Is Sen. Hope Truly Ready To Govern Imo?

For some years now, the socio-political stature of lmo state has remained in deplorable condition, so have other states, Nigeria and almost every other nation- state in Africa. This is the general mentality of the common man in the concerned polities who everyday long for the advent of new things and who at the presence of the new things longed for reminisce about the past socio- political experiences and leaderships revolved by these anti-theses. This same reality has resulted in both pessimistic and optimistic views on the dreamt new things.

The pessimistic yearnings on new and ameliorated sitz in leben has the then bemused expression of Ayi Kwei Armah as benchmark for future critics on advents of new governments, or what Benson Omonede would call “Trying Another Leg”. According to Armah, “in the life of the nation itself, maybe nothing really new would happen. New men would take into their hands the power to steal the nation’s riches and to use it for their own satisfaction. That of course was to be expected. New people would use the country’s power to get rid of men and women who talked a language that did not flatter them. There would be nothing different in that. That would be a continuation of the Ghanaian way of life”. This forms the backbone of his theses that The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born, and as a simulacrum, the good leaders are not yet born. All we have are the same people- The Ugly Ones. Our yearnings for new leaders are just for trying another leg.

This ideology seems anti-change, especially with his insistence that there is no difference between all old and new leaders, “no difference between all the white and their apes, the lawyers and the merchants, and now the apes of the apes, our Party Men. And after their reign is over, there will be no difference then. All new men will be like the old”. Yet, it bears in se, optimistic inclinations that characterise human rational sociality: Desire, yearnings, cravings, dreams, aspirations, etc (all in their grandeurs). The optimistic view is powered by the African mindset that anaghi ano otu uzo eti mmonwu (masquerade does not gyrate in a place, it strides), which essence is against the saying thatold wine are tasty.

But we need to ask Ayi Kwei Armah what we should do in this circumstance. Do we just fold our hands and wait for the advent of the beautiful, the good? Or should we do away with the old fellows of our sort and specie? Perhaps, his answer might be no, because like his interlocutor, The Man said, what our leaders ought to do is to have attitudinal change, which concentrates on the commongood of the masses, and not to be backed up by the suffering masses themselves urging the erring leaders to speed up in the wrong directions like every other citizen.

Whether adjudged from the Armah’s purview or from the lived-reality, all our leaders are the same, they are from the same ugly generation. No beautiful one is there because none has been born. The new comers in the terrain are in the same ugly generation of our rational sociality and zeitgeist. And just as Armah said, they are “men who know nothing about politics [who] have grown hot with ideology, thinking of the money that will come. The [retired] civil servant who hates socialism is there, singing hosanna, the poet [and novelist] is there, serving power and waiting to fill his coming paunch with crumbs. He will no doubt jump to go and shit on us. Everybody who wants speed goes there [into politics], and the only thing demanded of them is that they be good at fawning.”

In this category of politicians, old men are against the new, the incumbents. Everyone was shocked at the Supreme Court judgement that brought Senator Hope Uzordimma as the governor of Imo state. But according to Armah’s prediction, “for those who had [triumphantly] come against the old power, there would be much happiness. But for the nation [or state] itself, there would only be a change of embezzlers and a change of the hunters and the hunted”.

Informed by these, the Imo case is a welcome development and not a pitiable one. Inscriptions, calligraphy, bill-boards decorations and beautiful marks on campaign buses and posters, like orations and ovations at campaign grounds especially that of Sen. Hope Uzordimma of APC showed his readiness to lead. My reflections since few days now have been driven to a focal point- the political inscriptions and brief campaign slogans of gubernatorial candidates especially that of the governor, and I have discovered that if he succeeds in the implementation of same, Imo people will certainly rejoice.

Sen. Hope Uzordimma as the new governor of Imo State is saddled with the responsibility of restructuring and rehabilitating Imo. He should remember what APC leadership did to Imo people and how he came on a rescue mission to truly rescue Imo from one family political business of Chief Rochas. Senator Hope Uzordimma fought with Rochas Okorocha and he defeated him by making it difficult and impossible for Rochas to install his son in law as the governor of Imo using APC platform. Today, the battle is over and the two political enemies have resolved to work together in the same political building.

The political romance between Gov. Hope and Sen. Rochas (though it’s too early to be discussed) is raising dust in the minds of Imolites. Some are of the view that Rochas will certainly influence Gov. Uzordimma negatively; while few are of the strong opinion that Sen. Hope cannot be influenced by anyone being the man of self-will that he is. We are watching how the whole thing will play out. One good thing Gov. Hope Uzordimma has going for him is the fact that he is loved by majority as a man of good heart who will allow money to be in circulation unlike other former governors.

I am not a member of APC but I have become interested in the way the present APC leadership under Sen. Hope Uzordimma shall manage the affairs of Imo. Is Chief Hope Uzordimma truly ready to govern Imo State? I do hope he will not disappoint Imolites because much is expected of him. He has come and there is nothing anyone could do about it, protest and counter protest will not take us anywhere, we need peace in Imo state and we trust that Hope Uzordimma will deliver the dividend of democracy to us all. However, I wish to remind Gov. Hope of what I told Chief Rochas Okorocha in 2011

I wish to quote extensively on what I wrote about Chief Rochas in 2011, “…you’ll find Rochas for Governor Imo State (On a Rescue Mission!) To rescue literary means to save somebody or something from a dangerous or harmful situation. While socio-political rescue entails first and foremost a captivity siz in leben; what Karl Jaspers called boundary situation, the extreme and poorest condition of living.

Going by this trash on the Rochasian rescue mission, an unbiased analysis must arrive at ‘Bad Governance’ as his intentional referent. But if the democratic rule of Governor Ikedi Ohakim has degenerated to the level of this referent, perhaps to tyranny or anarchy, the organs altogether involved in the principle of checks and balances in the State would have reacted to the purported deplorable situation. Yet, up till now there has been harmonious relationship between the three arms of government in the State right from the time the Executive Arm of Government was from the minority party.

Ingratitude certainly is the arriere-plan of this evident calumny; this causes the urge to try another leg. It is an eternal truth that just as the merchants and boutique owners in the Eke Ukwu Market Owerri, will never accept selling inferior or lower-grade items to customers, no gubernatorial aspirant will accept being incompetent in trying to lead the State. But cautious scepticism must be our disposition against the imminent deceit in these enthusiastic amateurs. The governorship seat is like a vessel, which being a dockyard staff does not qualify one to pilot, and no sane Harbour Master can approve a trial sail with a preciously loaded vessel.

I am not saying that we don’t need a rescuer. Certainly we do; perhaps, just as the Jews did, even though they hallowed and assassinated the God with them, notwithstanding his godsend status. Before one can lead he must pass through the hurdles of following, for no man can lead well when he hasn’t learnt the art of following and passed the hurdles of leadership-apprenticeship.

Every self-imposed rescuer, leader or judge surely has the possibility of answering the Mosaic question- ‘Who made you to be prince over us and judge? (Ex. 2:14)’. Every gubernatorial rescuer in Imo State is welcomed but let the rescuer not be Prophet Hananiah to Imolites (who prophesied contrary to Prophet Jeremiah’s words, and broke the wooden yokes of the exiled Israelites only to provoke God’s imposition of an iron yoke of enslavement (Jer. 28:1-17). Rochas’ rescue mission is pre-emptively Hananian.

All over the world, and in the present day democracy, nowhere have giants and the richest ruled. The most affluent do not rule instead they sponsor those with leadership charisma- the Philosopher Kings. Aliyu Dangote is a million times richer than Rochas Okorocha, yet he maintains his huge height in the field of life where he excels and is gifted. That Owelle Rochas Okorocha is a renowned philanthropist is an adorable reality but that his philantropism is the criterion to govern Imo State is pure fallacy. If philantropism gives such qualifications, St JohnBosco, Blessed Luigi Guanella, Blessed Chiara Bossata, Blessed Thomas M aria Fusco and Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta, to mention but a few renowned, top-notch and world-class philanthropists of our zeitgeist, would have become Presidents of their countries, Roman Catholic Bishops and Popes or Heads of the Vatican Nation-City.

Mother Thereasa of Calcutta of the blessed memory travelled all over the world without visa and flight fees but her holiness, charity-charisma and philantropism did not make her consecrate Holy Communion for Catholics or assume clergy. Philantropism like holiness is different from a State’s apex leadership position (or the priesthood). While the occupier of the Governorship Seat can tomorrow turn a philanthropist, if he so desires, the philanthropist can never have such smooth personality-transmutation to the Governor’s seat.

But let me ask, is Rochas that beautiful one who is to be born? No! He is even the ugliest. But a good start from the lower cadre of elective leadership position certainly gives his palpable neophyte status a balanced swift sail and possible landslide victory in an apex leadership position like the one he is now eyeing or the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly. Certainly, he will be a good prospective gubernatorial candidate and possible-winner of the seat in Imo State after passing through lower leadership cadres for apprenticeship. But, who does not eye heaven? Everyone desires heaven, even sinners, the atrocious and the depraved do. Recently Rochas apologized to Imo people over his ugly comment of condescending so low to rule Imo…”