THERE are few states in Nigeria’s 36-state federation that are ordinary, peculiar and unique at the same time. Imo state is one such state. In 2011 there was a bloody battle for the soul of the state during the governorship election. A determined opposition candidate, Rochas Okorocha, who was aligned with the people and whose battle cry was rescue mission met an equally entrenched administration which was determined to cling onto power by all means. The then incumbent governor, Ikedi Ohakim, who claimed to be Ikiri, Igbo name for an animal legendary for its tenacity. The state was shaken; the rest of the country watched from a distance. There was no winner in regulation time. It took extra time or supplementary election to separate the combatants. Rochas won. That was five years ago.
Rescue mission has taken the centre stage since. I am from Imo state but I am not a permanent resident so I cannot speak authoritatively on whether or not Rochas has been an impact governor. But from a distance it could be safe to say that Imo people (Imolites as I understand they call themselves) will not easily and quickly forget the two terms of Governor Rochas Okorocha when they come to an end in 2019, barring any accident along the way. Whoever succeeds Rochas would probably not recognise the structure of his style of governance. It bears no resemblance to convention. It will be foolhardy for me to attempt to list the number of atomic structures which have been invented by the governor in the last five years in what he, and he alone, believes is the best way to bring government nearer to the people. The bottom line is that if the governor is not beloved of his people, his political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) would not have won by-elections to fill a Senate seat and two state constituency positions. Only bad belle people will say the outcome of the election was because of rigging. Which election in Nigeria has not been rigged since before the country’s independence in 1960?
Fresh from election victory the governor has engaged the gear in overdrive. First, he said there is now a vacancy in the Senate of the Federal Republic. Specifically Rochas said the occupant of the post of deputy Senate president, Ike Ekweremadu (Peoples Democratic Party, Enugu), is an usurper. He claimed that with the recent election of a senator, the only one from the South East, the occupation of that office by an opposition politician has become untenable. In fact, Okorocha served Ekweremadu a quit notice. If my memory is not playing any tricks on me, my recollections from one year ago is that the ruling APC had said that the office of the Senate president was that of the South East for the taking if the zone had produced even one senator. Now there is one senator from Imo state, so why is Rochas angling for the position of a spare tyre? Nobody should tell me that Senator-elect, Benjamin Uwajumogu (APC Okigwe) is a fresher and a non-ranking senator and so not eligible to aspire to be Senate president. If this argument applies, then Uwajumogu is also ineligible to be deputy Senate president or even for any leadership post in the House of Senate. Ebullient former governor of Akwa-Ibom state, Godswill Akpabio, is a fresh man senator and he is the minority leader of the Senate. So if Governor Okorocha is fighting for the Igbo he should lead us to battle for the Senate presidency to give the South East a sense of belonging in the APC.
If this were to happen will Nigeria be compelled to live with the ‘absurdity’ of an Igbo Senate president and an Igbo deputy Senate president in the eight Senate? What could possibly be wrong with that? It could be a ‘compensation’ for the zone that has been grossly and mindlessly marginalized in this regime. Furthermore, President Muhammadu Buhari, one of the two powerful national leaders of the APC, has demonstrated and continues to demonstrate that there is nothing wrong in appointing persons from one geo-political zone, even one family, to all available government positions as long as they are ‘qualified’. The president himself has pushed sensitivity to the diversity of the country to the backburner and put the principle of federal character in abeyance as far as appointments are concerned.
Now to the headline above. I must admit that any of the other 27 states in Nigeria can replace Imo above. It could be Osun, it could be Bayelsa, it could be Nasarawa. Indeed it could any one of the 28 states which have been adjudged as insolvent, nay bankrupt. The states in this category have since failed or neglected or refused to pay the monthly wages of their employees for many moons. Creative as usual, the Imo state governor is about to blaze a trail and he appears to be looking up to Venezuela for inspiration. In Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro, in the face of acute energy crisis in his country which he blamed on drought but which the opposition said was the outcome of incompetence and gross mismanagement, cut public servants working hours and work week. The shelves are empty in Venezuela’s supermarkets. Wherever there is stock the queues outside are impossible. At least two times in the last one month, Venezuela has had to open its border to allow its citizens to ‘invade’ its neighbour to buy basic consumables.
Last weekend, Governor Okorocha mooted the idea of reducing the work week in Imo state and cutting the pay of its workers. I assumed he was flying a kite. But part of the kite has now become a state policy. The governor has decreed beginning August 1, that was last Monday, that the work week in Imo state would be Monday to Wednesday, and from 7.30am-4pm. Thursday and Friday every week should be used by civil servants to farm and/or to engage in other profitable activities to augment their income. He said those on essential duty including medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lawyers, political appointees, senior civil servants, among others were exempted.
In Okorocha’s Imo not much is done according to the law. I am by no means suggesting that the governor is lawless, it is just that he is brazenly unconventional. His whim is the rule. It could not be otherwise since the task forces created for projects implementation by the executive arm have serving legislators, including the House of Assembly Speaker, as members and chairmen. They were appointed by the governor. And they report to him. That is the definition of harmonious working relationship between the two arms of government. Good enough the state’s chief judge and other judges are yet to be drafted to head task forces. In any case how can Imo lawmakers be effective in carrying out their lawmaking and oversight functions except by operating from inside the executive chambers. But Imo is working in spite of the growing multitude of the state branch of the wailing wailers. It will be a shame if the other troubled 27 states do not copy my creative and proactive governor. But when next you are in Imo state do not forget our password: My People My People, My Governor My Governor. Rochas di anyi nma (Rochas is good for us).

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