My
Governor, My Governor,
Yes,
that is your signature appellation. You remain my Governor despite everything.
This is the reason writing this letter is a hard task for me. I believed in you
and firmly approve the good work you have been doing in Imo State for these
past seven years. I subscribe fully to your political roadmap, which saw you
ride high and above the short-sighted, purblind and blighted political myopism
of your enemies and political foes who were not endowed with your foresight. It
is this same foresight that made you break away from the Lilliputian enclave
and enclosed shell our people ply their political trade and join other
progressives to form the All Progressives Congress which vanquished the
existing octopoidal order and inflicted unbearable pain on the shortsighted
politicians of easy virtue who never saw what you and few other Igbo saw at
that time.
The
victory of your own political vision in 2015 has unleashed incurable fits of
anger, jealousy and despair on those who ignored your warning of an impending
post-2015 political order and has consigned them into implacable traders of
umbrage against you and other Igbo that boldly rose against the tide of that
time. This is the reason you have been subjected to ceaseless scoffing, anger,
abuse and tirade by those whose purblind political hustling met with sudden
woes in 2015.
This
is the reason why Rochas trends almost everyday because in abusing you and
inciting anger at you, these distressed Igbo political jobbers find temporary
amelioration for their self-inflicted atrophies. That you shelled out from a
native and rudderless cocoon to join a national movement that reshaped the
nation’s politics should be a virtue your kinsmen should be proud of but that
was not the case because they were waking up to a reality that they were
forewarned of but they rather chose to sink in the deluge of self-deceit, short
term trading and selfish aggrandizement.
My
Governor, you have achieved so much for Imo State-far more than any governor
has achieved (with the possible exception of legendary late Sam Mbakwe). You
have made deep contributions to lift Imo State from its staid physical nature
but the coyotes and hyenas who live by feeding from the resources of the state,
their beneficiaries and subalterns chose to abuse, insult and malign you at
every turn because you made a right political decision they were so blind to
see as at the time you did. They are the children of frustration, anger and
bile who ensured that Imo State was perpetually kept down for decades while
their personal ends and interests were generously served.
Though
I had cause to quarrel with your style so often, I urged you on and threw solid
support to your effort to re-define both governance and development in Imo
State. Though I had reasons to disagree on the quality of finesse you put to
your numerous projects but I firmly believed that half bread is still better
than none. In the past, we had no structures and projects to quarrel with, all
we had was the ceaseless stomping of godfathers, apex leaders, party chieftains
and several caches of free loaders and their booty-sharing exercises to contend
with. But thanks to you, you gave Imo projects to talk about and asses their
qualities.
However,
in all the syndicated umbrage against you for shunning an unproductive and self-fending
political order and embracing a new progressive politics, I know you suffered
these self-driven foes gladly. You never showed their pernicious darts and
their weak selfish arrows hit you. You even gave it back to them in a manner
that increased their woes as you carried on with assured swagger on the
salvific mission you had in Imo. I personally laughed off their antics because
I know it will take them more than what they can muster to remove or destroy
the indelible imprimaturs you have etched in Imo State.
My
Governor, your unflinching resolve to do best for Imo State where previous
governors have rather plundered and ruined was the reason I solidly supported
you. It was not a purchased support and I did my utmost best to deflect the
darts and arrows they threw at you during your first term and stabilse your
regime. You may enquire of these from Femi Adesina, now Special Adviser to the
President on Media. He was always encouraging me on knowing I was ruled by the
interests of Ndi Imo and nothing more in deciding not to join the bitter
coyotes to rail against you simply because of your political choice. At this
period, did you see me request or get a bottle of fanta from your government?
So it is all about our people in Imo State.
I
did my utmost best to campaign for your comeback based solely on your
achievements. I did everything I did on my expense and never sought or got a
kobo for campaigning for you. It was during the course of this second term
campaign that I met most of your appointees; commissioners, advisers, etc. They
should tell you that immediately you emerged victorious in the polls in 2015,
we severed contacts and that is it till today. The future of Imo trumped all
considerations in my decision to wage a personal campaign for your re-election.
But
I became worried by your carriage and actions after you secured your second
term. I became worried that My Governor, My Governor was in a desperate bid to
shake off the people’s content in his government for reasons I didn’t
understand. I became worried that you were aimed at collapsing governance to
the Okorocha family and relatives. The party that fought so many hyenas to
secure your second term was abandoned in abject neglect. The people that took
the bullets for you were ignored. You rather went on a shopping spree for those
that fought against you and children of some faded names. These were the people
that you recruited into your government. Some of your former supporters and
appointees mentioned these in comments but I urged them to continue supporting
your government because it was for us all.
However,
you didn’t show any evidence of mending this faux pas. You rather deepened it.
Everything and considerations for state and federal appointments were reduced
to an Okorocha family affair and their relatives and my position was that you
should be allowed the free hands to manage the state as best as you could. Even
as the bitter, hurting opponents raised the war cry against you to the highest
octave, I still believed it is your prerogative to form your government the
best you could so I saw no issue from it. Again, most of those who were forming
a choir against you were those still nursing unhealable sores from your
decision to join APC to defeat their PDP so I never saw the need to merge my own
concerns with their own fixated and self-serving condemnations.
However,
I had a feeling that you were wise enough to know when to apply the brakes and
broaden governance and considerations to meet the interests of the legions that
joined the APC after the collapse of the PDP. That was a sure way to broaden
and solidify your base and quell the noisome wailing of the distressed heynas
that were wailing from frustration that the old order had changed. Also, I
believed that given the comprehensive victory you earned in 2015, where Imo
people showed they were not persuaded by the mischief of the waning forces you
replaced in 2011, you would be persuaded to build one impregnable united
political family to drive the progressive family in Imo State and sustain your
own political interests.
Lo
and behold, you didn’t do that. Rather, you continued to contract governance
and politics till they merged to become your sole self! You hired and fired
with no qualms. You played men like pawns on a large chessboard. You elbowed
others that joined the burgeoning APC family and hoisted yourself as the sole
deity. But the topping of this service of self was in choosing to prod your
son-in-law, who comes from the same area with you as your successor
irrespective of the feelings and interests of other members of the party, the
interests of other zones that make up the state. In doing this, you said you
were driven by merit which you never made any effort to show in your choice of
a peevish school boy whose only attribute for Imo governorship was that he is
married to your daughter! It was a slight too many on not only the members of
your party but the entire Imolites who were shell-shocked by your decision to
lease all apparatchiks of government to your son-in-law to achieve a hugely
unpopular ambition of being the governor after you.
This
was the firing pin that set off the revolt against you. My Governor, the
significant thing about this revolt is that it is in the APC family, which is
the largest family in Imo State. The shocking thing is that the revolt is by
people who ordinarily would be your supporters; the same people who offered
themselves as body shield in your quest for the governorship in 2011 and for
re-election in 2015! The revolt, this time around, is not from the politically-frustrated
hyenas whom you have displaced but from the same people that have stood by you
since you elected to run for governorship.
It
portends danger. It informs of a storm and this should warn you that your
political essence is endangered. Why did you allow this, my Governor, why? Why
did you play yourself to this tight corner? Why did you sacrifice your huge
popularity in the quest for satiation of selfish desires? Why did you toss away
your home base in pursuit of narrow interests? Why did you get so enslaved by
the god of self that you never saw in that path the looming self-destruct which
you set off when you decided to play god in the political space of Imo State?
Why, my Governor, why?
My
governor, you must note that the outcome of the ward congress of the APC in Imo
State has exposed you to very embarrassing lights. Yes, your same APC has risen
in total revolt of your ways and means and has once again, put up the same
poignant revolt that brought you to power in the first instance. You must note
that this is no joke and do you care to know why continuing in your obdurate
insistence of personalizing governance and politics in Imo would be fatal to
your political future? Because almost every other Imolite in APC is signed on
to this project of stripping you of your god-complex and rending the party free
from you. How did things get this bad, my Governor? How did you allow this kind
of holistic domestic revolt to fester under your feet? Have you not been
careless over your support base? Have you not taken the huge support given you
for granted? Have you not allowed yourself to be seduced by the idol of self so
that you didn’t hear the rumbles of your people?
Have
you not been so carried away that you forgot where you were coming from? What
is this annoying thing of single-handedly picking your son-in-law and riding
him to power? Who gave you that idea? Who told you that you can run through the
interests of Owerri Zone in such negligent manner? You know that among the
three geo-political zones that make up Imo, Owerri zone has had the shortest
end of the stick by having only two chequered years in the governance of the
state whereas your Orlu zone will be having 16 years when you finish your rule
in 2019 and Okigwe zone has had 8 years and three months. Why then did you
pretend that Owerri zone’s interests don’t matter again when Orlu had its feel
at the job by the concession of Owerri zone in 1999 when the need to balance
the equitable zoning of the state rulership was brought into play? Why and how
did you feel that this doesn’t matter again in your quest to railroad your
son-in-law, from your Orlu zone to power?
My
Governor, my Governor, you really fall my hand here. See how you have handed
the same mischievous corrupt wailing opponents something to cheer about and
kick you about? See how you had led the mobilization for your demystification
by that careless masterstroke? See how the same APC you rightfully claim was
the reason why the distraught opponents had been abusing you, has abandoned you
in the cold. Why, why, why? So you never saw through the self-destruct you are
igniting by prodding your son-in-law who is a neophyte in governance to succeed
you or unilaterally dictating who will hold what office in Imo State in 2019?
You never saw what is happening to you presently coming when you were deigning
yourself a god made man? You never saw the road to perdition in your decision
to abandon party men, ditch associates and turn every of your associate into
implacable foe? Why were you so short-sighted?
Moving
on, my Governor, there are still ways you can chart a remedial course. Sure,
the battle for the Imo governorship and other political positions is still a
long way off and this gives you enough room to make amends. You can make amends
and re-assume your hallowed place in the hearts of progressives in Imo State.
You must note that one of the hallmarks of great and successful leadership is
how departing leaders manage the succession challenge. It is far trickier than
you assume. It is much trickier than forking up a soulless son-in-law and
leasing all apparatchiks of governance to him to ride safe to power. As you now
know, such cheeky concession can barely survive the bulwark set in by genuine
opponents as is happening to you presently. Perhaps the most successful leader
in this aspect remains Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his remarkable success in
handing succession politics is the reason he is flowering on national politics
today. You can take priceless tutorials from him.
Moving
forward, I want you, my Governor, to descend from your Olympian height and call
for a truce because that will save you from a looming doom. You are best placed
to initiate a genuine reconciliation because you are the governor. As I said
earlier, you have done very well as governor and left impregnable landmarks in
the governance of Imo State. No right thinking and honest Imolite will deny you
such honour. No mischievous ranting and wailing by displaced political moths
will erase your achievements in Imo. We all owe you that honour. But you need
to end well politically. You need to retake the forte and this you can do by
pursuing quick, honest and durable reconciliation with your opponents,
alienated associates and supporters. Initiate a quick reconciliation effort
with them, place everything on the table as it concerns offices in 2019.
Prepare to give and take and leave all options open to all the divergent
interests that converge in Imo APC.
Above
all, discontinue your dream of forcing your son-in-law on Imo State. That is the
heart of your present political problems and once you do this, you are free to
proceed to choose from among the jostling aspirants from Owerri zone or even
throw in a fresh aspirant and back him in an open and fair governorship
primary. Also, leave the other nominations for elective offices open for fair
contest and I trust, if you do these, you will regain the trust and confidence
of the teeming APC members and supporters who have been your pillar of support
these many years.
I
hope my Governor will take this piece of advice in good faith and reclaim the
huge grounds he had lost in recent times, which is neither good for his
political future nor for the image he had cultured in recent times.
I
remain,
Peter
Claver Oparah
Ikeja,
Lagos.
E-mail: peterclaver2000@yhoo.com
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