When Owelle Rochas Anayochukwu Okorocha entered the Nigerian political scene, he did not take many people by surprise. He has been around for several years with his Rochas Foundation with which he believed he had sufficiently sold himself to millions of Nigerians.
As such, Okorocha started big by running for the highest office in the land – the Presidency. At first, he flirted with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but when the PDP did not give him the ticket, he left and joined the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). Again, the ANPP failed him.
Okorocha was undaunted. He did not give up. He began to strategise. He then decided to start from the base, and from there build himself upwards. Accordingly, he came out for the governorship of Imo State, and joined the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to actualise his ambition.
At first, it looked like an uphill task, to defeat an incumbent. But he was determined, and with his already established goodwill, his charisma, and oratory, he defeated Ikedi Ohakim to clinch the governorship of Imo State.
Many Imolites were overjoyed. They were happy and saw his emergence as dawn of a new era. They began to celebrate the man and to look up to him for miracles, to transform Imo State and turn it into an el dorado.
Okorocha was a clever politician. He started by driving away many Imo State elites, to alienate them from the scheme of things. With his sweet mouth, he was also to easily hoodwink many ordinary people of the state, to make them believe that he was their saviour, while he busied himself, along with his family members and cronies, to corner their resouces.
At the same time, Okorocha began to build for himself a political dynasty. He got one of his in-laws appointed a Minister by the Federal Government, a son-in-law, his Chief of Staff, a sister, Commissioner, while every other member of his Cabinet was related to him one way or the other.
Okorocha also jettisioned APGA, the political party that brought him to power, to pitch tent with the newly formed All Progressives Congress (APC). He was boastful, and claimed that he had the entire Igbo nation in his pocket, and that they would soon join him in the APC.
With intrigues and subterfuge, he succeeded in manoeuvring his way to become Chairman of Progressives Governors’ Forum. This entered into his head and he began to brag, to grow wings, and to see himself to be on top of the world.
Okorocha drew both national and international attentiion to Imo State when he started to mould all sorts of people, which he mounted at strategic places in the state.
Then, came preparations for the 2019 elections, Okorocha began to warm up for the exercise. Since he was running out his constitutionally allowed eight years tenure, he set his eyes on going to Senate. There, he would contest the Senate Presidency, preparatory to 2023 when he would eventually run for the President of the country. That was a very lofty ambition.
At the same time, he began to position his son-in-law to succeed him as governor of Imo State, so that he would cover his tracks of whatever sins or infractions he might have committed.
Unfortunately, Okorocha was blind to the fact that not many among his own political party members were enthusiastic about his future political plans. He did not know that there were some powerful forces who were planning and determined to deal with him, to cut him to size, and to teach him some bitter lessons he would never forget in life.
Thus, while the APC allowed him to pursue his senatorial ambition on its platform, they swore never to give his son-in-law ticket for governorship. In desperation, Okorocha pushed the man to another political party where he easily picked its gubernatorial ticket.
But they were all exercise in futility as the same forces were still after him. Even though Okorocha had defied his party (which later suspended him for anti-party activitties), to campaign for his son-in-law in another political party, he still lost on both sides.
While his son-in-law was outrightly defeated in the gubernatorial election, Okorocha himself also lost his senatorial ambition, since INEC has refused to issue him with certificate of returns, claiming that the declaration of his purported election by the returning officer was done “under duress”.
Thus, for now, that is the end of Okorocha’s future political plans – to be Senator, to be Senate President, and to be President of Nigeria in 2023. Man proposes, but God disposes.
