Ugochukwu Nwaokoro

ugopn@lycos.com

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Against all odds, Imo people stood firm in their desire to vote the rogue Ohakim government out. In the midst of alleged Imo State government officials and rogue INEC officials assisted rigging tactics; Imolites stood still, unperturbed and even risked their lives and made sure that the rogue Governor Ikedi Ohakim did not return to the Imo State House. Even the alleged use of state funds to buy votes; and the manipulations of election figures to close the gaps did not help Ohakim as Rochas still won by a wide margin. I wonder what would have happened if the elections were truly free and fair. I think if the elections were free and fair, Owelle Okorocha would still win, but with a wider margin, and Ararume would come a distant second while Ohakim and other candidates would struggle for the third and other positions.

For the past four years that Ikedi Ohakim has been the rogue governor of Imo State, after being fraudulently installed by the disgraced former INEC chairman, Maurice Iwu; I have refused to write about Ohakim since it was not a secret about whom he was coming to the office of governor of Imo State. Rather, I blamed Imolites for allowing Ohakim to occupy the office of governor of Imo State and the risk of giving access of Imo State treasury to him. Imo people were wrong to expect Ohakim to deliver to them what he didn’t have and didn’t have a clue how to achieve. Needless to say that the Imo peoples’ election revolution that we are currently experiencing now should have happened four years ago in 2007, I guess it’s better late than never. Finally, Imolites have woken from long slumber and vindicated themselves.

As I wrote earlier, Imo people knew who Ohakim was before they allowed him to be their governor regardless of the means by which he came in. To me Ohakim lived up to his reputations and antecedents, he gave the governorship of Imo State his best according to the doctrines he understood. As the saying goes, you cannot breed a goat and expect it to fight like a lion, a goat is a goat and a lion is a lion. Better yet, as we say in computer language of GIGO, garbage in garbage out. So, Imo people got in Ohakim, exactly what they asked for. Now that it is a new dawn in Imo State, Imo people must rise up once again to make sure that Ohakim accounts for his four years as the rogue governor of Imo State.

As Owelle Rochas Okorocha prepares to take the mantle of leadership as the new governor of Imo State, he should be mindful that there is a large number of the Nigerian population that thinks that he is no different than Ohakim. I personally think that Rochas Okorocha in so many ways is a lot better than Ohakim, but, it is not what I think that matters, but how well Rochas performs in office that matters. So, this is the chance for the governor-elect to prove those who did not believe in him wrong and reaffirm the confidence that those who believed in him bestowed upon him.

The governor-elect should start by assembling the right team of cabinet members who would make sure that dividends of democracy trickle down to the people. The people must enjoy dividends of democracy under the incoming government of Rochas Okorocha because they gave Rochas a true mandate unlike Ohakim, and for that the people have the right to hold Rochas accountable. Jobs must be created, schools must be renovated, salaries of government workers must be paid, roads must be built and maintained, abandoned state owned industries must be revamped and those fraudulently sold by previous regimes must be revoked amongst other tasks. Otherwise come next four years, the fate of Ohakim would be better than what would happen to Rochas if he fails to deliver.

As the governor-elect prepares to take office, he should stay away from those good for nothing worthless and shameless highly corruptible praise singers of any government in power, most of whom are currently in the Ohakim camp, because it is the camp in power. These members of any government in power (AGIP) would soon start singing praises for the Okorocha camp, that’s if they haven’t already started. These members of ‘AGIP’ must be resisted because they mean ill to the society and will only cause a distraction to the incoming Okorocha government.

Again, I thank the good people of the Heartland State of Nigeria for making us proud by restoring hope and power to the people.

Long live Owelle Rochas Okorocha,

Long live the good people of Imo State, the Heartland of Nigeria,

Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria

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Ugochukwu Nwaokoro, a proud Imolite, writes from Newark, New Jersey, USA