Rochas Okorocha, the governor of Imo State, is by every benchmark a political mutant. He has been in and out of different political parties at dizzying frequency; just the way a chameleon changes colour to suit its circumstance and environment. He is one governor, perhaps the only one, who is more popular by his first name and does not mind if he is so addressed. He loves to hug the headlines too. A gifted public speaker (his strength), he has deplored the art of persuasion to good use. He connects easily with people by simply mounting the soapbox. He has a reputation for coining words easily rather than grope for the next word. This makes him a smooth talker, a flawless speaker.
Rochas as a political animal is a curious study in dissimulation. One moment, he is a presidential pretender, the next moment he is a governorship contender. He has such grace, morphing from presidential pillar to governorship post. Between the pillar and the post, Rochas does other things: he runs a humanitarian foundation and owns businesses, some of which are not really flourishing in the real sense of that word. His liaison with the Nigerian Red Cross Society tells of a man who has a heart for philanthropy. But that is not my grouse about this man that goes by the title ‘Owelle’.
My worry is about his style of governance. Without public office, Rochas manifested the attributes of a man who loved his people. He worked his way to their hearts and stayed there. His name was on every lip in Imo State before he became governor. In those days, you could hear the man on the street extol his virtues and romanticize of a day that Rochas would have the mandate he had desperately sought for so that the people would rejoice. Rochas was seen as the man who would make Imo great again after the productive era of Sam Mbakwe, a man whose silhouette still stands tall among the people of Imo State on account of his sterling accomplishments while in office.
Today, over four years in the saddle as governor, the same cannot be said of Rochas. The same people who luxuriated of a Rochas government that would come and wipe away their tears are wondering what hit them. The same people now have more reasons to cry a river. Rochas is running a government of make-believe; a government of deception and tomfoolery; a government of billboards and fraudulent claims. The man from Ideato has turned governance to a joke; a circus of sort.
A few samplers here: Rochas’ billboards say ‘pensions paid…a promise kept’, but in reality pensions are not paid. Pensioners in Imo are languishing. Another billboard tells of Imo as a clean state. No need to debate this: just take a tour of Owerri from Douglas to Wetheral and Imo stands out as one huge dumpsite with stomach-swooning noxious stench. And yet, another billboard shows off computer-generated smooth roads as one of the trophies the Owelle likes to trot out. But remember, it’s just a billboard; the reality points to the opposite. In Imo State, there are no roads. The people’s governor is adept at grand deception. Once, he got into a frenzy of ‘development’ by grading most of the roads in the state including roads in the hinterland but it was all make-believe. The projects stopped at grading, a foundational step in road construction. The rains came and washed off the red earth and returned the roads to what they have always been: erosion paths. But even this won’t bother this ‘man of the people’.
Try taking a trip from Owerri to Port Harcourt via the Owerri-Port Harcourt axis: horrendous horror. Ordinarily we need not berate Rochas because this is a federal road but the road links two states: Rivers and Imo. The Rivers State end of the road had been tarred by the former governor of that state, Rotimi Amaechi. He did so because whether federal or state road, the users are chiefly his people. But Rochas is not bothered about the wellbeing of Imo people. That road and many others in Imo including state roads and roads to the hinterland have remained in bad shape, unsafe at any speed. Channels TV recently exposed the seedy side of Imo roads. The TV footages of roads in the state were ugly and dreary. The few roads that Rochas did were never completed. They were shoddily done and in a matter of months, they have gone bad again.
A government of make-believe does not construct roads of enduring standard. Recently, the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, was billed to attend August Meeting, the popular but vanity-laced yearly conference of women in Imo (even this all-women show has its own good share of billboards). Knowing that the road leading to the venue of the event was a path to hell, Rochas quickly ‘fixed’ the road. The job was done overnight to give the impression that all was well. Barely one month after the event, the road has gone decrepit, rough and puckered with ditches and craters. That’s the Rochas way: doing things just to deceive.
In the midst of all this, Rochas still makes light the serious business of governance. He has added another item to his long list of make-believes. This time, he has stumbled on a new pastime: touring the world in search of foreign investors. Just last week, he jetted out to Turkey in search of these investors. And he did it with pomp: with a 100-man delegation. This means the state government would charter an aircraft for this very ‘critical’ assignment. No serious governor would go looking for foreign investors with a 100-man delegation and no serious investor would put his or her money in a state where there are no roads and where security (kidnapping, armed robbery and ritual killing) assail the people. This is simple logic; but logic does not make sense to a journeyman, especially one steeped on the path of self-delusion. This is the second time he is doing so in less than one year: scouring the world in a jamboree of frivolity in the guise of wooing investors.
Somebody should tell Rochas to stay home and keep his house in order. Imo badly needs a makeover but Rochas does not seem to care. Like a colleague would say, Imo people have entered a ‘one chance’ bus with Rochas, and the journey is harrowingly far.
- Author: KEN UGBECHIE; First published in Sun newspaper.
Recently, Rochas Okorocha appointed the 27 law makers in the Imo State House of Assembly as the sole Administrators of the 27 Local Governments in the State. The law makers are now the Chief Executives of the LGAs. A terrific interpretation of the concept of separation of powers. Rochas is the godfather of make belief – pensions are paid without gratuity which is either owed indefinitely or confiscated by the Owelle. My auntie is owed pension arrears of 31 months, the recent breach has added another 8 months to the arrears, and no one has yet mentioned the gratuity after 4 years of retirement. Unfortunately, our people will continue to suffer until they learn to elect men of integrity into office.