Governor Rochas Okorocha
Owelle Rochas Okorocha, the Imo State Governor, seem to
be the reigning man. The rave of the moment you could say. If you are to
go by what people are saying, his popularity is soaring far higher than
that of our dear Fashola. Personally, I have never really liked Mr.
Okorocha. Apart from his repeated stunts at gunning for the presidency, I
did not know enough about him to form an opinion that anyone should
take serious anyway. Nevertheless, I have heard people say lots of
uncomplimentary things about how he became a rich man. Very often others
rose to his defense arguing that, however he made his wealth; he is
spending a lot of it helping the poor.
Even during his attempts at the presidency, I perceived him as a spoiler that the ruling party, PDP of which he was a member at that time, was using to decimate the votes of other serious contenders. I remember him fondly as the “limousine campaigner” because that was his favorite campaign vehicle. And I always wondered how a man campaigning with limousines will be able to identify with the common man if he eventually wins the office. One remarkable feature with those campaigns though was namely, that there were generally very flamboyant and devoid of the violence and crudity associated with similar events.
When Mr. Okorocha decided to go for the Imo Governorship, I still did not change my opinion about him. I still felt he was a jester with a shrinking theatre. He later became an issue in the media and several commentators were portraying him as a serious contender. I still thought he was an exaggerated creation of the media. After all, Ohakim had boasted that he was going to win the governorship elections “hands down”. Ohakim famously remarked on Channels Television that “you don’t win elections by dancing in front of TV cameras. I have structures in all local governments of the state and we will win the elections hands down.” I believed Ohakim. Not because he had done well in his first tenure but because I thought that Okorocha did not have the political wherewithal to dethrone Ohakim.
When the confusion started about who won and who did not win the Imo elections, when some people that were to announce the results absconded and started throwing allegations, I alleged that INEC was only trying to rob Ohakim for Okorocha for “reasons from above”. Eventually elections were to be re-contested in some local governments. After that, Owelle Rochas Okorocha was declared winner and returned elected by the Returning Officer. You know what? The only reason I believed the result was because the team that conducted that election was led by Mike Igini, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Cross River State who was hurriedly redeployed to Imo for that purpose.
Prevailing events in the country vis-à-vis the impact of state governors on their people is honestly compelling me to accept the error in my judgment. As a journalist and public analyst, I have been longing for a contemporary with whom I can sincerely and dispassionately access our own governor in Lagos, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) who unarguably stands shoulder high amongst his colleagues. I have always held that if there is no other governor who by sheer performance, threatens Governor Fashola’s popularity and pass mark given to him by Lagosians, Nigerians and the international community, soonest complacency and decadence will set in. This is a time tested phenomena in governance.
Apart from the ongoing physical infrastructure renewal in Imo which will require a couple more years to measure their impact, there are certain steps Okorocha has taken that when I juxtapose them with the arguments of his colleagues from other states, you begin to wonder whether we are taken for fools. While other states governors are deceiving themselves that it is not possible to pay the eighteen thousand Naira minimum wage now which amounts to breaking a law that has been passed by the National Assembly and accented to by Mr. President, Rochas Okorocha has commence paying twenty thousand Naira minimum wage with arrears from April 2011.
While pensioners are dying in queues across the state capitals nationwide, when Ohakim turned payment of pensions to an invincible algebra, Okorocha demystified the myth and paid deserving pensioners their arrears swiftly. What makes the difference here is not the unavailability of money. It is the lack of compassion for pensioners who for most part of their working life did not have the opportunity to steal what their colleagues are stealing now. The chairman of the committee investigating sleaze in the pension scheme told the nation recently that their investigations took them to the home of one of the pension directors home where they discovered over two billion Naira cash. While our governor in Lagos is asking students to pay over three hundred thousand Naira at LASU, while even opposition governors pretending to be progressives are telling us that university education cannot be free, Okorocha has made education free from primary to tertiary level.
Truth be told, if our leaders will be sincere to us and to themselves and make the same sacrifices that the rest of us have been making all these years and contribute a little of what they spend on themselves to the welfare of the people, all Nigerians will have at least, the basic needs of life. Okorocha for instance, had to slice four billion Naira from his security vote to support his free education program. In countries where leaders have genuine interest in the welfare of their people, they make very painful sacrifices to commit more funds to public good.
Because of the economic crunch the British Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife had to wait at the lobby for a low budget RyanAir Flight from London to Malaga in Spain. Though the country can afford several, he does not have a private jet. He flies British Airways. Prime Ministers in Singapore, Italy, Spain etc. had to cut their allowances by up to 50% to save more funds in their austerity measures to salvage their countries. By so doing it is easier for their people to follow suite and sacrifice for collective good. The US President has only one aircraft along with the Airforce 1, but our President has nine in his fleet and has budgeted to buy another two in 2012.
Yes, we know that to rule Nigeria or any other group of persons is not easy. That is exactly why we are not saying that our leaders should build a skyscraper for everyone. We are not saying that every one of us must become a millionaire overnight. We are only desirous of having the basic needs of life. Education for our children which is a right, decent shelter, portable water, electricity and gainful employment not recharge card hawking. It is not rocket science. Some nations have solved these problems centuries ago and it is matter-of-factly, possible if we can minimize profligacy in our system.
It is this lack of parsimony that has evidently denied Nigerians the opportunity of benefitting from the nations’ munificent endowment and not the lack of money. When our governors have the audacity to tell us that they cannot pay eighteen thousand Naira minimum wage, whereas they know that, that amount by all standards cannot sustain any life in this Nigeria today, it is a cruel jest on those honorable men and women who have decided that they will not associate with corruption. When governors who may have paid only little or nothing for their education tell the son or daughter of a family that earns eighteen thousand Naira to cough out hundreds of thousands of Naira for school fees, it is a clear statement that education is no longer for the poor.
For Owelle Rochas Okorocha, I want to humbly say that my impression about you has changed tremendously. Because you have decided to make so many poor families breathe a sigh of relief, may God give you a breather in your own life! I know that even as Governor, you still have your prayer points, on behalf of the people whose lives you have touched, may God answer your own prayers. Please don’t get carried away. Stay focused and do all you can within your purview as the Governor of Imo State to renew hope for your people and give them the zeal to live again so that many years after you have left, no matter how bad it gets, we can look back and say there once was a governor in Nigeria who demonstrated that it is possible for leadership to still be to the benefit of the poor
Even during his attempts at the presidency, I perceived him as a spoiler that the ruling party, PDP of which he was a member at that time, was using to decimate the votes of other serious contenders. I remember him fondly as the “limousine campaigner” because that was his favorite campaign vehicle. And I always wondered how a man campaigning with limousines will be able to identify with the common man if he eventually wins the office. One remarkable feature with those campaigns though was namely, that there were generally very flamboyant and devoid of the violence and crudity associated with similar events.
When Mr. Okorocha decided to go for the Imo Governorship, I still did not change my opinion about him. I still felt he was a jester with a shrinking theatre. He later became an issue in the media and several commentators were portraying him as a serious contender. I still thought he was an exaggerated creation of the media. After all, Ohakim had boasted that he was going to win the governorship elections “hands down”. Ohakim famously remarked on Channels Television that “you don’t win elections by dancing in front of TV cameras. I have structures in all local governments of the state and we will win the elections hands down.” I believed Ohakim. Not because he had done well in his first tenure but because I thought that Okorocha did not have the political wherewithal to dethrone Ohakim.
When the confusion started about who won and who did not win the Imo elections, when some people that were to announce the results absconded and started throwing allegations, I alleged that INEC was only trying to rob Ohakim for Okorocha for “reasons from above”. Eventually elections were to be re-contested in some local governments. After that, Owelle Rochas Okorocha was declared winner and returned elected by the Returning Officer. You know what? The only reason I believed the result was because the team that conducted that election was led by Mike Igini, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Cross River State who was hurriedly redeployed to Imo for that purpose.
Prevailing events in the country vis-à-vis the impact of state governors on their people is honestly compelling me to accept the error in my judgment. As a journalist and public analyst, I have been longing for a contemporary with whom I can sincerely and dispassionately access our own governor in Lagos, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) who unarguably stands shoulder high amongst his colleagues. I have always held that if there is no other governor who by sheer performance, threatens Governor Fashola’s popularity and pass mark given to him by Lagosians, Nigerians and the international community, soonest complacency and decadence will set in. This is a time tested phenomena in governance.
Apart from the ongoing physical infrastructure renewal in Imo which will require a couple more years to measure their impact, there are certain steps Okorocha has taken that when I juxtapose them with the arguments of his colleagues from other states, you begin to wonder whether we are taken for fools. While other states governors are deceiving themselves that it is not possible to pay the eighteen thousand Naira minimum wage now which amounts to breaking a law that has been passed by the National Assembly and accented to by Mr. President, Rochas Okorocha has commence paying twenty thousand Naira minimum wage with arrears from April 2011.
While pensioners are dying in queues across the state capitals nationwide, when Ohakim turned payment of pensions to an invincible algebra, Okorocha demystified the myth and paid deserving pensioners their arrears swiftly. What makes the difference here is not the unavailability of money. It is the lack of compassion for pensioners who for most part of their working life did not have the opportunity to steal what their colleagues are stealing now. The chairman of the committee investigating sleaze in the pension scheme told the nation recently that their investigations took them to the home of one of the pension directors home where they discovered over two billion Naira cash. While our governor in Lagos is asking students to pay over three hundred thousand Naira at LASU, while even opposition governors pretending to be progressives are telling us that university education cannot be free, Okorocha has made education free from primary to tertiary level.
Truth be told, if our leaders will be sincere to us and to themselves and make the same sacrifices that the rest of us have been making all these years and contribute a little of what they spend on themselves to the welfare of the people, all Nigerians will have at least, the basic needs of life. Okorocha for instance, had to slice four billion Naira from his security vote to support his free education program. In countries where leaders have genuine interest in the welfare of their people, they make very painful sacrifices to commit more funds to public good.
Because of the economic crunch the British Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife had to wait at the lobby for a low budget RyanAir Flight from London to Malaga in Spain. Though the country can afford several, he does not have a private jet. He flies British Airways. Prime Ministers in Singapore, Italy, Spain etc. had to cut their allowances by up to 50% to save more funds in their austerity measures to salvage their countries. By so doing it is easier for their people to follow suite and sacrifice for collective good. The US President has only one aircraft along with the Airforce 1, but our President has nine in his fleet and has budgeted to buy another two in 2012.
Yes, we know that to rule Nigeria or any other group of persons is not easy. That is exactly why we are not saying that our leaders should build a skyscraper for everyone. We are not saying that every one of us must become a millionaire overnight. We are only desirous of having the basic needs of life. Education for our children which is a right, decent shelter, portable water, electricity and gainful employment not recharge card hawking. It is not rocket science. Some nations have solved these problems centuries ago and it is matter-of-factly, possible if we can minimize profligacy in our system.
It is this lack of parsimony that has evidently denied Nigerians the opportunity of benefitting from the nations’ munificent endowment and not the lack of money. When our governors have the audacity to tell us that they cannot pay eighteen thousand Naira minimum wage, whereas they know that, that amount by all standards cannot sustain any life in this Nigeria today, it is a cruel jest on those honorable men and women who have decided that they will not associate with corruption. When governors who may have paid only little or nothing for their education tell the son or daughter of a family that earns eighteen thousand Naira to cough out hundreds of thousands of Naira for school fees, it is a clear statement that education is no longer for the poor.
For Owelle Rochas Okorocha, I want to humbly say that my impression about you has changed tremendously. Because you have decided to make so many poor families breathe a sigh of relief, may God give you a breather in your own life! I know that even as Governor, you still have your prayer points, on behalf of the people whose lives you have touched, may God answer your own prayers. Please don’t get carried away. Stay focused and do all you can within your purview as the Governor of Imo State to renew hope for your people and give them the zeal to live again so that many years after you have left, no matter how bad it gets, we can look back and say there once was a governor in Nigeria who demonstrated that it is possible for leadership to still be to the benefit of the poor
God bless Nigeria
Agba Jalingo.
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