2015 Presidency: If I Were Rochas Okorocha

By Peter Claver Oparah
From the mouth of his deputy, Prince Eze Madumere, we heard that Imo
State Governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha is interested in contesting the
2015 presidential election. We heard that he might throw his hat into
the ring to challenge for the highest position in the land. To his
numerous admirers, especially those who have been hooked by the way
and manner he dusted the PDP; incumbency, fixers, godfathers, money,
intimidation, rigging and all in May 2011 to emerge Imo Governor, this
is cheering news. Yes, it is particularly cheery to those who insist
that Igbo have stayed so far away from the very vortex of power and
need to get to the highest position in the land to compensate for
their great role in building Nigeriadespite the fact that they
attempted to walk out in the early years of what is today seen as our
flag independence.
For those that have watched with admiration these past two years, as
Governor Okorocha records ground breaking achievements to rescue
Imofrom nearly thirty years of unmitigated decay, the decision to
engage in the 2015 presidential contest, remains a laudable move worth
their support. For most other Nigerians that have watched the way and
manner Rochas has steered the Imo ship of state and how he had been
navigating through the murky waters of Nigerian politics, his entry
into the presidential race will add more colour and verve to the staid
nature of the country's politics. Yet, toothers, his will sharpen the
cleavages,project the aces and delineate the factors surrounding our
national politics, especially as it concerns the state of Ndigbo in
the nation's political sphere..
Rochas is qualified to contest for the nation's presidency. He is
presently Imo State governor and he is not among those that emerged
through the deft twisting of the shambolic electoral process to favour
anointed sons. He is the opposite of what you will call the anointed
son-the discarded son, you might say.. He pulled his political self up
by his boot straps. In fact, he worked his bones out for his electoral
victory. He stood against the elements; battled pre-ordained
interests, weathered the Nigerian electoral tempest and mobilized the
people around him to achieve electoral victory. Literally speaking, he
was riding against the winds when he contested and won the
governorship election. He is a freespirit that is least encumbered by
the leash of godfathers. He is a man of his own world!
As a governor, he has put in a stellar performance to inscribe
indelible imprimaturs in the dour Imo landscape. In the last two
years, he has battled to tag alongside the immemorial Sam Mbakwe in
the scanty pages of Imo golden book. He has leveraged his rescue touch
mainly on such important sectors as infrastructure, education,
tourism, agriculture, health, rural development, community governance,
etc. He has fumigated the stench odour of rot and decay thatendured in
Imo prior to his coming such that Ndi Imo now see the possibilities
that exist in the state as well as the difference that could be made
from good intentions of the rulers of the state. For whatever it is
worth, all corners of the state are breathing his rescue airs as a
just reward for the Imo people's defiant resistance against the tanks
ranged against them in their insistence that their choice must count
in 2011.
So, to me, nothing infringes on Rochas from contesting for the top job
in the land. For his Ndigbo, it would even be a needed elixir to break
the curse of tagging as despicable hewers of wood and fetchers of
water for whoever is in power. Again, to most Igbo confederates,
Rochas gladdens by electing to depart from the unproductive paths of
the crop that now passes as the top deck of the Igbo political class
when he decided to jettison the cat calls to join the sagging club of
Igbo wayfarers in PDP who relish in playing as perpetual glorified
ball boys to whoever and whatever race gets to the presidencyand no
more. From passing off as founders, fourteen years ago, Igbo in PDP
has become nothing today as thepresidency makes rounds among other
ethnic groups. For fourteen years, Igbo have warmed the back role of
complainants whose interests least matter to the buccaneers that
determine who gets what and how in the PDP. Their investment in PDP
these past fourteen years has yielded nothing but despair and ruin.
Rochas wants none of these and has joined other progressives in
Nigeria to midwife a progressive party that stands to end Nigeria's
woeful sojourn for fourteen years under a ravenous PDP leadership. He
wants tobe President of Nigeria under this progressive platform and
that was what his Deputy confirmed recently in Abuja.
Given his soul lifting performance in the two years he has governed
Imo, I will cast my votes for Rochas any day he contests any election.
I will castmy vote for him and wish it multipliesa million fold
whenever he contests for the Nigerian presidency. I will mobilize my
little support in whatever manner is possible if and when he picks his
party's presidentialticket. I know that majority of Ndi Imo and indeed
Ndi Igbo will cast their ballots for him, if for nothing, the way he
had shown that Imo could be woken up from the doldrums and be made to
work. I will cast my vote for a bigger office because, like the
Biblicalfaithful servant, he had shown his capacity with little
measures.
But, if I were Rochas Okorocha, I will not go into the 2015
presidential race.I will tarry and still continue the good work I am
doing in Imo. If I were Rochas, I will re-contest for the 2015 Imo
governorship and stake my chances on the superlative works I amdoing
in Imo these past two years. If I am Rochas, I will consolidate and
widen the good works in Imo for every Imo man, in his picturesque
mind, can discern what eight years of Okorocha will leave Imo with,
using his two years, as a guiding light. If I were Rochas, I will
deepen these acclaimed achievements, etch them deep in the recesses of
every Imolite, far deeper than the rampaging political minions, ruing
their painful rustication in 2011 and ready to deny even their mothers
to improve their dawdy political fates, can reach. If I were Rochas
Okorocha, I will hesitate to go to the center when my people still
need more of my rescue touch, when Ndi Imo are savourinig the sweet
flavours of his rehabilitative and creative mind. If I were Rochas, I
will take between now and 2019 to build and implant the APC in all
parts of Igboland. If I were Rochas, I will stillstay in Owerri to
ensure the restive political careerists whom he rusticated from power
don't steal themselves back to the common barn to loot and impoverish
Imo silly. For nearly thirty years, Imo people pined and longed for a
governor that will replicate the indelible footprints of Mbakwe.
Through their determination and struggle, Rochas came. If I were him,
I won't leave too soon when the rots of the nearly thirty years that
preceded his coming have not been completely mitigated. If I were
Rochas, I will continue in Imoand root deep the present order that had
seen perennial free loaders, speculators and money changers keptoff
the resources of the people which are now devoted to working for the
people.
If i were Rochas, I will stay in Imo till free education is made a
norm no government can revoke. If I were him,I will stay in Imo and
ensure that the present fifteen kilometers of asphalted road per local
government is widened to at least fifty kilometers per local
government. If i were him, i will continue the frenetic erection of
public structures and landmarks he had been doing in Imo, as he had
been doing these past two years. If i were him, i will stay till 2019
to ensure that the 27 general hospitals in Imo State are made
reference centers in health care delivery through a deliberate
government policy to build such critical health facility. If i were
Rochas, I will hang around to replicate the model 305 model primary
schools in the state's secondary education sector bu building equal or
even greater number of such model secondary schools. If i were Rochas,
I will stay in Imo till 2019 to ensure that the existing cities are
expanded beyond their present capacity and the additional nine new
cities he is planning are realized. Yes, Rochas has made quite an
impressive showing in various sectors in the state these pasttwo years
but there still are many yearning areas he must touch and rescue.
These are normal challenges that makes the existence of government
necessary. He should stay around and attend to them and establish a
template prospective wayfarers in governance would not dare to depart
from.
All politics, they say, is local. Rochas will carve an un-putdownable
niche in national politics by making Imo a model state in good
governance. He cannot achieve this lofty feat in four years so he has
to stay and fulfill this mission. He stands to carry this as a
testimonial for a greater role at the national level by 2019. He
stands to mobilize even his political opponentsand enemies by what he
achieves in Imo in eight years than what he achieves in four years.
While he has the right and indeed, the right attitude to contest for
the nation's presidency in 2015, he should be well aware of the fact
that Imo needs him to stick around till 2019 when he is expected to
banish the very specter of negative development that has been native
in Imo between 1983 and2011. I believe a majority of Imo people share
this view. Of course, i will vote for him in whatever capacity he asks
for our votes in the future justbecause of what he had done in two
years in Imo and what he promises to do in the next two years. But, if
i werehim, I will stay in Imo and consolidate the works he is doing at
present forno ends will be served if he goes to the center while Imo
regresses to thesad and forlorn state it was before he came. I hope
and dearly prays he hearkens to this wish and prayer.
Peter Claver Oparah.
Ikeja, Lagos.
E-mail: peterclaver2000@y\ hoo.com