on the party to retrace its steps. He said Abdullahi’s statement was most uncharitable considering the contribution of Okorocha to the APC. “As a publicity secretary of the party, he should have come by way of amenable statement and not aggravating the situation. Okorocha, is the current governor and has all the information on issues bedevilling the party.”
According to him, Okorocha’s claim that no ward congress held in the state was vindicated by the Police which recently paraded four suspects arrested in an Abuja hotel for allegedly stealing APC congress materials meant for the state. He said investigation also revealed a link to a serving Senator from Imo State being part of the plot to cart away ward congress results sheets, LGA results sheets and delegates nomination forms from Imo State.
“It amounts to bias to castigate the governor in such a manner and leave the party open to unnecessary bashing. It does not speak well of the office of the national publicity secretary and generally the entire party. It’s shocking to hear the image maker of the APC resort to tarnishing the image which he should be protecting. His bias as a national officer is tantamount to hard sell,” he said.
How Okorocha fell
Just before the commencement of the congresses, Okorocha had boldly told those opposed to him to perish the thought of taking over the party from him. The governor, aside other issues, drew the ire of many of his party chieftains following indications that he plans to install his son in-law, Uche Nwosu, as his successor come 2019. Not a few APC chieftains in the state have publicly rejected the idea. But Okorocha has been boasting that he will have his way effortlessly.
At the initial stage, it appeared as if the Governor has the support of the state leadership of the party in his plot to install Nwosu. Of course, the House of Assembly was tacitly part of the move, and he flaunted their loyalty at will. But a face-off between Okorocha and APC state chairman, Hillary Eke, over the hosting of first Imo APC stakeholders’ meeting in Owerri, the state capital, last month, exposed the crack Okorocha’s political family.
Consequently, the governor and most of his loyalists, including members of the state assembly and commissioners, boycotted the stakeholders’ meeting just as the state leadership of the party decided to discontinue all political alliances with the governor’s camp. Expectedly, tension rose and the ground was prepared for a political showdown between Okorocha’s Rescue Mission group and the then emerging Allied Forces group.
“That Okorocha lost the support of Hillary Eke and most of the other state officials of the party was a costly error. That was the beginning of what we are seeing today. He mismanaged his relationship with them as many of them accused him of being rude and uncouth in his manners towards them. The state chairman, according to sources tried to avoid the rift, but Okorocha was overconfident in his handling of their complaints before the bubble burst,” Mike-Merah said.
A governorship aspirant, Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, added that “all well-meaning citizens” in Imo State are in agreement to stop Okorocha from further destroying the state. “From the political class to the academic, from professionals to the clergy, the traditional institutions and even artisans in Imo State are in agreement, beyond partisan, sectional, religious and cultural boundaries to stop Okorocha from further destroying the state economically, politically, amd culturally.
“In the last couple of months, Governor Okorocha has been raining abuses on every political leader of note in the state, including his predecessors, dead or alive. It is worth pointing out that by his statement, the governor has admitted that he is at war with the entire political class in the state. For instance, his inclusion of his two immediate predecessors, Governors Ikedi Ohakim and Achike Udenwa, as being members of a certain coalition that intends to distract him is a clear demonstration of this.
“Added to this is the fact that he is at loggerheads with his deputy and the two senators in his party. It was perhaps for want of proper language that the governor resorted to the use of the word coalition. But even a fresh man in a political science class knows that the word coalition is a clear misnomer in the present circumstances in Imo State.” Political observers say Okorocha, unknowingly or carelessly, bit more than he could chew by fighting too many political titans at the same time.
“How on earth will one politician in Imo State, even if he is the governor, engage in political battles with Ararume, Ohakim, Udenwa, Izunaso, Eke, Madumere, Uzodinma, Uwajumogu, Ekechi, Church leaders, royal fathers, youth groups and many other groups and individuals, at the same time barely a year to the next general election and expect to win them all? Not forgetting that he has the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its chieftains to grapple with,’ a party leader told The Nation.
The congresses
The above was the political scenario within the ruling APC in Imo State as at May 5, 2018, when the party held its congress in all the wards across the country. And by the time the exercise ended in the state, with the state leadership of the party declaring the congress successful, Okorocha had no choice but to raise alarm, alleging that materials especially the result sheets meant for the exercise could not be found.
The Governor alleged that the national organising secretary of the party, Osita Izunaso, and secretary of the convention committee, Senator Ben Uwajumogu, had connived with the chairman of the state congress committee, Ini Okorie, to hijack the congress materials, thus not allowing the exercise to hold as expected. But Eke and Uwajimogu stated that the Ward Congress in the state was conducted and concluded successfully and peacefully on Saturday, May 5, 2018, in the 305 wards of the state.
Sensing danger, Okorocha ran all the way to Daura in Katsina State to seek help from President Muhammadu Buhari. While there, he alleged that his opposition to the tenure elongation of the APC National Working Committee (NWC), might have irked Oyegun, leading to his attempt to frustrate and truncate his political future using the ongoing congresses of the party.
To further ensure that he got justice, the governor approached the appeal committee of the party, seeking the cancellation of the ward congress held in his state. But the committee, in its report dated May 10, said the governor lacked the locus standi to file any petition asking for a cancellation of the exercise because “the persons who would have the right to petition over the conduct of the ward congress elections are those qualified to contest the congress having purchased the forms.”
The Abubakar Tutare-led committee held that “the petitions were written by unqualified persons and therefore would be construed as lacking the locus standi/basis to bring in any petitions.” The report effectively put paid to all hopes of Okorocha’s camp getting its members elected as ward officials of the party in the state. Not to be deterred, the governor shifted his gaze to the local government congress held a week later.
But at the end of the process, he again lamented that the process was hijacked and manipulated to keep his supporters out of contention. While the state executive committee of the party once again declared the successful completion of the congress across the state, Okorocha and his men were left wondering where the votes were cast. Again, he accused the national leadership of the party of aiding and abetting those who want to end his political career.
“Let me intimate you of the happenings in my state. Only yesterday, I learnt of the party’s office gutted by fire. I think this is as a result of agitation or what has been happening in the state as a result of the purported congress which was meant to hold in the state last Saturday. I have informed the public that there was no congress whatsoever in Imo State, rather, the materials for the congress were missing and it was traced to the house of the APC National Organising Secretary of our party,” he lamented.
And at the time of filing in this report, the party in the state was preparing to hold its state congress where a new leadership will be elected to run the affairs of the party. This is an election Okorocha, according to his close aides, has dreamt of for so long. “He badly wanted Eke and his co-executives out of the state secretariat of the APC and he looked forward to booting them out at this state congress,” a party source said.
But it is obvious Okorocha will have no say when the decisions as to who will be elected into the new state executive committee of the APC in the state are taken. This is because not one of the elected delegates, who will decide the fates of the contestants, is from his embattled political family. The consequences of this political development, according to pundits, are huge and frightening, especially to the Rescue Mission group within Imo APC.
Still hopeful?
Meanwhile, Okorocha is still assuring his supporters that the NWC of the party will still look into the issues arising from the ward and local government congresses. In a recent statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, the governor said “with the unfolding scenario and incontrovertible evidences, Nigerians have seen that sensitive materials meant for ward congresses of the party in Imo were stolen, which stopped the exercise from taking place on Saturday, May 5, 2018.”
The governor alleged that the National Chairman of APC, Chief John Oyegun, had told Nigerians that the local government congresses of the party would be on hold, pending the outcome of the report of the Appeal Panel on Imo ward congresses. “And since that public statement by the national chairman, he has not made any additional statement to that effect or any other statement in the contrary. So, all the rumours being posted on the social media on the conduct of local government congress in the state are neither here nor there,” the statement said.
Similarly, lawmakers in the state have also assured the governor of their continued support for him in his current political travail. The Speaker, Acho Ihim, called on the national leadership of APC to reschedule ward and local government congress in the state. He said there was no election in the state as earlier reported, adding that the lawmakers were on the same page with Okorocha.
“The shenanigans that we saw last Saturday can never be taken for congresses and we are taking this very seriously. We are here to reconfirm the fact that there was no ward congress in Imo and to demand that an announcement be made for a new date for the ward and local government congresses. As such, we demand that a constituted statement and announcement be made about the congresses that did not hold, the new date should be announced,” he said.
The speaker, who led 23 other legislators from the state to a meeting with the national chairman of the party, said it was critical to revisit the congresses before talks on state congress could commence. He said that such talk would ensure peace and unity in the state. He, however, said that the governor had done so well, adding that there would not have been APC in the Southeast without him.
On the allegation that Okorocha wanted his son in-law as his successor, the speaker said “the governor as a person has his preferences, I have mine too and we all do, and as such, whoever you want to endorse, you can endorse. For me and the governor, we have endorsed Nwosu, his son in-law, but when the primaries come, Imo people will decide if it will be another candidate. It doesn’t imply that at the moment, you can’t do your own. Endorsement is not a special thing.”
As things stand currently, it is obvious that the last is yet to be heard about the political upheaval threatening the very essence of Okorocha’s life after office. And as pundits continue to ponder on the effects of the crisis on the electoral fortunes of the APC, not only in Imo State, but in the entire Southeast zone, the political gladiators, sadly, appear unwilling to sheath their swords just yet.