THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA: IGBO'S SPEAK

The Igbo Conversational Group (ICG) wishes to, first and foremost, congratulate Nigerians for the successful conduct of the presidential and national assembly election held on March 28, 2015. ICG wishes to place on record the high sense of patriotism and maturity displayed by Nigerians across the country during the election.
ICG also commends the leaders of the different political parties for maintaining decorum and shunning precipitate acts. We enjoin all stakeholders to look forward to the remaining plank of the general election with great optimism and remain steadfast in their determination to uphold the collective integrity of our dear country, Nigeria
THE PRESIDENT-ELECT
ICG congratulates the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari GCFR and the All Progressives Congress (APC). We further thank the President-elect for sending a delegation led by Professor Pat Utomi, to our conversation meeting in Enugu on the 21st of March 2015, a few days before the presidential election in spite of his very busy schedule.
Agreed that conceding to demands made at the eve of an election is a common trait among politicians, it needs no exaggeration to state that the President–elect is a politician of a rare mould. We have no doubt in our minds, whatsoever, that, going by his antecedents, the President-elect was under no pressure in agreeing to look into the plight of the Igbo. Needless to say, we firmly believe that he will live up to his promises and go ahead to offer the Igbo a much needed leverage that will enable them fully tap their enormous individual and collective potentials, as canvassed by ICG in our previous statements.
In spite of the imperatives and nuances of electoral contest, the ICG expects the President-elect to be magnanimous in victory. He should take immediate and practical steps to allay all the fears hitherto held about his personality and every allegation of a fixated mind over some sections of the country. And because the entire country is his constituency, no part should be seen as an underdog. Above all, he must consult deeply and widely and be a good listener.
As against what was bandied during the campaigns, wisdom comes with age and as such Nigerians expect to reap from the Buhari presidency all the benefits that are accrue to a people when a fellow who has been schooled in wisdom and maturity mounts the saddle.
In Buhari, Nigeria expect to have her own Lee Quan Yu (Singapore), Gen. Park Chung-Lee (South Korea) and Deng Xiaoping (1904 -1997) China. The President-elect is mounting the saddle when the country has just entered into a deep economic crisis. With our oil no longer attractive to the rest of the world, it needs no exaggeration to state that the new leadership must be creative and assertive in fashioning out a new blueprint for national economic revival.
MATTERS OF URGENCY
Without prejudice to the existing manifesto of his party, ICG believes that there already exists a concise agenda that the President-elect must as a matter of urgency pursue in order to return the country to the path of sanity, equity, justice and rule of law. As it concerns Ndi Igbo, this priority agenda should include but not limited to:
(i) Boko Haram Insurgency:
It is needless to dwell in any details on the Boko Haram insurgency since the President-elect had even before his election assured Nigerians that Boko Haram will be a thing of the past as soon as he is elected. ICG believes he has what it takes to live up to expectations in this regard so that Ndi Igbo can go back to their businesses in the affected areas having lost over $7b.
(ii) Reviving the Economy:
On the economy, the ICG believes that the issues are so fundamental to warrant mere pontifications. What ICG expects the incoming administration to do will be to pursue a line of action that will include inputs from knowledgeable Nigerians irrespective of partisan inclination.
(iii) Addressing Injustice To The Igbo:
The ICG in a widely advertised statement in several national dailies, especially ThisDay, the Daily Sun and The Nation of Thursday 19th March, 2015 highlighted several issues which we wanted the presidential candidates to address.
As indicated earlier in this statement, the President-elect had in an interactive session with Ndi Igbo including a delegation of ICG resource persons, agreed to make these issues one of the priorities of his administration. For emphasis, however, we represent below an abridged version of the issues concerned.
(1) ELECTRICITY
Aba Integrated Power Project
In 2005, the Federal Government under President Obasanjo concessioned the Aba metropolis to the investors of this 141MW plant in Aba as a security for financing the project. The then President convinced many Igbo investors who rushed and set up various plants/factories on the understanding that this power plant will see the light of the day.
The plant was completed by M/S Geometric Consortium with state-of-the-art equipment from General Electric (GE) with an investment of over N100b since 15 months ago.
Unfortunately M/S BPE went ahead to double concession the same zone. The plant cannot take off. The investors are crying, unemployed youths are crying, Igbos are crying. This conspiracy and injustice must be addressed by the in-coming administration as soon as possible.
(2) ADDITIONAL TWO STATES
This issue was dealt with elaborately in the earlier statement by ICG and needs no emphasis here. Happily, it is one of the issues the President-elect promised to look into during his interaction with Ndi Igbo in Onitsha.
(3) ABANDONED PROPERTY
Over 85% of property belonging to Ndi Igbo in Rivers State, remain classified as abandoned property 45 years after the end of the civil war. The Igbo demands that the incoming administration should look into this matter as a top priority and bring to a closure this festering wound which remains an embarrassment to Nigeria. Under no circumstance should it be acceptable that the property of a Nigerian citizen is called abandoned property in any part of the federation. The ICG calls on the in-coming federal government to review this injustice as a matter of urgency.
(4) SECOND NIGER BRIDGE
The ICG has earlier noted that the decision of the federal government to prosecute the second Niger Bridge project on a private-public sector (PPP) arrangement is against the interest of Ndi Igbo. We urge the in-coming government to review this immediately. The second Niger Bridge is the only project under the N400 billion national intervention project of 2005 that is being handled as a PPP arrangement. In the alternative, we demand that South-east share of the intervention project be channeled to the development of Osemoto seaport.
(5) THE OSEMOTO SEA PORT
We wish to seize this opportunity to restate our demand that the federal government should as a matter of urgency revitalize the proposed sea port in Osemoto, Imo state.
> Osemoto (Oguta LGA, Imo State) and Oseakwa (Ihiala LGA, Anambra State) is the deepest natural harbour in Nigeria and will offer real naval and marine transportation platforms if developed.
Most interestingly the ADB report shows that it lies only 18 nautical miles to Atlantic Ocean and will be a strategic hub for oil and gas industry and inland dry docking to promote trade and create employment. Above all, it open the Igbo land to the sea.
In addition, it will open up more than 3,000 square kilometers of the most fertile agricultural land that has one of the highest alluvial deposits which has been in existence for well over a million years.
The Osemoto deep sea port and all the associated industry will create well over two million jobs for our teeming unemployed youths.
(6) GENERAL ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE
The ICG demands that in addition to the immediate rehabilitation of all federal roads in the Southeast with high economic value, we would like the Buhari administration to complete the Otuocha-Mmiata-Kogi Road. This road is less than 150km and will knock off about 3 hours from every journey from the South-east to Abuja. This road was awarded to Nigercat in 2009 under President Shehu Musa Yar’Adua administration but curiously the Federal Government has not shown any interest in completing this project of high economic value to Ndi Igbo.
IGBO IN THE NEW DISPENSATION
The outcome of the 2015 presidential election has introduced a new vista to Igbo politics. Without any exaggerations, Ndigbo stand to benefit immensely from the change that has just taken place, in the sense that the new era will re-define Igbo politics more positively. Presidential power may become less accessible to Ndi Igbo but the current state of affairs offers an opportunity for a new and purposeful leadership to emerge in Igbo land.
This new leadership must be people who will have the guts and intellectual capacity to become a credible opposition to the new dispensation if need be. In the new dispensation, politics of money and contract will have no place and in this regard, ICG is of the firm belief that the Igbo will be the biggest beneficiaries.
Consequently, the ICG, calls on Igbo youth to see the opportunity offered by the current development in the country to be more proactive and begin to think of ways of ridding Igbo land of the near zero intellectual content in its politics. Igbo youths should seize the present opportunity to come to the fore front on the fight against injustice to the Igbo.
PRESIDENT GOODLUCK JONATHAN
ICG commends President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan GCFR for his comportment and deep sense of accomodation. Nigerians will forever remember him for steadfastly upholding democratic ethics and allowing space for every player.
President Jonathan came to power when the nation was in a big quagmire and it is to his credit that the country had a smooth transition following the sudden demise of his predecessor, the late President Umaru, Yar’Adua. We salute him for his courage in conceding defeat while asking that he should remain available for the country to tap from his experience.
INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC)
The ICG is satisfied with the outcome of the presidential election and urge Nigerians to accept the result. ICG wishes to congratulate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for being able to overcome the initial challenges to give the country a credible election at the end.
IGBO IN THE DIASPORA
ICG commends Ndigbo residing outside Igbo land especially in the North part of Nigeria for seeing the wisdom in keying into the movement that gave rise to what we are witnessing today. By that singular act, they have created a conducive atmosphere for preserving the age long tie between them and their fellow compatriots in the North and the Southwest. Contrary to the picture painted during the campaigns, Ndigbo have shown that they have no issues with General Buhari or with their brothers up North.
ICG expects that in the days ahead, the symbiotic relationship that exists between the Igbo residing outside Igbo land and their hosts will become even more mutually beneficial. ICG commends Igbo politicians and members of the intelligentsia who supported and worked towards the Buhari project. We commend patriotic Nigerians in other parts of the country, especially the South-west led by the indefatigable Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (Governor Lagos State 1999 – 2007) who saw the wisdom in the alliance that gave rise to the present moment.
GENERAL
We congratulate General Muhammadu Buhari GCFR once more. We know that as a leader whose transparent lifestyle and synchronicity between words and deeds are so eloquent that the last campaign couldn’t sink his reputation.
Igbo Conversational Group (ICG) believes that the new era can become the foundation of Nigeria’s march into a secured future of prosperity and political stability.
While pledging to give the President-elect all necessary support, the ICG will employ every legitimate means to ensure that the Igbo are no longer however denied access to the common patrimony. We pledge to engage all the relevant authorities constructively with an abiding faith in the unity and overall economic prosperity of the country at large.
THIS IS THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA.
Long Live Igbo!
Long Live Nigeria!
Long Live Democracy!
Signed for and on behalf of:
IGBO CONVERSATIONAL GROUP (ICG)
1. H.E. Dr. Ikedi Ohakim
(Chief Convener)
2. Nze Chidi Duru
3. His Lordship Bishop Blaise Iwuogo
4. Barrister (Dr.) Chike F. Maduekwe

BUHARI'S VICTORY: SAFEGUARDING THE IGBO INTEREST

The Igbos used to be one of the most formidable of the tripod that held Nigeria together, and to a large extent decided its fate. But unfolding political dynamics make it obvious that the Igbos are fast losing grip of their hallowed place in Nigeria's political equation. Chief Ikedi Ohakim foresaw what happened today, at least several months ago. He made every effort to ensure that the Igbo interest is well protected within the outgoing PDP government led by President Goodluck Jonathan and his entreaties were rebuffed by those who feel they own Goodluck Jonathan more than Nigeria owns him.
Some weeks ago, Ikedi Ohakim went public with his concerns over the chances of Jonathan's re-election and charged the President to ensure that he does the needful to ensure that most of the leaders of the Party who are aggrieved are made to return to the Party. In an article he titled; OBASANJO: WHAT HAPPENED?, the former Governor of Imo State decried the high level mistakes by the Party leadership which made it possible for the Party to lose some of its most valuable leaders across the Federation, culminating in the public shredding of Obasanjo's PDP membership card, which he likened to a father tearing his child's birth certificate, which can be interpreted as the father repudiating the child. Ohakim called the President and the Party leadership's attention to the reality that a handsome amount of PDP leaders have torn their own Party cards in the privacy of their bedrooms, the huge deficit in votes which President Jonathan suffered in most PDP ruled States confirmed this.
When Ohakim's efforts at salvaging his Party's fortunes were rebuffed, he discarded his partisanship like Obasanjo and began to look for ways to ensure that the Igbos extracted the best deals possible for the emerging political leadership in Nigeria. While not a tribal Lord, Ohakim was disturbed by the obvious retrenchment of the Igbos in Nigerian politics of the day. He forgot about being a member of any political Party and concerned himself with fighting for equity for the Igbo nation. He understood that Nigeria can only survive if all the groups within the country are treated fairly.
His decision to convene the Igbo Conversational Group attracted some flak from those who did not care about the Igbo interest but were and are still more concerned about their personal interests. When Ohakim released a document which was titled 2015 AND THE IGBO QUESTION: AGWO NO NA AKIRIKA, he called attention to the glaring injustices and marginalization which the Igbo ethnic group and especially the Southeast region suffered under the Goodluck Jonathan administration, notwithstanding the massive support which the Igbos have given the President and the Peoples Democratic Party, since its inception in 1998. Ohakim spearheaded an unprecedented mobilization of the Igbos to ask the right questions before throwing their support behind any of the presidential candidates. He reminded the Igbos that politics is all about negotiations and bargains and not blind followership. The reality is that, President Goodluck Jonathan took the support of Ndi Igbo for granted, and we needed to let him understand that. Ohakim gave him an opportunity to correct that, but he kept dragging his feet till it became too late.
Instead of taking up the points raised by the Igbo Conversational Group based on its merits or otherwise, some acclaimed PDP leaders from the Southeast and elsewhere started a hate campaign against Ohakim, accusing him of anti-party activities and even making moves to suspend him from the PDP. In response to their concerns, Ohakim made it clear to them that he is first an Igbo man before becoming a PDP member, hence, he has to advance the Igbo interest beyond that of the Party. He made it clear to all who cared to listen that he can stop being a member of the PDP, but will never cease being an Igbo man.
It is to Ohakim's credit that the Igbo nation will not be completely relegated in the unfolding scheme of things. Without any of the Igbo States producing an APC Senator, the chances of an Igbo Senate presidency is ruled out and the reality that there is no ranking legislator of Igbo extraction who won election into the House of Representatives also blurs the chances of an Igbo becoming the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The deputy Senate presidency and deputy speakers positions which the Igbos had in their kitty have also eluded us. What then, shall the Igbo's get in the coming federal government? A situation where the Igbos will fail to take any sensitive position within the federal government will be very disastrous to our political survival as a people. If we do not get a sensitive political position, we can at least ensure that we get good infrastructural allocations. If the coming federal government picks up that Ohakim document in which he pointed out the several areas where the Igbos are being shortchanged and addresses those concerns, then, our complaints can be less.
By Onwuasoanya Fcc Jones

REFUTAL OF ALLEGED BEATING OF BARR. LADY CHIOMA OHAKIM,mni TO COMA BY HER HUSBAND.

 

My attention has been drawn to some wicked and malicious reports against my person and unity of my family purporting that my husband, the immediate past Governor of Imo State, His Excellency, Dr Ikedi Ohakim(KSC) "beat me until I went into coma with serious body injuries", sometime last week in Abuja 

I Barr Chioma Ohakim, mni, Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria and the Principal Partner at PCO Legal Consulting Abuja. Lady of St. Christopher and Chairman Nigerian A

gricultural Insurance Corporation(NAIC) hereby state unequivocally as follows that:

1. I have been happily married for thirty-four (34) years plus to my darling husband with five grown up children and by God's grace we are grandparents. None of our children lives with us.

2. At no time, years back and even now did any such incident (of beating) happen, because His Excellency Dr. Ikedi Ohakim is not a violent man even to enemies.

3. I never at anytime queried my husband over any purported sale of property because he did not sell any property anywhere, anytime and for whatever reason. I hereby challenge anyone who believes otherwise to publish the number and address of the said purported sold property that led to the beating.

4.The story is concocted lies aimed at causing disaffection against my family in the eyes of the public.

5.  For the avoidance of doubt my husband, Dr Ohakim did not, has not, and will never attack me physically. It never happened and by the grace of God will never happen. 

6. My husband is not a man given to violence, if anything, his greatest strength which sometimes could be painful, is his civility. He is a gentleman personified, God-fearing, humane, and a bridge-builder. 

7. I am taking pains to explain this because I cherish and respect him for his matured ways of handling issues no matter whose ox is gored and also for the fact that this negative strategy was heavily deployed by agents of Satan to cause disaffection for my husband and I against the public even when we were in government.

8.Since we left office in May 2011, we have busied ourselves with our family,careers and philanthropic responsibilities. 

9. It is also not true that I have been in coma as a result of such alleged beatings and neither was I flown abroad for treatment. Interestingly, I have not stepped outside the shores of Nigeria since October 2014. You can peruse my International Passport to confirm. 

10. Let me use this platform to appeal to all lovers of family and godly values to disregard such malicious reports. They are propagated by people who hate peace, love and family values. People who are intimidated by our modest achievements and rising profile. Hence they are hell-bent on concocting wickedness just to make us go under! BUT OUR GOD IS ALIVE.

11. As a wife and mother, I appeal to the media to please cross check every information before publishing to avoid being socked into unnecessary litigation. You must resist being used as instruments of destroying decades of hardwork and commitment to sound moral-values by my family. 

12. Our politics in Imo state is gradually going out of gear. Politics of issues is gradually giving way to politics of both character & physical assassination. People are becoming too desperate. These must be condemned by all well-meaning people including men of God.

13. This time around we will not sit-by and allow nonentities destroy our reputation as they did while we were busy serving the state.

14. From now on any person or group of persons or media outfit who publishes or cause to be published any false or negative material against my person or any member of my family, apart from meeting us in court, will have himself or herself to blame.

SIGNED 

CHIOMA OHAKIM,mni (BARR. LADY)

 FEB.12TH, 2015

THE BLIND BARTIMAEUS GOVERNMENT IN IMO STATE

Top of Form

 KENNETH UWADI WROTE:

The fate of millions of hungry looking, mal-nourished and oppressed Imolites will be decided soon as Imo prepares to go to the poll in 2015. It is clear that for Imo to be better again we must kick out the fat-cat Governor of Imo State Chief Rochas Okorocha in 2015. Okorocha has grown fat and sleek by preying on the hardship he imposed on the masses. In an immoral manner, this wicked, godless, notorious and dangerous fat-cat has looted Imo treasury dry and arrogantly displays the loot on AIT and Channels TV before the eyes of the very people he has stolen from.

This fat-cat, who sometime ago was owing banks in Nigeria here and there has overnight mutated to become stinking rich and stands before the very people he has skinned to become affluent and boast of his prosperity. He and his thieving cabals even have the guts to call us never do wells and tell us that we were born to be “hewers of wood and carriers of water” and that it is criminal for us Imo youths to aspire to get a civil service job in Imo. After sacking 10,000 Imo civil servants he turned round to offer Imo youths casual labour. Casual labour is it not a crime against humanity?

This governor connived with Joseph Dino of Jpros Limited and stole Imo tax payers N1.3 billion naira. He also connived with Joss Marinlopez-pepe and stole Imo tax payers N3.5 billion. Look at his puffy cheek; look at his thick neck and disgorging stomach. That is our 132 billion naira LGA funds and our 16 billion naira ISOPADEC monies that he has swallowed. He claimed to be building twenty seven (27) general Hospitals.The cost of the Hospitals is put at 20 Billion naira. He claims to be constructing 15 Kilometres of road in the 27 L.G.A’s, the contract fees paid to contractors without job being done. He has destroyed our LGA’s, destroyed our town unions and made our youths jobless.

Yes, Imo has been suffering in the hands of this wicked, clueless, visionless, godless, unprincipled, callous and diabolical demagogue. This “virtue miss road” have a hidden agenda of imposing perpetual hardship on the Imo masses in order to reduce them to a position of servitude so that he might once more have the opportunity to dictate to us on the type of life we should live, thereby ridicule us and the rest of Imo. That is why he recently boasted that APC will rule Imo for 20 years.

This Governor sold Government owned companies to himself via his brothers and relatives in the guise of lease such as ITC ,Adapalm, Concorde and Imo Municipal transport company. He used his son in-law Uche Nwosu, the commissioner for Lands to acquire peoples land in the guise of development. He sold 90% of Government vehicles to his business partners in the North there by making Government appointees to use their private cars to do Government job. He has put Imolites into bondage by secretly borrowing billions of naira from banks in Nigeria and abroad.

Okorocha has grown so desperate that he can kill to come back to power in 2015. He is now going after all those that are telling him to stop looting Imo . He wants to crush them all. He has found out that the heavy inducement he doles out to newspapers and television to advertise fake projects is yielding dwindling results so he is terribly mad with those who are exposing his lies and impunity. His desperation is getting deadly by the day. He is going about threatening, brutalizing and persecuting his opponents and all those that disapprove of his tenure.

So many persons have expressed fears on some threatening messages they have received. The latest report is that of his former Aide and popular entertainer Mr Uche Ogbuagu who reported threats to his life and that of his family members. He said he received threat phone calls from Aides to governor Okorocha. His callers told him to drop his intention of releasing his new album that is against Okorocha or face the music. Ogbuagu insisted that the governor should be held responsible if anything happens to him or any member of his family.

For me , I have been insistent and trenchant in accusing Okorocha of stealing Imo monies and no coherent response has been forthcoming from his camp. Instead, Okorocha is plotting on visiting raw anger on me. He has been looking for me to put me in jail. He put Activist Iwuoha and his wife in jail since June 2014 to prevent him from exposing some documents against his government in this electioneering periods, documents showing how they looted our monies. He knows I have the same documents so he wants me in jail like Samuelson Iwuoha. He wants to frame me up as he did to Samuelson. Even Vigilante members in my community have been instructed to report me to the nearest police station once they see me. Professor Nathan Uzoma Protus spoke against him and assassins visited him.

Yes, Okorocha , like the pigs in “Animal Farm” has joined the club of “Consumers” who feed fat on the toil and sweat of the producers. He is sitting on top of Mount Olympus with his fellow oppressors to arrogantly look Imolites to the face and tell them to go to hell. But Imolites will soon prove to them that If you buy suya, you must be given pepper.

Because he suddenly found himself in power, he allowed himself to be eaten up by power. He deemed Imo state treasury as free fund to loot, buy and bribe newspaper houses , editors and TV stations to write and broadcast flattering reports about himself. He deemed himself as the best thing that had happened to Imo State and urged the hordes of sycophants he recruited into his government to sing his praises. For close to four years now he has being on sponsoring spree; sponsoring awards, sponsoring lectures, sponsoring public shows and sponsoring articles and features that were all devoted to celebrating himself, telling us lies upon lies while he and his cronies made a huge feast of the resources of Imo State.

This thieving governor awarded warehouse to Aba road contract to Jpros through Chief Okey Nwosu his brother in-law, at whopping sum of N1.3 billion for a road that is less than 3km and the N1.3 paid full in advance, which led to the blackmail and subsequent impeachment of Jude Agbaso. This thief stole our N400 million flood money. He squandered 45 billion naira loan he secured from Zenith Bank with the allocation of the 27 local government of Imo as collateral. He sold IROMA trucks and equipment to himself. The trucks are valued at 12.5 Billion naira. He claimed to have spent 4billion naira on school Uniforms, Sandals and Canvas to students, whereas only few schools and students in urban area benefited from it. For more than three years now his fake free education programme has been running in AIT and Channels TV. Free education of which 80% admission in IMSU is given to non-indigenes while 20% to Imo students. Primary 1 to Jss 3 education is funded by the Federal Government while the billions claimed to be spent on free education is a scam. Please google 114 reasons why Rochas Okorocha must go to read more.

There is only one option for Imolites if we want to regain control of our sanity and leave a brighter future for our children and generation yet unborn. The option is to kick Rochas out. We have long passed the era of negotiation. We have reached the point of no return. Reasoning with the APC Government led by “danger boy Okorocha who is riding a bicycle without brakes down a slope” has never worked and will never work now. The APC under Okorocha has never kept a single of all the agreements it has entered into with numerous stakeholders. In short, the APC has no focus and credibility. Imolites cannot become blind and continue to be led by a Bartimaeus. We do not know where we will head to if Bartimaeus wins again in 2015. Only Heaven knows. Even our Bartimaeus of a leader, surrounded by quacks, liars, rapists and traitors does not know his destination in 2015. But this blind journey whose beginning in 2011 was based on deceit must stop in May 2015. We say NO to this government of thieves.

-Kenneth Uwadi, Mmahu-Egbema,Imo State, Nigeria

OKOROCHA IS IN A WRONG PARTY, THE WRONG TIME AND AT THE WRONG PLACE

First, let me most sincerely start by apologizing to all of you who missed the BIG TRUTH last week. I missed in action last week and I am really sorry for that. It was as a result of a certain circumstance that came up which was beyond my control. Meanwhile, I received torrential calls from a large spectrum of the fans of this column enquiring why I couldn’t writ last week. Some were even funny to have insinuated or expressed a very serious suspicion which may not be necessary to say here but I however assured and reassured them that what they thought was far from the reality. There were few others who called to find out whether if I am actually healthy or not. I appreciate your concern but the truth of the matter is that I am hale and hearty. It is just that I had an urgent assignment that unexpectedly took me out of the state, occupied my time and thus couldn’t allow me the benefit of time to really settle down to write. So I am sorry for that break in transmission last week. It was not deliberate. I also thank you for staying tuned. So let’s now take this flight together.

Actually, the theme of this week’s sermon wasn’t the package I initially had in mind. I decided to talk about it based on the same views expressed by the erstwhile Governor of Abia state Chief Orji Uzor Kalu in his interview at the daily Sun Newspaper of Thursday 18^th September 2014 concerning our Governor Rochas Okorocha. After reading through that, I got interested and aligned myself with his postulations. I now decided to add my voice to it not that my views would change the already difficult situation but at least for the interest of posterity.

Now, I was among those who did not receive the news of Governor Okorocha’s defection to APC with hysterics that it generated at the formation of the party last year August. In fact, I knew then that the Ogborko Ideato South born politician who said he was born an Igbo, grew up in the North and empowered by the West had made a monumental political mistake. I knew he had taken the wrong route in his political voyage. All the reasons he adduced then being his reason (s) for leaving APGA that is generally seen as an Igbo party fell flat before they were given and did not convince the lest discerning. However, after a thorough consideration of the peculiarities of Igbo politics visa viz that political miscalculation, you will recall that I quickly came up that time with an Article titled “APC DEAD ON ARRIVAL IN IMO”. I had advised the Governor to immediately revise himself to his former party APGA. Or even his former former party (PDP) or his former former former party (AA) before it is too late since he is an expert in this type of politics of abandonment as I felt that would lessen the unnecessary and avoidable controversy and hatred majority of the people of South East had on APC. He ignored that altruistic advice but now, I know this basic reality had downed on him. Since that time, he was said to have made a futile effort to rejoin PDP but was blocked though he had consistently denied it.  Recently, he also was alleged to have opened channel of discussion with the national Chairman of another political party for an accommodation in that party in order to prosecute his 2015 election perhaps just to run away from the APC stigma and curry the favour of his friend President Jonathan who has sworn never to have anything to do with any body in APC.

In any case, I do not want to be seen as crying more than the bereaved but why some of us keep drumming it in the ear of the Governor of this obvious political blunder is just for him to know that it is not always good to be inconsistent with membership of political parties and also we want to be counted as those who once told the Governor the unadulterated truth about the likely thing that will happen very soon. Otherwise, what is my business whether the Governor joins 10 political parties in one year or not. After all, he is already a Governor enjoying the dividend of his office and of course acquiring properties here and there.

APC as a political party, I keep saying it is not adequately penetrating in the South East over one year since its formation. A lot of impressions are being created around APC whether real or imaginary is what I cannot fathom and a lot of people are buying into it. And that might be the reason why it is only Governor Rochas Okorocha and also it is only in Imo state that the party APC is being heard with some degree of noise in the entire length and breath of the five South Eastern states. Equally, this may be the reason why some people are feeling concerned why our Governor is wasting his time and Imo money trying to propagate the party in Imo state. All efforts he made in the past to take APC to other sister state in the South East met brick wall. Right now, they said Governor Okorocha is giving or plans to give one million naira each to all the 36 state in the country every month for a reason I don’t know my brothers and sisters.

However, this is about the first and the only time since the history of the formation of political party in Nigeria that a party is formed and over one year later, almost all the leaders of Igbo nation are avoiding the party like a leaper. I stand to be corrected. In Enugu, Ebonyi and Abia states, I am yet to hear of any notable political leader in those states that is member of APC. In Ananbra state, it is only Senator Ngige that is a ‘notable’ leader who is a member of APC. Senator Annie Okonkwo has long left the party. In Imo state, Governor Rochas Okorocha and Senator Osita Izunaso are the only two commanders with fair whether followers. Honestly, I don’t know who put the Governor in this temptation of abandoning APGA, the only party that gave him his first ever electoral victory after many futile attempts in other parties. It is just a matter of few months now for him to begin to appreciate the facts which I am laboring myself to express here.

As a result of this lack of political insight, the Governor inadvertently, secured for himself some avoidable enemies immediately he dumped APGA and moved over to APC in the name of being the foundation member of the party. Right now, he has the president who, no doubt was greatly instrumental in his enthronement as Governor in 2011 to contend with in 2015. In addition, he also has his arch, original and highest opposition PDP to contend with in 2015. Also, his aggrieved former party APGA members who he left on the cold are threatening fire and brick stone, the political elites that he sidelined in the affairs of the state since he became Governor are all there and he has them  to contend with in his bid to return in 2015. Another group that he is not in their good book as a result f his membership of APC is his colleagues, all the Governors of South East. There is no single Governor from the South East that is Governor Okorocha’s friend and that is why he is always absent in their meetings. He is literally at war with Abia state Governor T.A Orji. Governor Willy Obiano inherited the sour relationship that existed between Okorocha and his benefactor and former Governor of Anambra state Chief Peter Obi. I don’t know whether he see eye ball to eye ball with Martin Elechi of Ebonyi and Sullevan Chime of Enugu states. So this is dangerous politically. What about the Anambra mafians like Arthur Eze, Emeka Offor, Ifeanyi Ubah etc who all came here in Imo state and assisted him in becoming Governor in 2011 but who are today his political enemies as a result of his membership of APC?.  This is just to mention but a few. So, I think bearing any future occurrence, when the chips are down as it will soon, the Imo state Governor will be fighting from all fronts.

Out of his usual showmanship, the Governor of this Eastern heartland lobbied and he was made the Chairman of APC Governors’ forum which is now showcasing him as leading the main opposition against his friend President Jonathan even when he knows the enormous constitutional powers of the president and also knows that the Governorship election would come two weeks after that of the president. Do you know what that means? Let those who have sense reason. If I were him, I should have stayed put in APGA and support the president for the sake of his position in 2015. Ca he fight all these array of political titans in Imo state in 2015? Well, maybe he has the magical wand. It is possible but no doubt, the Imo state Governor Owelle Rochas Okorocha is in a wrong party given the political peculiarities of the Igbo nation and also given the long drawn battle between PDP and APC. I don’t think that Owelle Ideator needs to belong to a party that is antagonistic of the president because of the titanic political war he is going to face in next year’s election in Imo state having been surrounded by political enemies. Let him learn something from Peter Obi. A lot of people are not happy with his administration while there are many who seem to be with him now because of the lucre that comes from the government but are only waiting for the time of election. Ladies and gentlemen, there is fire on the mountain.

Anyway, for now this is about the size of our message for today. Until next week when I come your way same time, same medium, please keep partnering with this exposition in our commitment to allow TRUTH triumph over falsehood. And hopefully, it is only the same truth that will set us free. Ka Chineke mezie Okwu.

By Modestus Nwamkpa