The Imo Governorship Race: The Power Of Money And The People. BY CHUKS OSUJI, OON

 

Undoubtedly, never in the history of this State has there been any moment when there was such a high climax of tension over the election of a Governor than now. Of course, politics in our country nay our State has unfortunately been over commercialized and personalized. That is why few of us who actually understood the correct process in every civilized political setting strongly believed that unless we return to the basis of political process in the country and in the State, for so long, we would continue to fumble because many powerful leaders in our midst have left these simple ethos of political process to follow the path of violence and monitarisation of our political practices. Simply put, they are political entreprenuers.

In every political process, there must be political order. In fact, there is no political order in this country and in this State because, those two key ingredients of functional politics are missing- equity and justice.
In Imo State in particular which unfortunately has partly followed national sequence, there are no equity and justice. In fact, if there is no equity and justice in our political process, we can never never get it right. Of course, properly put, politics is the aggregation of interests; which means who gets what, how and why according to many Political Scientists. But in the process of the aggregation of interests, competing groups must not overlook the fact that there must be equity and justice as in built mechanism to make such an aggregation of such interests possible.

How can a group of persons or individuals take advantage of the geopolitical environment and weakness of Owerri zone for absolutely appropriation of their right to contribute to the governance of the State? In every human dealings, there must be the presence of conscience. According to one writer, “any behaviour of human beings that does not have some elements of conscience is simply animalistic behaviour.”

Otherwise, how can somebody in his or her right sense support the idea that the next Governor of Imo State can still come from Orlu Zone? Is it not a display of “power arrogance” for a group of Orlu leadership to ask Owerri or Okigwe to go and produce a credible Governorship candidate which they can support otherwise, Orlu will produce another Governorship candidate?

Properly translated, this means telling a boy, “if your father does not know how to sleep with your mother satisfactorily, somebody will come and do it for your father.”
Definitely, Orlu is out of the equation now and for long until equity and justice are allowed to interplay in our geo-politics.

Those who are today using powerful position and money to attempt to perpetuate Orlu hegemony at the Douglas House must be reminded what Kennedy said, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible are making violent revolution inevitable.”

They must be reminded of another writing of W. E. B.” Du Bois, “When a slave realizes that he is in chain, the master must do something to release him otherwise, he is in trouble.”

The calculation of some very myopic persons in Orlu zone is that never can Okigwe and Owerri politicians due to greed and ignorance of consequences of history that they can never come together, must be reminded that “no group or nation ever remains perpetually powerful because life is very dynamic. Because if for any reason an Owerri person captures the Douglas House, is such a person being told to consolidate unity between Owerri and Okigwe zones?

No, not at all. That is not how to build progressive political system where every part must be included. What we are canvassing now is simple; let Owerri person get the Governorship now since Orlu has held it for 16years since the creation of Imo State and Okigwe has held it for 4 years and three months of Mbakwe while Owerri zone has held it for only 18 months under Evan Enwerem. We know how Orlu zone got twelve LGAs. It was due to shortsightedness of some Owerri leaders and the smartness of Walter Ofonagoro taking advantage of his relationship with Abacha that carved three LGAs from the original Isu to create Nwangele, Nkwerre and Isu. In fact, Nkwerre and Nwangele put together do not come close to Aboh Mbaise or Ezinihitte. That is not what we are talking about now. But in the existing zonal structure, Orlu should not suppress Okigwe and Owerri under their huge legs of 12 LGAs.

Anybody in this State who makes a shallow and blind argument that there is no zoning in Imo State must be ashamed of himself. Otherwise, why is it that when an Orlu person becomes the Governor, the Deputy must from Owerri or Okigwe and the Speaker must come from the other zone?

Let us stop deceiving ourselves because of greed and or power intoxication. Those who want to use money to hoodwink others must remember that the most constant feature of life is change which sometimes could be installed by natural consequences of man’s present or future misbehaviors.

The argument being canvassed here is simple. Let Owerri person get the Douglas House this time around. After the next 8 years, an Okigwe person should get it. We must all not die at the same time. In politics, time flies faster than in any other human activities. Those who believe in the power of money or in the “power of power” must be reminded that there is always history to go after every leader at whatever level.

Let us build a peaceful Imo in which unity and justice must be for every person from everyone. People in leadership today must leave a legacy of historical favour. After all, purchasing people’s mandate at the point of announcement of election result is the worst crime against the electorate. Let their votes count and be recognized. Point blank. Anything short this time around would spell unpleasantries in the polity. Today, the people are collectively sad of the political system and its processes. Let us allow the process to be free and fair devoid of “money for power and power for power” politics. Do I need to say more?