I am fully in support of Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha, two-term Governor of Imo State; the “landlord” of the All Progressives Congress (APC) not only in Imo State, but in the entire South East; the flamboyant Chairman of Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), comprising all governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), that the governorship ticket of the APC in Imo State necessarily belongs to no other person than his son-in-law, Ugwumba Uche Nwosu, much less to an outsider, Senator Hope Uzodinma, the “Abuja politician”, who was a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), until recently when he resigned from the party and joined the APC.
Governor Rochas Okorocha, no doubt, is the “owner” of APC in Imo State. He founded the party in the state, and laboured very hard for it. Why, therefore, would he not be allowed to reap the fruit of his labour?
As far as we are concerned the gubernatorial ticket of APC in Imo State belongs to his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, failing which, Okorocha would rock the boat. Where was Senator Hope Uzodinma when Rochas Okorocha was in the trenches fighting to establish APC in the state?
It was Owelle Rochas Okorocha that led a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to team up with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), to form the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2014. The party later went ahead to wrestle political power from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015, after 16 years of misrule. Where was Senator Hope Uzodinma at that time? Was he not with the PDP, enjoying himself? Now, he wants to reap where he did not sow. Nonsense.
In any case, how did some people even begin to decide who gets what in APC in Imo State without going through the man who made the party what it is today in the South East, the man who succeeded in entrenching APC in the heart of almost every South Easterner, the man who made APC become a household name in the area, the man without who President Buhari’s hope of capturing the South East in 2019 would be a mirage – Owelle Rochas Anayo Okorocha?
We all know and believe that without Rochas Okorocha there would have been no APC in Imo State, and indeed, the entire South East. That is why the man should not have been disturbed, but allowed unfettered access to whatever he wants in APC, otherwise our dear President would not make it in the South East in next year’s election, because it is Okorocha that holds the key to Buhari’s electoral victory in the entire South East.
Why therefore should we begrudge Okorocha when the All Progressives Congress (APC) asked its members nationwide to select candidates who would fly the party’s flag in next year’s general elections, and the man decided to appropriate almost everything to himself? Since the first law of nature is self preservation, Okorocha is absolutely right when he penciled down his name to go to Senate, his son-in-law to take over from him as Governor after he might have spent eight years in that office; another of his son-in-law to become the running mate to the governorship candidate, while his own wife will go to the House of Representatives.
It does not matter that currently, Governor Okorocha’s younger sister is a serving commissioner in his cabinet, with the portfolio of Commissioner for Happiness and Couple Fulfilment, while another of his in law is a Federal Minister.
In other words, by 2019, we would be having Okorocha’s son-in-law as the Governor of Imo State; another of his son-in-law, as the Deputy Governor; Okorocha himself as Senator; and his wife as Member of Federal House of Representatives. If we go down further, one of Okorocha’s daughter would take over from her mother as the First Lady of Imo State, while the other daughter would be Deputy First Lady as wife of the Deputy Governor.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with this arrangement. It would be an interesting scenario, a very wonderful dynasty. Why then should Hope Uzodinma and his cohorts come to spoil this game plan? Why have they become jealous of Okorocha becoming our own Jagaban of the South East, dictating what happens in the area?
Why did Hope Uzodinma and his group align with forces outside the South East – Ahmed Gulak; the man who conducted the controversial APC governorship primary election, Adams Oshiomole, the APC National Chairman; Asiwaju Bola Tinibu, APC National Leader; and even President Muhammadu Buhari, to destabilize Okorocha’s plans and deflate his ego and kill his arrogance?
Tunibu, for sure, would never want anybody in the APC to rival him, least of all, Rochas Okorocha who claims to be everything in the party and in the process aims at establishing a dynasty in Imo State. That was why they used Adams Oshiomole and Ahmed Gulak to deal with him.
We are indeed not happy that after Owelle Rochas Okorocha had laboured so hard to build the APC house in Imo State, Hope Uzodinma came from nowhere to occupy the house, even trying to eject the landlord himself. That is the irony of life.
