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By Austin Otuokere
The late sage, Obafemi Awolowo, was once described as the main issue in the Nigerian political space. That description, coming from no less a person than General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, then the powerful military President of Nigeria, became an instant sound bite. For many, IBB, as he is popularly known, was not far from being correct.
Chief Awolowo might not have been the most admired politician in Nigeria during his lifetime but he was a very strong character: firm in his convictions and he never suffered fools gladly. He was described by some commentators as “ruthless” on account of the fact that he was so thorough and conversant with facts that many a politician of his calibre dreaded going into a debate with him. Indeed, no national issue – even during the long military era – was considered settled or concluded unless the position of Chief Awolowo was known.
There is, of course, no intention here to compare that legend of our time with the subject of this essay, Ikedi Ohakim, but this nexus is informed by the fact that the latter is among the few Nigerians, outside Awolowo’s kinsmen, who had the privilege of drawing inspiration directly from Chief Awolowo and has a personal testimony that depicts the latter in a picture that is different from the general perception of him. Ohakim once told a group of journalists the story of his first meeting with Chief Awolowo in 1982.
Ohakim, then a young management trainee in a leading aluminium-manufacturing company, was detailed by his employers to send a quotation for an aluminium work in Chief Awolowo’s home in Ikenne. According to Ohakim, he had long been admiring the chief from a distance and the meeting made a big impression on him immediately and even till date. He said the meeting made him to change his mind about politicians who many believe are difficult to deal with.
“I met in Chief Awolowo a very amiable and warm person”, Ohakim had told the journalists after disclosing that the famous politician autographed a book for him, which he has kept up till now.
Those who know Dr. Ikedi Ohakim closely might sometimes be tempted to believe that there is a conscious effort by him to be always guided by the lesson he learnt from that encounter so early in life. Ohakim is very thorough, firm but fair; does not suffer fools gladly yet is very warm and amiable. He might not be the most intelligent person in Imo State where he comes from but he has a reputation with facts and figures, to the extent that many fly-by-night politicians that abound in the state would rather not engage him in a debate. As a matter of fact, it is difficult, if not impossible, to dispense of any issue in the state without seeking to know where he stands. Love him or hate him, Ohakim is a recurring decimal in the arithmetic of Imo politics.
It is not by happenstance but a culmination of a pedigree built over years of hard work, steadfastness and loyalty to the people. By 1991 when he first aspired for elective office, only a few of the current gladiators in Imo State were anywhere near the political turf. Even though he knew that his chances were slim, he was eager to serve and eager to change the narrative around the political leadership not only in his state but in Nigeria generally. However, he emerged as a sommissioner in Imo State during that dispensation. That was even as he had earlier served as the president-general of his hometown union, a position he was elected into at the age of 25.
The opportunity to serve at a higher level came in 2007 when he was elected the fourth civilian governor of Imo State and since then Ohakim seems to have become the main issue in Imo politics; perhaps an unintended consequence of a grand conspiracy that denied him a renewed mandate from the Imo electorate four years later.
Even the not-so-discerning observer of the Imo political terrain would acknowledge that since that perfidy against the people, things have not been the same in the state. Since then, rancour and bitter rivalry have become the order of the day in a state that was once exemplary in socio-political harmony.
Inevitably, the good people of Imo State have not failed to seize every available opportunity to express their disavowal of the circumstances that led to the truncation of the mandate they freely gave Ohakim in 2011. For example, the discovery that he did not physically assault a Catholic priest, contrary to what was bandied, came to the hapless people of Imo State as a rude shock, especially after a popular Enugu-based Catholic priest who was used by Ohakim’s opponents to propagate that falsehood, came out openly, two years later, to confess that he was misled. Even though that came belatedly, it finally vindicated the former governor who had earlier denied the accusation vehemently but whose voice was drowned by the strong propaganda unleashed on him by his opponents, aided and abetted by the then federal government.
The result is, today, Ohakim personifies the collective idea of the good people of Imo State of a purposeful and honest leader. Minus the turnaround being experienced through the efforts of the current governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma, to give the people a new lease of life, it is not uncommon to hear things like, “this state died after Ohakim”. Little wonder that, today, Ohakim is the only former governor that would walk the streets of Owerri and get applause.
Not unexpectedly, this insistence by the people that they were deceived into judging the former governor wrongly in 2011 has not gone down well with the handful of unscrupulous members of the political elite who were part of that perfidy and who are presently thoroughly scandalised and embarrassed that Ohakim survived the grand plot to completely chase him out of the political arena. At least for their own interest, they have not relented, as in the aphorism of the proverbial snake killer who would not stop until the head is completely severed from the body.
Undoubtedly, the Ohakim phobia has heightened in the last three years with the emergence of Governor Uzodimma, a bosom friend and political ally of his. The fear within the anti-Ohakim circle is that Uzodimma would not only bring him too close for their comfort but could also help catapult him to a height where they would never get at him again. This fear is genuine but two things ought to be pointed out here.
One, Ohakim, even outside being a friend and ally of the current governor, had long made up his mind that as a statesman, he would work with any governor of the state that is going in the right direction. Unknown to many, he tried all he could to even work with his immediate successor, Rochas Okoroacha, the unintended beneficiary of the conspiracy of 2011. In the eight years of Okoroacha’s reign and despite the hostilities from the governor and his handlers, Ohakim wrote several letters to him, with pieces of advice on crucial issues.
Even though Okoroacha and his men decided to misinterpret and misrepresent those gestures, Ohakim had nothing else in his mind other than the good of the state and its people. This fact became clear when Okoroacha’s handlers, out of sheer mischief, leaked the letters which, however, became popular among the people. In a newspaper interview at the heat of the public outcry over Okoroacha’s gross misrule, Ohakim confessed that Imo would not have witnessed such a mishap if Okoroacha had listened to his advice.
It was the same principle that made him rally round Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha after the latter was declared winner of the 2019 governorship election and even though he, Ohakim, was a victim of the electoral fraud that lead to that declaration. As far as he was concerned, Ihedioha showed promise and should be supported at least for the interest of the state and its people. When one thing led to the other and his own political soul mate emerged as governor in January 2020, it was only natural that he would throw his weight behind his friend.
Fortunately for both of them, Uzodimma has performed so creditably well that Ohakim’s traducers have again began to lose sleep. As far as they are concerned, Ohakim should not be seen to be associated with Uzodimma’s administration.
The second point is that besides the personal relationship between the two, Ohakim would be an asset to any administration at both the sub-national and national levels. Take one illustration: One of the major reasons he decided to make himself available during the brief stay of Ihedioha in office was that he was the only person around with an institutional memory on the governance of the state. The reason was that Okoroacha, who he handed over to, ran the state for eight years without records.
It is a well know fact, for example, that Okoroacha awarded contracts verbally and that no records of such were kept. For the eight years, top professionals in the state’s civil service were completely left out in preference for unskilled outsiders. Thus, by the time Okoroacha completed his weird method of governance in 2019, the only person who knew what was where in the state was Ohakim, haven handed over to Okoroacha eight years earlier. So, he opted to play the role of an institutional memory to fill the void. Unfortunately, Ihedioha’s tenure was short lived and because of the way things happened, Uzodimma did not receive any handover from him just as he, Ihedioha, did not receive from Okoroacha.
In other words, a bigger void was even staring before Uzodimma upon assumption of office and again, the only fellow that could provide any succour was Ohakim. Needless to say, his opponents, some of who incidentally are also close friends and allies of Uzodimma, became alerted and alarmed that the very person whose head they wanted to cut off may, in fact, “hijack” the administration. This is the crux of the matter, the very reason that there is today an orchestrated plot to alienate the two from each other.
Signs that there was a renewed onslaught on the former governor emerged in the count down to the party primaries to the last general elections. Ohakim had, in response to calls by some well meaning Nigerians and Imo indigenes, indicated interest to run for the seat of his native senatorial zone, what is popularly known in the state as Okigwe zone. But in a dramatic twist of events, some elements from the same zone, believed to be close to the governor, rose in stiff opposition and the former governor, after reading the hand writing on the wall, withdrew from the race, less than twenty-four hours to the primary election.
But little did he know that he had seen nothing yet. He was to receive the biggest shock of his life after escaping assassination on January 2, 2023 on his way to a political gathering somewhere in Ehime Mbano within the same Okigwe zone. Dr. Ohakim was riding in a bullet-proof car with two of his children when the assailants rained bullets on the vehicle. Unable to get at their target, the hoodlums turned to the patrol vehicle accompanying him, killed all the four security personnel plus the driver and set their bodies ablaze. Even though no direct link has been officially established between his political opponents and the incident, pundits had no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that there is a heightened desperation to finally take out Ohakim.
These unrelenting desperadoes re-enacted their antics a couple of weeks ago. In a report carried by a popular national newspaper, Dr. Ohakim was accused of leading a group of people in a proposed revolt against Governor Uzodimma for not supporting his bid for a ministerial appointment in the administration of President Bola Tinubu. Regardless that most observers saw the report as an infantile attempt to put a wedge between the two friends, the former governor had to come up with a strong defence of himself through a widely publicized statement.
Apparently in a bid to beat time, the masterminds of that report were so un-claver as to remind Ohakim that the same people that stopped him from going to the senate are also determined to stop him from getting a ministerial appointment. Clearly, the publication in question was targeted at polluting the mind of the governor.
Perhaps as a consolation from the futility of their shenanigan once again, the sponsors of the report in question finally concluded that Ohakim is currently faced with a “dying political career”. Really? Ohakim facing a dying political career?.
If this amount of energy is being expended to stop a mere ministerial nomination, then it is reasonable to say that those involved in this inglorious venture may have to bring down the heavens to kill a career that has spanned over three decades; a career that has seen their nemesis through heading strategic national institutions, including being the chair of the Nigerian National Gas Master Plan, a commissioner, a state governor whose policies and programmes on environmental issues was internationally acclaimed and Imo declared the cleanest state in the entire federation of Nigeria . Today, Ohakim is a statesman with an intricate network of political and corporate connections.
Overall, the controversy surrounding the publication under reference, knowingly and unknowingly, amounts to a blackmail on Governor Uzodinma since the attack was targeted at dissuading him from nominating Ohakim, assuming that he has any such intentions. In other words, if the blackmailers succeed in stopping the former governor this time around as they are boasting, they will only proceed to blackmail Governor Uzodimma in the next round of their scheme; and the victim may no longer be Ohakim but someone else or even the governor himself.
Whether we like it or not, Ohakim would have been an asset to the state if he had gone to the senate as he had wanted to. Today, the leadership of the 10th senate is made of his former colleagues and friends and we know what that would have meant for the state which is now the looser from that sabotage by a few misguided and disgruntled elements.
For more than a decade now, Ohakim has been the lone voice crying against what he popularized as “Nshikor Mentality” (Pull Him Down Syndrome) among Ndigbo. Yet, before our own very eyes, this social malady daily takes its toll both on individual and collective destinies of our people. A few members of the elite like him and Governor Uzodimma may have what it takes to continue to survive the scourge but at a time when other sections of the country are bonding together, is it not appropriate that we make concerted efforts to tackle the menace, at least to a reasonable minimum?
• Otuokere Is An Owerri-Based Legal Practitioner And Retired Permanent Secretary
