The jubilation that greeted the defeat of Governor Rochas Okorocha’s preferred candidate, Mr. Uche Nwosu, in the Imo State governorship election is an indication that the outgoing governor may have fallen out of favour with the majority of his people.
Although Okorocha was not one of the candidates in the race for Douglas House, Owerri, in the Imo State capital, which Mr. Emeka Ihedioha of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, won, Nwosu whom the governor vowed must replace him contested the poll with the full backing of the state government but failed.
In the same way, Okorocha’s dream of representing the Orlu Senatorial Zone in the National Assembly is at this time blurred in view of the fact that the returning officer in that election said that he declared the out-going governor the winner of the contest under duress.
At the moment, Owelle is stuck in no man’s land as he battles for political survival.
Okorocha ’s present situation is the touching reminder that power is transient and the hasty decline of Okorocha ’s fame in Imo did not astonish many political watchers who had predicted the governor’s down fall when he started sidelining those who helped him to ascend to power.
Okorocha endeared himself to Imolites in his first term in office and easily won his second term, the second governor to do so in the history of Imo State. He was revered for his oratorical skill and philanthropy.
Prior to his emergence as Imo governor in 2011, Okorocha was a philanthropist of great repute whose charitable acts were celebrated both far and near.
When he defeated the then sitting governor, Mr. Ikedi Ohakim, the people of Imo rejoiced that their Messiah had finally emerged.
However, the goodwill the outgoing governor enjoyed among the people began to decline during his second term in office. According to some stakeholders in Imo politics, Okorocha boorishly sacrificed the people’s loyalty on the altar of arrogance; the end result is his present predicament.
On the other hand, Owelle’s vanishing popularity among his people and political associates can be traced to other factors including waging needless wars from several fronts.
Firstly, the squabble with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Imo State did a lot of damage to Okorocha’s status in the state. Even the damage control mechanism he deployed thereafter could not straighten the dent between his administration and the church before the recently concluded general elections.
The crack between him and the church became more pronounced when the Catholic Archbishop of Owerri, Rt. Rev. Anthony Obinna, was almost manhandled during a funeral mass by the governor’s suspected aides.
Unmistakably, the Catholic Church is a formidable force in Imo politics; since the church has the numerical strength; she has the ability to determine the outcome of major elections in the state. Expectedly, the church might have waited for the election time to teach Okorocha some political lessons.
Recall that in the heat of the tiff with the church, the governor had embarked on peace moves to appease the church by donating the sum of one hundred million naira to the Catholic Diocese of Okigwe for its cathedral project but that seemed to yield no desired result.
Moreover, the governor has never been in any cordial relationship with his brother governors from the South East zone who would have been offering him informed opinions on certain issues. According to a source that is very close to the goings-on in the South East Governors’ Forum, Okorocha had never identified fully with the governors of the zone as he neither attends their meetings nor remits his dues to the forum.
Nevertheless, the outgoing governor’s insistence that his son-in-law must be the next governor of Imo State, without a doubt set the arena for the battle that eventually consumed his political influence in the state.
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In the buildup to his party’s governorship primary election, Okorocha had told stakeholders in the state that he could not trust anyone else to sustain his achievement in the state apart from his son- in-law.
He said, “The monumental achievements of my administration will not be left in the hand of any how person. The Chief of Staff (Uche Nwosu) has not told me he wants to run for governorship but if he does signify, I will support him.”
Okorocha’s political fate was finally sealed when he decided to wrestle with the chain of command of the All Progressives Congress, APC, the party on which platform he rose to power.
In addition to these factors, analysts argue that Okorocha’s self-importance is also his Achilles heel. For example, during the APC‘s presidential campaign rally in Owerri, he told a puzzled audience that he wields a colossal influence among the Imo people. According to him, no sane person in the state would hear his voice and not stand still for it.
Pundits are of the view that many political leaders have exaggerated ego. According to the experts, some of these leaders are victims of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, NPD, yet they are unaware of it.
NPD, according to Wikipedia, is a personality disorder with a long-term pattern of abnormal behaviour characterized by exaggerated feelings of self-importance, excessive need for admiration and lack of empathy. Those affected often spend much time thinking about achieving power or success.
But reacting to the current political development in Imo State, former President of Aka Ikenga, the Igbo think tank, Mr. Goddy Uwazurike (a lawyer), likened Okorocha’s travail to a movie.
“The story of the out-going governor sounds like a Nollywood Movie or better still like the folklore story of the man who was so fed that he challenged his chi (god) to a fight. The current travail is predictable. He forgot how he came to power and suddenly began to see himself as too big for Imo State. In other words, Imo State should be grateful to him for condescending to serve as governor.
“The spontaneous jubilation of the Imo residents by 12 midnight on the declaration of Emeka Ihedioha as the governor-elect and the news of the recanting by the Returning Officer in Orlu in the Senatorial election should make any normal person reflect on his life,” he said.
