Former
governor of Imo State, Chief Ikedi Ohakim, believes that the crisis-ridden
Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) should not be written off yet. He argues that
peace is
eluding the party, because its leaders are yet to make strong
commitment to politically resolving the crisis. The former governor also spoke
on other issues including the need to restructure the country, state of affairs
in his state and his next political move in this interview with IHEANACHO
NWOSU
You are
very much in the news these days, are you back from your sabbatical?
Sabbatical
from what?
From politics, as you announced sometime last year.
I do not agree that I am in the news always. I may have made one or two
contributions recently to debates on important national issues and I feel
that’s what leaders should be doing. There is so much to talk about.. . I know
that some people misconstrue making regular contributions to national
issues as seeking for notice. But they fail completely in the sense that it is
the failure of leaders to speak out on issues at the right time that led us to
where we are now. As for whether I am back from sabbatical, my answer is that,
first there is no real politics going on now and second, being on sabbatical
does not forbid one from making contributions to issues of national importance.
You think there is no politics going on now?
Well, in the sense that we have not started campaigning, or taking
sides. What is going on now is mere grandstanding, speculations and nocturnal
moves.
Before you announced your sabbatical, you
were a regular commentator on the rift in your party, the Peoples Democratic
Party. What’s your take on the current state of affairs?
My take is that I feel vindicated, because I kept on harping that what
is needed is a political solution. I said that though we should follow
the rule of law, that in the final analysis, a political solution is what will
bring peace. Now, you can see that the Appeal Court upheld an earlier judgment
in favour of the Ali-Modu Sherrif leadership, based on the rule of law, but
that has not brought the needed peace. Each time there is a court judgment, one
party wins and the other loses. The losing faction becomes aggrieved and the
vicious cycle continues. That’s what we are witnessing. Whatever the Supreme
Court rules, the fact is that the losing faction will become aggrieved and the
center will continue not to hold.
But the efforts to find a political solution seem
not to be working.
Maybe the right approach has not been applied.
So, what do you think?
I don’t think the real leaders of the PDP have taken enough interest in
the matter. I don’t think those who were instrumental to the formation of the
party have been sufficiently carried along. The Governor Dickson committee
report is a right step in the right direction and I also acknowledge the
efforts of a leader like President Jonathan, but I believe he has to do more.
He is the leader of the party, no doubt, but I think he needs more support from
outside.
Why don’t you return from sabbatical and contribute?
By granting you this
interview, I am already making a contribution.
Are you optimistic that the matter will be
resolved?
Yes, I am quite optimistic. And it is in the interest of the nation at
large that the PDP should survive.
It is believed in some quarters that the APC
is fueling the crisis in the PDP. What do you think?
I do not buy that. Of course, parties do not ordinarily wish each other
well, but I do not see how in this context, the APC is responsible for the
recalcitrance going on in the PDP. The argument is both escapist and defeatist.
Early this year, you wrote an article advising
President Buhari on some issues. Do you still believe in the arguments you
raised?
Yes, of course. Nothing has changed. Recall that the main thrust of
that article was that the system we are currently operating has failed and that
no matter how much the President tried, he will be unable to make much impact,
whether in the realm of economics or politics. I said Nigerians do not hate
him, as some people insinuate; but they are disgusted with the system and are
no longer ready to co-operate with whoever insists that it should remain the
way it is. I still stand by those arguments.
In other words, you are aligning with the
arguments for a restructuring of the polity?
Absolutely.
But how do you look at the opposition by the north
to the idea of restructuring?
Well, I do not think that the north is totally against restructuring.
Some of the strongest advocates of restructuring are from the north. But beyond
that, I think what we should do is to allay the fears of some elements in the
north; that restructuring will put the region at a disadvantage. On the
contrary, I believe the north is the biggest potential beneficiary of a
politically restructured Nigeria.
Can you elaborate?
The next paradigm shift is agriculture and the north holds the joker
there. It has an incredibly large expanse of arable land and labour that can be
gotten cheaply. If we go for large- scale agriculture, which has become a
strategic imperative for our survival as a nation, the north will be playing
the role the Niger Delta is currently playing. So, they have nothing to fear.
The oil, which is the bone of contention, is fizzling out.
A recent letter you wrote to the governor of your
state is causing a lot of ripples. Did you envisage such?
When you say ripples, I
don’t know in what sense, other than that the governor and his handlers made a
song and dance of a mere letter of advice, instead of addressing the issues I
raised.
Their main grouse is that you made it an open
letter and that you shouldn’t even have resorted to letter writing, since you
have access to the governor.
First, I did not make it an open letter. I merely made copies available
to some leaders in the state and beyond, owing to the nature of the issues I
discussed. If I wanted to make it an open letter, I would have taken newspaper
advertorials to publish the letter. The newspapers might have naturally
stumbled on the letter and decided to publish it as part of public service. In
any case, why the fuss on whether it was an open or closed letter? To say that
I have access to the governor is to be economical with the truth. I do not
crave to have access to Governor Okorocha, but he is an incredibly hostile
fellow. This is a fellow who has remained bitter six years after an election in
which he was declared winner even though he did not win. Go and ask Governor
Okorocha whether he has ever invited me to any government function. I am not
the only person. The latest example was during the visit of the Vice President,
Professor Yemi Osinbajo, to Imo State to address some issues concerning the
Niger Delta.
The state governor did not deem it fit to invite any of those
representing the oil producing areas in the National Assembly. You may recall
that the people of the oil- producing area in the state protested against the
non invitation of their representatives to the meetings with the vice
president. That’s just an example. The talk about having access to Governor
Okorocha is bunkum. In any case, the governor, as I said in the letter, is fond
of attacking me publicly. So, why would I now start running after him, when he
seizes every opportunity to denigrate and insult me openly. Governor Okorocha
would not address any public gathering without mentioning how I failed. In the
incident that partly led to my latest letter, he just took the microphone and
started abusing me. When I read the report in the newspapers, I made inquiries
to ascertain the circumstances under which he poured such invectives on me. I
discovered it was just from the blues. He was talking about his road projects
and just from nowhere, he veered off to me. Nobody asked him any question about
Ikedi Ohakim. There is a gallery at the Government House where the photographs
of past governors are displayed. Up till now, mine is conspicuously missing.
And you would ask, why? That’s the person they say I have access to.
Maybe he was taking that opportunity to
respond to earlier comments by you either through a letter or verbally.
But he had responded to my earlier letter when he spent over N20
million on newspaper advertorials to tabulate his achievements and mine and
scored me zero on all points, while scoring himself 100 per cent. Other well-
meaning citizens of the state told him to respond to the issues I raised and
not the comparison. Incidentally, some of the issues I raised in my previous
letter are still haunting his administration.
In which areas?
In my letter last August, I pointed at the danger of destroying
people’s property and homes without consultation under any guise. Recently, a
Federal High Court in Owerri issued a warrant of arrest on six top
functionaries of his administration, including two commissioners, for failing
to appear before it over a case between the government and a prominent citizen
of the state whose property was destroyed by agents of government. I also made
reference to the shoddy jobs on some of the civil construction works going on
in the state. And recently, the Council of Registered Engineers of Nigeria
raised the alarm over the safety of the two flyovers that are currently being
completed by the administration. The flyovers were started by our
administration, but Governor Okorocha threw away all the safety valves in the
original design. Even non- professionals see that the profile of the bridge is
not in alignment with the plan and profile of the dualised road design. Go
there and see for yourself. The fact that somebody is uncomfortable that
I make my observations public means that what I am stating are the facts. I am
not impressed by the talk about making my observations privately, because
Governor Okorocha does not listen to advice. Go and ask the people working with
him. In fact, my next observations may be on live television.
If the governor invites you to a meeting, will you
honour it?
That’s hypothetical and I do not think that it has gotten to that. The
governor does not need to invite me to be able to purge himself of some of his
excesses, which are in public domain. He does not need to invite me to be able
to know that he cannot threaten any citizen of the state with banishment. He
does not need to hold a meeting with me to be able to respect the rule of law
and court judgments. As I said in my letter, governance is like boxing. They have
similar codes of conduct. You don’t punch your opponent after the whistle is
blown. But His Excellency, Governor Rochas Okorocha, is fond of punching his
opponents after the match. He keeps on insulting his predecessors. For example,
the high point of his response to my latest letter is to repeat the thrash that
his achievements surpass those of all past governors of the state put together.
That is infantile. It is the type of thing student unionists say to each other.
Next, he will remind me that I flogged a Catholic priest; and each time
he says it, the people laugh at him, because they know he is living in the
past. The elections took place six years ago, but Okorocha behaves as if we are
just going into one. All those who cooked up the issue of Reverend Father have
all told the world that it is not true. For Governor Okorocha to always allude
to that in response to my observations over his ineptitude and misgovernance
shows that his thinking horizon has not gone beyond 2011. In Imo State, it is
lies, lies and all lies. He lied several times that he would conduct local
government elections. He lies with payment of salaries and pensions. The people
of Imo are waiting for the next lie to mature, which is the delivery of five
new aircrafts for his Imo Airline project before the end of April 2017. April
will soon end and it will bring the number of lies and unfulfilled promises to
183. We are documenting everything
But we understand that the Airline project is part
of efforts to create jobs especially for the youths.
Which youths? Is it the youths who have been so harassed and
intimidated that they do not know what to do any longer? The 10,000 youths we
employed during my administration, but whom he dismissed from service upon
assuming office are so economically deprived that they find it difficult to
come together. They got a court judgment that they should be reinstated, but
the governor refused to obey the ruling. Their leader, one Dr. Ugonna Emereole,
was callously murdered in broad daylight in front of his father’s house. Like I
said, things have really gotten to a level where it is practically impossible
for somebody like me to keep quiet over the abysmal perfidy going on in Imo
State.
But reports have it that there is massive
infrastructural development in the state now. The state capital, Owerri, now
has eight-lane roads, for example.
That is most laughable. Where in this world do they build eight-lane
carriage within the city? It is so ridiculous and makes the people of the state
look backward. You don’t need such roads within a metropolis. The roads he is
talking about jam the entrance to people’s homes. There are no pedestrian
walkways. There are no rooms for water pipes and electric cables to be laid in
future. I can assure you that the next administration may be forced to reduce
the width of those roads.
Apart from roads there are several other structures
like the 27 general hospitals, the Imo Cargo Airport, which is being rebuilt by
the state government and several other buildings that would enhance governance.
Will the next administration also reduce those ones?
The buildings you are talking about are of no economic value and more
than 80 per cent of them are substandard structures and are not under use. Even
if you want to count buildings as achievement, let the governor tell us how
many buildings he has erected with the N982 billion revenue he has collected in
six years, since he is a builder. How much of that went to the building of his
Eastern Palm University in his family compound in Ogboko. What did he build
with the N26.6 billion I handed over to him? Since he is a builder, on which
building did he spend the N13.2 billion bond money I left behind? Even the
Cargo Airport you are talking about, which year’s budget captured the N7
billion Cargo Airport project? The Eastern Palm University in his family
compound is said to be a private-public sector project. Can he tell the people
of Imo who the private partner or partners are? I recall that that university
started as a purported plan to relocate the Imo State University to Ogboko. But
when the people protested, Okorocha cunningly claimed that he had dropped the
plan, but continued to build the structures. Since then, the university has
been known by at least three names. It was first named Imo European University.
Today, he is calling it Eastern Palm University. Mark my words; the university
may end up as Rochas Okorocha American University.
As a builder that he is, Governor Okorocha has built a massive private
residence in Owerri, which they call Spibat. It is covering over 60 hectares of
land. It raises goose pimples, because, as far as I’m concerned, that fortress
is built on the graveyard of the citizens of the state. When a large number of
our people have no roof over their heads, others are sleeping under the trees,
the governor acquired for himself a private residence of over 22 storey
buildings. That’s obscene and an affront on the good people of Imo State. The
Spibat compound is bigger than the size of the Imo State University campus in
Owerri and bigger than the Aso Rock Villa, the official residence of the
President of Nigeria.
You talk about the nonexistence of qualified
medical personnel in the state health system. But recent reports have it that
the state government has been donating hospitals to the armed forces. If the
situation was that bad, would there have been such a development?
We know why Governor Okorocha is donating the people’s structures to
the armed forces and police. The hospitals are meant for the people. When was
it agreed that the structures should be donated to anybody? My inquiry from
members of the State House of Assembly shows that they do not know about it. In
any case, I have gone through the 2016/2017 budgets of the army, police and air
force; they never budgeted for hospitals in Imo State. He just wants to
militarize the state, believing that that will offer him any political or
electoral advantage in the future. If he likes, let him also donate the 27
local government headquarters that are now overgrown with weeds to the
military. In any case, the purported donation does not obliterate the fact that
the hospitals are not functional and that the health system in the state has
collapsed,with no single consultant in the employment of the state government.
One of the issues you raised in your letter was
that of local government elections, which the governor had promised severally
to hold. He has now fixed September, this year as the deadline for the
election. Is that not a reassuring step?
When I wrote him last year, he hurriedly scheduled the local government
elections for last September, i.e. 2016. Again, on receipt of my latest letter,
he has hurriedly scheduled another one for September 2017. But I can assure you
that he is doing that to escape the wrath of the people and that of the Federal
Government, which has directed all the states to hold LGA elections before the
end of this year. But, even at that, I’m sure that if Governor Okorocha has his
way, he will avoid the election, as he has done for six years.
Every state in the South East has conducted local government elections,
with the exception of Imo. Even with his latest announcement, I can assure you
that the people are not impressed.
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