Imo Big Four- Heading to Douglas House
The great 20th Century Catholic sage, Anthony de Mello in his teaching on destiny narrated that “To a woman who complained about her destiny, the Master said, “It is you who make your destiny.” “But surely I am not responsible for being born a woman?” Being born a woman isn't destiny. That is fate. Destiny is how you accept your womanhood and what you make of it.” This teaching could be likened to success in electoral contests. Success in the electoral contest depends on what the candidates make of their candidature in the opportunity, and not the party, zone or degree of criticism against opposition party.
Whenever I ruminate on the forthcoming general elections in Imo State, my mind always goes to the English Premiership League table, the challenges facing the Big Four contestants and the proofs of their bigness in the just concluded Round of 16 contest where all the remaining three English clubs in the Big Four were sent packing, and returned home as Big for nothing and as local champions. The Big Four in the English Premiership League is not far from the Big Four contestants in the Imo State's gubernatorial elections next month. Similarly, the just concluded Round of 16 contest could also be likened to the elections of 2011 that has come and gone, with the marks of failure still trailing the failed heroes, many of which resurfaced in one way or the other this 2015.
At the present English Premiership League table, Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United football clubs are at the Big Four line, with Liverpool, Southampton and Tottenham at the closest mark of the line. These clubs could be likened as well to the Big Four political parties in Imo gubernatorial race come April 11 2015. Certainly, the PDP is Chelsea (winning by being at the far top and having one outstanding match hanging- These being all the privileges the PDP has as the party in federal power). The APC is like Manchester City that was previously not known or a popular regular at the Big Four position but suddenly emerged there and carried the League once and then wants more. The UPP is for sure the Gunners (Arsenal FC) that was mocked at the beginning of the League year as a dead club, but suddenly rose and outpaced the third in Rank. The AGPA gubernatorial story is like Manchester United club that has changed two Managers within two years, and which was very proud having pulled off the third occupant (Southampton) and fixing themselves at the third position before being whisked off, pushed down to the third position.
These Big Four notwithstanding, both in Imo politics and in the English Premiership League are not comfortable or fully sure of themselves yet, as the three other clubs are very close behind them, such that for any draw or lose, the Big becomes small. To this effect, the Accord Party is likened to Liverpool that is the best team at present with absolute form, followed by Arsenal and Chelsea. By this, it is very risky for Manchester United, Arsenal and Man City to loose or draw any match, and if at last it (Accord Party, as it vowed to) didn't make it, it becomes the best Governor Imo never had. The PPA is like Southampton that at a time and by freaks of fate found themselves at the second and then the third position, and were very comfortable having displaced the eternal regulars, just because an affluent youngling spent but few percentage of his father's wealth to revive the club. The PPA like Southampton, immediately found itself in this position; sold off all its costly and deadly attackers and forwards, and loosing its strength was whisked off from the Big Four, returning becomes difficult because “the foundation once destroyed, what can the just do?” The PDC is like Tottenham, having its gubernatorial candidate gone to the Presidency and had some contacts, thus came for the party primaries and lost woefully (just as Tottenham lost in the Champions League at onset). Yet, the PDC can not be counted off from the possibility of making it to the Big Four, in which one must carry the League at last.
Count down to election time as count down to the end of the Premiership League year, what all contestants are interested is on carrying the trophy. With these Big Four in face off with each other and the other closed three rivals at their tail, predicting who enters the Douglas House becomes temporarily difficult. No party is not determined to win the election, and every one of them perfects private tactics for mission accomplishments. If by publicity and pestering of posters in every nook and cranny of the State, even in the most interior countryside, I give the Accord Party the key to Douglas House and APGA second. If it goes by remonstration of muscular build-up, prowess and determination to self-repositioning, I give the key to the PDP. If consideration or criterion should be based on conceitedness and boorishness to due process and administrative rules for the game, I give the key rather to the APC. If by serene projection and domineering of alien kingdoms, as well as silent but consistent erosion of the top fertile soil, which makes the weak but boastful farmer's hope for better yield a reverie, and intense gathering of compound manure and packaging it for proof of fertility-worth and deliverability for the State, I give the key to the UPP. If by being punctual to contest-ground, patriotism and insurance of proper territorial defence and influence, I give the key to the APGA.
All these specialisations do not give any of the parties the key to the Douglas House, because partyism in Nigeria is done with bitter scheming, shamelessness, greed and envy, and these make no room for positive success in the society. Solomon Schimmel, a renowned Jewish sage, in 1992 narrated a fable on the greedy Man and the Envious Man: “A greedy and an envious man met a King. The King said to them, “One of you may ask something of me and I will give it to him, provided I give twice as much to the other.” The envious person did not want to ask first for he was envious of his companion who should receive twice as much, and the greedy man did not want to ask first since he wanted everything that was to be had. Finally the greedy one pressed the envious one to be the first to make the request. So the envious person asked the King to pluck out one of his eyes,” meaning his rival's too eyes will be off, and they become vision impaired.
The lessons from this fable could as well be likened to the bickering between the top two parties in the Big Four, which incessantly attack each other, and inter alia refuse to make choice so that the rival would not receive the 'twice as much.' These greedy, envious and aggressive attitudes that have notch-marked the PDP, APC and APGA in the State, have given other parties the opportunity of being their closest rivals in the contest, thereby making the April 11 an open field for the luckiest or most graced to win. Also these political dispositions have made self- appraisal and truth-telling difficult. For instance, what Governor Okorocha is facing today in the hands of the other major 6 parties, is the first in history in Imo politics, wherein numerous biggest parties point on one candidate with venom and utmost determination to ruin its political life. If it were in civilised countries as in Europe, one would not expect more from Rochas than to resign, knowing that the greater majority has despised him.
But the traits of African, Nigerian and Igbo politics are centred in all the political attitudes above, as also done with the mentality of: Kama m ga-anwu ka m doliwa, ebe oku nyuru achisa owa, omewere ma chi ekweghi, etc. It was the 19th century Danish existentialist, Soren Kierkegaard who said that “an admirer who feels that he cannot be happy by surrendering himself elects to become envious of that which he admires. So he speaks another language- The thing which he really admires is called stupid, insipid and queer sort of thing. Admiration is happy self-surrendering; envy is unhappy self-assertion.” It is this same reality that faced the Shakespearean Macbeth when he discovered that he is like an animal pegged to a tree with killers about him all with weapons, and still was brash and in the decisive field declared, “Why must I play the Roman fool, and die on mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes do better upon them.”
As the date for the April polls draws near and as the English Premiership League remains few matches to be played, who among the Big Four will enter the Douglas House: PDP, APC, UPP or APGA? What have they in stock for Imolites? Certainly, the response will tilt to ones proper political party or for the apolitical- To the candidate one admires or has sympathy for. I am core PDP, I'm sure the PDP must win or any of its sons in the race: UPP or Accord Party. You're sure too, yours will win. But, realism and existentialism as I develop in my PhD dissertation has taught me that the 21st century man lives by pragma (the practical) and not by ideas and ratiocinations.
Imo is bugged today with several administrative humbugs that make Imolites believe they are being rescued but at last, about 65% of the citizens and residents in the State have realised the deceits, and the fact that unless power changes hand, various delicate sectors in the State will collapse and Imo becomes a 4thworld State. Most readers of my column call to ask which way forward? Some ask- How do we know the best? My answer has always been with prudence, but has never been with further additions of: 'Out of the heart, the mouth speaks'. 'There is no harm in trial.' 'Peoples administrative antecedents are best eye-openers,' etc. These we ought to focus on the qualities in gubernatorial squads than party names.
Certainly, the effect of the numerous political parties in this 2015 gubernatorial and electoral contests, have been an eye opener and aperture for fastened political sensitisation and socialisation for every Imolite- Political and apolitical, Christian, Muslim or pagan. What the people need is- What will you do for us and how? Opposition is out of the contest; just as incumbency, being in power or having federal might, connection or having held federal positions before have nothing to do with the mandate of the present day enlightened Imo electorates.
When you listen to the Big Four in Imo politics speak at rally grounds, you will discover that while some are good for business, others came for village iko onu, which does not prove one worthy to rule. Nobody is righteous for not sinning the sins of the other. While Rochas' APC is busy telling Imolites tales of what he has done and little of what he will do if elected (save for his: Job, job, job; industry, industry, industry and factory, factory, factory). The PDP and APGA are busy telling us what Rochas did not do and how they will do more than him. This 'doing more than the present government,' is the central mind of Imolites and the reason one of them- PDP or APGA, or better UPP must be elected than this one we have tested and known its gusto.
The Owerri zone born literary artist, Mrs Ann Nlemadin, said in one of her novels- “Seeing is Believing.” You can tell a blind man that there is no fish in the soup and not that there is no salt in it. Thus, in all the criticisms on Okorocha, Imolites know the truth and the false. Just as they know the truth, the false, deceits and pretensions of Okorocha's rescue mission. Thus telling them job, job, job; industry, industry, industry and factory, factory, factory makes them remember the sacked 10,000 jobs and the 20,000 youths must work that are owed 7 months salaries now. It makes them remember how inefficient Adapalm re-baptised as Roche Farm, Avutu Poultry farm, etc have been unproductive, as well as how many employments have the LGAs in the State had through local council elections since 2011. If these were treated like this before the now focal- “Job, job, job; industry, industry, industry and factory, factory, factory,” what will come of the multiplied and anticipated beneficiaries of the new promises with the lessons learnt from the present sufferings of engaged and disengaged Imo youths? Nay! Rochas is not dishonest. He is honest, but as Oliver Goldsmith said in his She Stoops to Conquer, “An honest man may rob himself of his own at any time. Thousands do it at everyday.”
It is only but the UPP gubernatorial candidate, Dr Osmond Imo Ukanacho, who never centres his rally speeches on criticising the incumbent or opposition parties but moves direct to the issues at stake and tells Imolites practical ways of reviving the fallen sectors of the State (especially the education sector) and how Imolites will laugh in a shorter space of time. For him, all the past rulers have done their best and are applauded for such trying, for none can give what he does not have, and promises to carrying on all existing good protocols while using hundred days in office to break the jinx of youths unemployment, abysmal failure in education system using his Deputy, restoration of LGA electoral rank and file- Chairman and his statutory SAs, Councillors and their statutory 6 PAs, etc, which one has never had any previous government expose the evils done by the concealment of employable opportunities at the LGA by the Councillors we elect that collect both their salaries and those of their PAs.
Now that the battle thickens and days run fast by, to whom do we give the key to the Douglas House- The sly ones we know, the combatants on vendetta missions or the peaceful and self-focused UPP, whose guber-hopeful and Deputy were sons of the PDP and its founder the son of APGA? Will the Imo APGA loose Imo if its foremost founder's new party, the UPP wins the April 11 polls? Will the Imo PDP loose Imo if its sons now in the UPP (Governor and Deputy gubernatorial candidates and State Party Chairman) win the April polls? Has the APC tested its electoral strength in the State since its merger? I believe the best Imo and the Owerri Zone in particular need to do, will be to let the aggrieved combatants go and bring up the worthy squad in the UPP to settle the fight and let peace reign in the State.
Prince Stanley U Okoroji (08064378213)