What I forgot at Government House, Owerri —Ohakim

By CHIDI NKWOPARA Immediate past governor of Imo State, Dr. Ikedi Ohakim, recently declared to run for the office of governor which he vacated nearly four years ago. In this interview, he speaks on his current ambition among other issues concerning the state. You have declared to run for the governorship election in Imo and it is eliciting a lot of reactions. Are you surprised? I am surprised. The massive buy-in of Ndi Imo is unprecedented. It surpasses my imagination and I am quite humbled by the way our people are reacting positively to it. Some of the aspirants are complaining that you gave them the nod to go ahead and now you have come out to contest. Was I in a position to ask anybody to run or not to run? If somebody came to you to tell you that he wants to run for an election, what moral authority do you have to tell him not to run? Can I even tell my son not to run? They came to me out of courtesy and courtesy requires that you encourage the fellow. Some of them came to me while I was still in court pursuing my case. It would be rude to tell a man who has gotten to the level of aspiring to become a governor not to aspire. I don’t think it is proper. It is possible that the situation at that point in time was such that some of them thought I will not be able to run. But politics is the most dynamic thing in human endeavour. Having said that, I don’t think there is any problem yet. The aspirants are all my personal friends and political associates and we have one common objective, which is to make our party to get back to power in Imo State. When the time comes, we all know what to do. I don’t think there is any problem. So why are you so determined to come back? I want to return to put Imo back to work, to put Imo back to the path of economic prosperity. There have been calls by well-meaning citizens of Imo who have been worried about the economic loss of abandoning the key projects we started that would have laid a solid foundation for a take-off into sustainable economic growth. If you recall, the thrust of my administration was to establish an economy for the state. That was why we went ahead to start some mega projects. But because such things like that take time to mature, some people did not have patience. Some of my colleagues who got their second term after 2011 are just completing some of their key projects. Some will not even complete theirs before they leave in May next year. But some critics do not have the patience. Now, they have seen the difference. The economy of the state is in shambles . In my four years, Imo became a tourist destination. Nearly every seminar or conference facilitator chose Imo as the venue. And the tourism industry in the state began to experience a boom. Hotel occupancy rate rose from less than 20 per cent to over 90 per cent. Total hotel rooms rose from 2,000 in 2007 to 10,000 by the time we left. Real estate value rose to over 300 per cent by 2011; but all that has now crashed. We ran a programme that was designed to create jobs. But the administration that took over from us refused to continue from there, thereby denying Imo people of the benefits of that collective vision. By so doing, the administration set both the people and the economy several years back. And you will agree with me that nobody can complete a project better than the initiator. In the four years we were in office, the economy of the state became very attractive to players in the private sector. At least two airlines were doing two flights each daily to Imo. Today, they reluctantly do one late afternoon flight to Abuja and Lagos. That is not good enough for a state that has a vibrant social and political elite. Since I already had in place a framework for building the economy of the state, I think it would be wrong for me to shy away from coming out since the Constitution permits me to do that. And several well-meaning Imolites believe we should return to take that vision to the next level. I know people will abuse Ikedi Ohakim for coming out again but I am prepared to take every abuse because I know I am doing the proper thing by offering my service to my people once again. No doubt we made mistakes but we have learnt from them. At another level, I decided to run in order to help our party avoid another rancorous governorship primary election. My candidature, if I emerge, will put the party in a better stead to win the governorship election. I am the only aspirant that has a pan-Imo structure that can be put to use immediately and effectively, being the immediate past governor. The legitimate and only constitutionally recognized local government structure is the one I put in place. Ditto for the development centres; not to talk of the various and numerous appointees who were all dismissed unceremoniously by the current administration. We ran an all-evolving administration that recognized the need for human capacity building. We gave 10,000 graduates jobs, and created over 100 autonomous communities and their people are still very pleased with us. That human structure is still there and ready to be mobilized into action for the party. If the party already has such an existing structure, why should it have to start afresh? All these are votes waiting to be caught. If you put all of them together, they are over 200,000 votes and when you add that to party members and other categories of supporters, you can do your final arithmetic. In politics, you start from the known to the unknown. Some people may argue that you lost the 2011 election even when the people or structures you are talking about were there. We did not lose the 2011 governorship election . We won that election on April 26, but because there was a conspiracy to stop me by all means, one thing led to the other and there was a supplementary election on May 6, 2011. I am sure you have read several accounts of what happened on April 26, when the state returning officer refused to admit the results from Ohaji-Egbema local government area which had already been declared at the LGA level and we got over 28,000 votes as against that of APGA which got a little above 3,000 votes. You know what happened at the supplementary election. Our party members and supporters were chased away by soldiers using armoured vehicles. I do not want to go into details but all I can say is that I am running to prove that if anybody thought Ohakim had been sent to political oblivion because of what happened in 2011, I am sorry he will be disappointed. It is not a do-or-die thing for me and like I said, I may be abused, but my confidence in what I have set out to do for my people remains unshaken. Finally, I believe my emergence as candidate of the PDP will bring down the political temperature both within the party and in the state. Without sounding immodest, I am the only fellow who will command the respect of other aspirants if I emerge. I acknowledge the fact that at this stage, some aspirants may feel that I ought not to have come out but I can assure you that at the end of the day, they will have no difficulty working me if I emerge. They are all working very hard and are among the best anywhere in the world but do not forget that if the court had given me justice, my tenure would have ended in 2018. Most of them are young and enterprising and the sky remains their limit. Tomorrow is better provided we try to do the correct thing now. If we are talking about rescuing Imo from the Okorocha ruin, we need a person who knows what was there before he came in. I handed over to him, so I know where to start in order to return life to the state. But you just acknowledged that the other aspirants in the PDP also possess sterling qualities. Of course they do. But I am saying I am better experienced than all of them in executive governance. We have among the aspirants people who have held offices in other areas and have done so well. But the two are not the same. We are talking of executive governance which the constitution of the country puts enormous responsibilities on. The PDP is determined to continue to give Imo and Nigeria as a whole quality governance. And it has to make use of its best and in this case and in all cases experience matters. The PDP is returning to rescue Imo from the mess in which Okorocha has put it. So, how do you handle the issue of zoning and Charter of Equity? Of course, I am for zoning and for Charter of Equity. And let me seize this opportunity to correct those who say there is nothing like Charter of Equity. Of course there is a document to that effect and I have a copy. Zoning is a political imperative at this stage of our democratic journey and I support it whole heartedly at all levels. It is also enshrined in the PDP Constitution. And the National Confab, made up of some of the most patriotic and knowledgeable Nigerians, has recommenced zoning of political offices in the country. That is why at the national level, majority of Nigerians are requesting that President Jonathan be allowed to do another four years in order to complete the eight years the South-south is entitled to. If that is not done, it will pose a problem in the future. But if we start with the South-south, then when it comes to the turn of another zone, things will move on smoothly. Apart from that, President Jonathan is doing a very good job which he has to complete. Bringing the matter down home, that is why some of us are saying that we should begin now to lay a solid foundation for the Charter of Equity by allowing Okigwe Zone, where I come from, to do another four years to complete the eight years it is statutorily entitled to. But Owerri Zone people argue that Okigwe has done a total of eight years, that is putting together your tenure and that of the late Mbakwe and that it has done only about 18 months. I do not think it is proper for me to argue about Owerri or Mbakwe regime which was in old Imo before the advent of PDP. If you trace the apparent indoctrination over the Owerri zone matter and the avalanche of media reports, you will discover that it is coming from the government in power. You may be surprised to hear this. That does not mean that Owerri people are not agitating. But the orchestration is coming from government because the people there now know that if the PDP is pressured into giving Owerri Zone the ticket, Okigwe will vote Rochas Okorocha and he will continue. If you look at the age of the aspirants from Owerri Zone, they are all in the same age bracket. Therefore, there is peer-group jealousy among them. So, they will prefer somebody from outside the zone who will do only four years so that they can return to the ring in 2019. Another reason for that orchestration is that Okorocha is afraid of my candidature because that is the only one that can bring him face to face with somebody who has a record of performance; that will enable Imo people put both of us on the scale, project by project, quality by quality, income by income, economics by economics and in terms of affinity for democratic governance. - See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/09/forgot-government-house-owerri-ohakim/#sthash.xs6w7INT.dpuf