By Kenneth Okonkwo
Democracy guarantees every individual that essential freedom of expression which he cannot ordinarily enjoy except he or she is selected among the delegates to the ongoing National Conference or elected into the state or National Assemblies. If President Goodluck Jonathan as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria can wake-up one morning and without any executive bill or motion and resolution of the National Assembly, convoke and singularly select delegates to a National Conference which is expected to come up with recommendations on the continued existence or otherwise of the Sovereign Nation called Nigeria, I owe it a duty to express my right to free choice on who best fits to govern Imo State in 2015 and even beyond.
As an indigene of Okigwe Zone, I should ordinarily have pushed for an Imo State Governor of Okigwe Zone extraction. This will have to wait until after the PDP primaries. If an Okigwe Zone aspirant especially Senator Ifeanyi Araraume emerges, so be it. That will be a welcome development. Presently Okigwe Zone is under-developed. Okigwe Zone is under-represented, similarly Okigwe Zone is equally misrepresented. A situation where we have a former Federal Permanent Secretary representing Okigwe Zone in the Senate in the person of Chief Ambassador Matthew Nwagwu yet Senator Hope Uzodinma known only for amassing stupendous wealth is the leader of PDP in Imo State is to rather unacceptable and must be reversed in the interest of meritocracy over mediocrity. What credentials does Senator Hope Uzodinma parade as PDP leader in Imo State? PDP at the National level has a right to appoint or accept any one as member of its Board of Trustees (BOT) based on the amount of money donated to the party structures across the states, LGAs and wards. But for a former Nigeria Ambassador to the World Trade Organization (WTO) USA, as well as former Federal Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministries of External Affairs and Defence Headquarters, Abuja, to subjugate himself to this Senator Hope Uzodinma’s PDP leadership on the account and basis of opulence is to say the least irritating and infact defies any logics.
For ridiculing his enviable academic and professional credentials, thereby abdicating responsibilities as an elder who is more eminently qualified to be a political leader to the likes of Udenwa, Araraume, Uzodinma, Ohakim and what have you, Senator Ambassador Matthew Nwagwu should just bow out of the race to Okigwe Senate in 2015. His lackadaisical attitude to leadership has justified those including Araraume, Maurice Iwu and Udenwa who in 2007, denied him ticket for the cowboy-Senator, Sylvester Ndubuisi Anyanwu who joined the fray and race in stupendous wealth and opulence acquisition. That is by the way. The gist of this write-up is the place of Ngor Okpala in Imo politics. Easily the headquarter of ancient Owerri, Ngor Okpala has consistently taken the back seat in the scheme of things in the state. Right from the second Republic of Nigeria in 1979 when Mbaise cornered Owerri Senate via Senators Tony Anyanwu (1979-1983), Senator Isidore Obasi, (1983), Senator Bright Nwanne (1991-1992) through late Evan Enwerem of Ikeduru (1999-2003) Senator Ama Iwuagwu, Mbaitoli (2003) and the Obibiezena born Senator Eze Ajoku (2003-2007) before it returned to Mbaise in 2007-2015 via Christiana Anyanwu of Aboh Mbaise LGA but of Ahiazu Mbaise origin, Ngor Okpala which parades the likes of Hon. Chief Greg Egu, Justice ABC Agu, Eustace Eke, Okenze Obinna and Lambert Iheanacho has not had a shot at either the senate or the governorship. And this is why I most humbly add support for the Governorship ambition of Prof Jude Njoku. He is not just the most qualified, he is the most credible and experienced technocrat, with a track record of managerial ingenuity and exploits. At one time he was the best Vice-chancellor in Nigeria. As a Commissioner for education, he broke the jinx of returning schools to the missions even though those schools are the most expensive in Imo State today and the so called missions who scrambled for the management of our secondary schools are today grossly incapable of managing them. This was after crying loud and wolf to force the hands of the government to release such schools to them on a platter of gold.
Prof. Jude Njoku also has the outstanding legacy of attracting UBE funding having succeeded in convincing the then Governor of Imo State, Sir Ikedi Ohakim to pay the relevant counterpart funds. For the four years during which Ohakim was in office, Prof. Jude Njoku ensured that the free schools buses procured by ex-Governor Achike Udenwa operated optimally and offered Imo school children free ride to and fro-schools within the Owerri metropolis.
Don’t mind the likes Prof. Nnamdi Obiaraeri it was only Prof. Jude Njoku who as Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Urban Planning never involved in large scale land racketeering and fraud. I won’t be surprised if Prof. Jude Njoku left the Ministry of Lands, Survey and Urban Planning without acquiring a plot at Akanchawa civic centre environment which is the choice home to the likes of Udenwa, Chris Anyanwu, Dr. Alex Obi, Kelechi Kennedy Nwagwu, Chukwukadibia Agwocha, Cosmas Iwu etc to mention but a few. Above all, as Commissioner for Education, Prof. Jude Njoku made sure the 36 Adult Education classroom blocks were completed together with architectural design replicated in all the 27 LGAs and not the present situation where Roche Construction Company has abandoned the projects with some still under the foundation laying stone level.
Like the renowned jinx breaker he is, if and when Prof. Jude Njoku becomes Executive Governor, Imo State would have been salvaged from the stranglehold of half educated Governors which the white man taught us to be very dangerous and of course we are all eye witnesses to the menace of half barked and poorly educated Governors presently.
In 1999-2007, Orlu people offered Achike Udenwa whose only academic claim was an Ordinary Diploma in Accountancy from the IMT Enugu. Udenwa with his many years as Chief Accountant with MCC could not even secure the elusive membership of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). He handed over to yet another Ordinary National Diploma (OND) holder in the person of Sir Ikedi Ohakim also of IMT Enugu. Even when PDP screening panel disqualified Ohakim in 2006 from participating in the Governorship primaries, he went through the back door to become Governor, something the Supreme Court recently berated and lashed at him for. The only reason for such reprimand and poor showing at governance is lack of reasonable intellectual capacity and competence. The man Ikedi Ohakim though highly handicapped by the bondage to which Udenwa and the likes of Jasper Ndubuaku held him hostage, was a disaster. He could not even resuscitate the Nsu ceramics or tiles industry near his “door mouth”. Yet again Ohakim better known as Ikiri, let go the Governorship to Owelle Rochas Okorocha who possesses a strange of ordinary diplomas in law and management from the University of Jos where Viola Onwuliri and her late husband tried to brush him up, hence his eloquence and mesmerizing oracle. Unfortunately he could not distinguish between gratuity and pension. This explains why Onwuliri later lambasted him to account for all the LGA funds he received from the federal allocation for the past two years during which periods he has wronged the council areas as an executive Sole Administrator.
Courtesy: Community Watchdog Newspaper
