By Ikechukwu Amaechi
When Imo
State governor, Owelle
Rochas Okorocha, told TELL magazine that “my vision drives
me crazy,” many people did not take his words literally.
In November 2016, he tweaked the statement a little,
this time saying his love for Imo
State keeps him from
sleeping. “I find it difficult to sleep
now because I want to change the entire face of Imo,” he said.
*President Zuma and Gov Okorocha |
Noble sentiments expected of a leader who means well for
his people. But more than six years on the saddle, many Imolites are beginning
to wonder whether their governor was speaking metaphorically or literally
because his vision for the state (whatever it is) is not only warped, twisted and
crazy, but can only be conjured by a mind that is not attuned to reality. It is
tunnel vision.
The latest manifestation of such crazy vision is
Okorocha’s deification of South Africa ’s
President Jacob Zuma in Owerri, Imo
State capital, last
weekend, when he unveiled a gigantic statue in his honour.
Zuma, who flew into the country on Friday, October 13,
on what was a “private visit,” was on the same day conferred with a traditional
chieftaincy title – Ochiagha Imo
(Great Warrior) – by Eze Samuel Ohiri, chairman of the state council of
traditional rulers. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo issued the title
certificate.
On Saturday, a life-sized bronze statue of Zuma standing
at over
It is instructive that on the same Friday that
Okorocha’s crazy vision was on full display in Imo where civil servants have
not been paid for months and pensioners are regularly issued dud cheques, South
Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal upheld a ruling that 783 counts of corruption
involving a multibillion-dollar arms deal be reinstated against Zuma.
In Zuma’s country, there was a huge sigh of relief. “Finally, after almost a decade of ducking
and diving, and squandering millions of rand of public money on his own legal
fees, President Jacob Zuma will now face 783 charges of corruption, fraud and
racketeering for stealing the people’s money,” the Mmusi Maimane-led
Democratic Alliance (DA), the official opposition to the governing African
National Congress (ANC), said in a statement.
The case had dogged Zuma for years and though the
charges were dropped just weeks before he took office in 2009, a high court ruled in
2016 that the decision to drop them was irrational. So, why was Zuma, a villain
at home, singled out for such honour in Owerri?
Gov Okorocha answers: “Today, we have decided to honour you for your love for education,
though you were deprived in your early days in life but you are working to make
sure that every poor child went to school. Your love for education to us is the
connection between you and government and the people of Imo State .”
*Okorocha and Zuma at the road named after Zuma |
Okorocha’s claim throws up more questions than answers.
When he claims Zuma is working to ensure that every poor child went to school,
the question is, whose poor child is he talking about? How many Imo or Nigerian
students are studying on scholarship in South Africa courtesy of the Zuma
Foundation or even the South African government? How many dilapidated primary
and secondary schools in Imo has the Zuma Foundation rebuilt? What exactly is
the nexus between the Okorocha-trumpeted Zuma’s “love for education” and Imo
people?
No doubt, Okorocha has reduced governance in Imo in the
last six and half years to an absurd level but this particular action is beyond
the pale.
Governance all over the world is a process driving
undertaking. You don’t govern a state on impulse. But in Imo, Okorocha’s whims
and caprices rule the groove. He abhors due process. He has an aversion for
record keeping. For him, power and its exercise are matters of indiscretion. In
moments of pique, he auctions Imo
State without blinking.
He has neither conscience nor scruples. For all he cares, he has conquered Imo
for eight years and the state is his to plunder.
Doesn’t Okorocha know that the man he rolled out the red
carpet and pulled all his egregious stunts for last weekend represents all that
is wrong with leadership in Africa ? Does he
not know that Zuma’s presidency has been scandal-ridden from allegations of
corruption, some already proved in court, to a lifestyle that is quite
unbecoming of a leader of his status?
Last year, a South African court ruled that Zuma
violated the constitution by using $500,000 taken from the public treasury to
upgrade his private residence to accommodate his many wives and was ordered to
refund the money.
Under Zuma’s watch, many Nigerians have been murdered by
both the country’s security men and citizens. In fact, this honour came a few
days after another Nigerian, 35-year-old Jelili Omoyele, was murdered in South Africa .
None of the culprits has ever been convicted. Nigerians are routinely harassed
in South Africa
without a whimper from Zuma.
With this award, Rochas has taken impunity to a
contemptible height. Like Zuma, Okorocha represents what ails our country. When
late Chinua Achebe says Nigeria ’s
problem is leadership, Okorocha is a quintessential exemplar.
Zuma’s visit to Imo was private. He came to sign a
memorandum of understanding between his personal foundation, Zuma Foundation,
and Rochas Okorocha Foundation. Though that is wrong, strictly speaking,
because those foundations should be a matter of blind trust while both men are
in office, but it can even be excused if it ended at just two businessmen, who
happen to occupy government positions in their respective countries coming
together to promote their private businesses.
But public funds were used in promoting this strictly
private partnership. The N520 million allegedly used in erecting the statue
belongs to Imo people. The money used in hosting the lavish ceremony was taken
from Imo coffers. Was the money appropriated by the Imo State House of
Assembly? The answer is no.
Since Okorocha became governor of Imo State
on May 29, 2011, there has been no difference between his personal purse and
public till. Activities of the Rochas Foundation have been largely funded with
state resources. I will not be surprised if the memorandum of understanding
Zuma came to sign has to do with Okorocha’s private Eastern Palm
University , which he
admitted recently to have partly funded with N500 million belonging to Imo
people without their authorisation.
That is the level of impunity that Imo people are confronted
with. When he turned 55 years recently, it was a month-long celebration with 27
giant cakes. For him, leadership has become puerile theatrics.
As a governor, Okorocha is neither accountable to
anybody nor any institution. He has become the god of Imo State ,
boasting recently that any Imolite who wants to succeed in life must love him
because he is the sun that shines for the people. But even absurdity must have
its limits. Okorocha has taken this clowning in the name of governance too far.
*Amaechi is the publisher
of TheNiche, a national newspaper published in Lagos , Nigeria
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