BY PROTUS NATHAN UZOMA#
Few months ago, the print media in Imo was awash by several information, relating to Chief Ohakim’s admonition to Owelle Rochas Okorocha, the Horn newspaper had it on a banner page with this caption, “Ohakim to Rochas : Behave like a Governor…” In this great caption lies the reality of a true leader. I have on my own decided to re-x-ray the issue to ascertain if our Governor has truly behaved like a governor within the number of years he has spent in office.
Shakespeare once inferred, “Character is not in the mind but in the will.” In the same vein and in line with Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of life, he appropriated the Shakespearian philosophy and reintroduced his ideology when he said, “A man of character will make himself worthy of any position he is given.” It is obvious today that our society is bedeviled by bad leadership which is the product of education without character. It was Gandhi that says, “An educated person without character is potentially dangerous to the society.” In our society today, we have many educated people without proper character no wonder there is topsy-turvy of socio-economic policies. The colossal failure speaks volume.
From the foregoing, came the inner ideology of life as Chief Ohakim posited and admonished Gov. Rochas to behave like a governor few months ago. The deductive ideology inherent from the admonition of Chief Ohakim is that Gov. Rochas does not have the proper ethics of governance and as a result, his behavior is the outcome of same. Again, it means that Gov. Rochas does not use his conscience as it relates to his position. Are these allegations true? Well, Rochas himself knows that he has tried for Imo people but the fact remains that we are not grateful to God for giving us a leader like Rochas.
Here is the hidden truth take it, Gov. Rochas has his ambition to be the Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria come 2019, he is very free as it’s his constitutional right but is it in this way and manner? He is free to be god if he likes but does his character of tightfistedness, parsimony and stinginess matches or corresponds with his ambition? If he does not behave like a governor now that he is one, how will he behave if he becomes the head of state? Does he behave like one that was slapped by a ghost? Oh yes, that reminds me of the rumour some months ago that Rochas was slapped by a ghost; the rumour that made me featured an article in my column, “Did Ghost truly Slap Gov. Rochas”? In his text message to me, Gov. Rochas Chief Press Secretary became exasperated and threatened me then. I refused to join words with him because he is not my match at all. Silence and secret battle settled it all.
Gov. Rochas has not been fair with Imo people as a result much is not expected from him by someone like me. He is not law abiding and has no respect for the rule of law.
He ought to be law abiding by obeying court orders and rulings but on the other hand, Gov. Okorocha has refused to obey the verdicts of the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Reasons for the advice are endless. We shall come back to it later. However be informed that according to the school of Psychology, character “is the aggregate or combination of psychological traits that distinguish a person from another.” In psychology, we have character convergence, character disorders, and character displacement to mention a few.
In the area of character disorders which is also called ‘personality disorders’ also referred to as character neuroses, it is in the school of psychoanalysis in which psychological conflict manifest itself in the form of character traits or pattern of behavior. This is where one finds a deviant character if properly analyzed but it is not the concern of the writer here. The truth is that we are the product of our character, yes, we play the role and others follow.
In various continents, in different cultures, religions, languages and worldviews, character has various concepts, in Igbo language it is called Ozuzu, Greek calls it Learning, and Confucianism, Hinduism and Buddhism all call it Noble Paths. They all denote the process of affecting or impressing and forming the human character with socio-cultural moral ideal and techniques for the manifestation of sufficiently internalized and desirable altitudinal standards has no peculiar name but signifies virtuous life or good moral conducts.
The point here is that for a person to be bereft of good moral conduct it means that the person is morally sick and lacks the character of becoming a leader. Good character is the product of conscience. Conscience can be formed by experience, personal life experience, interaction in the society, moral education and much more. Family education and character training are very important if at all we wish to excel in our various callings.
Anyone who lacks the above is the one who may need the admonition of Chief Ikedi Ohakim. Nobody is perfect in character not even Chief Ohakim. He made his mistakes while in office and nobody was there to correct him but Owelle is highly blessed to have an adviser like Chief Ohakim. He did not mean bad for Owelle Rochas Okorocha. For a long time, Chief Anayo Okorocha has been behaving as if Imo is his private business empire by neglecting court orders, ruling Imo with impunity.
Though, he has put in his best for complete six years now, but it is obvious that his best is not satisfactory to ndi Imo. We need a man that can change all the ills of Owelle Rochas in 2019. We need a fearless soul cum leader who will not administer with impunity, a man of moral standing who shall be amenable to the principles of democracy.
When the former governor of Imo state Chief Dr. Ikedi Ohakim implored Gov.Rochas to behave like a governor, he said that because Okorocha threatened banishing HRH Eze Ilomuanya from Imo state, an expression which is very impossible for Gov. Rochas to accomplish. Ex-governor Ohakim lamented on how Imo people are presently living in fear not knowing the next agenda of Gov. Rochas. Yes, Gov. Rochas may wake up one day and decides to banish anyone who criticizes his government from Imo state.
Imo belongs to us all Gov. Rochas is only a driver and we gave him the key to drive us but he has shown incompetent in leadership, Ndi Imo what shall we do next?