Okorocha's midnight wailing - Collins Ugbalaa

Wailing for the second time for a man who sustained gunshot injuries is an aberration of the Igbo culture. When news enters town that Mr. Obiaku has sustained gunshot injury, his relatives weep, fearing he might not survive. The weeping stops, or is suspended, once he is taken to any facility for treatment. The seizure of weeping is a sign that the victim is not dead and there is hope for his survival. It also signifies a second-time opportunity for the victim to live. While the man is still being treated, sympathizers might well visit the family and express their condolences, but everyone is forbidden to weep for the second time. If there is a second wailing, it becomes an ominous sign that the victim has died. All hope is gone. On the other hand, when you hear a women wailing in the dead of the night, the first guess is that her husband might have joined the ancestors. Either way, midnight wailing is an ominous sign for something disastrous.

That is what Okorocha’s wailing portends. It is an ominous sign of the failure of both the All Progressive Congress (APC) led government at the center headed by now absentee President Muhammadu Buhari and the Okorocha led government in Imo State. Both have failed, and Okorocha shares largely in the failures of both governments.

The APC is a party that promised change but succeeded in delivering economic and political chains to the people. We have seen for some time now the manner the President has handled the issues of the Shiite movement, war against corruption and IPOB. We have seen that all of a sudden Nigerians do not have the right to gather anymore and protest. We have seen all of a sudden what the APC commended and engineered when it was out of power are now condemned by the same party because now they are in power. Nigerians have seen that it appears that they enjoyed a robust economy and freedom in the alleged era of corruption and looting under the PDP but have to gnash their teeth in a government that claims to be fighting corruption.

Under the APC, Nigerians now wear yokes of various hues. There is the yoke of high inflation, where prices for every commodity has increased for more than 200%, and all the APC can say is that the PDP caused it. Under the APC the Naira is threatened to becoming like the toilet papers. And of course, if you asked any Nigerian, he would say he preferred the exchange rate under the allegedly corrupt and inept PDP. Nigerians now think that the APC was a dummy, and they bought it like that. And one of the top marketers is the same man wailing over what he now sees as marginalization of the Igbo.

It is obvious to all that under the overhyped anti-corruption stance of the APC a gateman’s house is being built with N250M. Under the nose of the anti-corruption czar Buhari, the country now knows that budgets can be padded without consequences. Under the APC change government, two sets of rules seem to be in practice, one for those that support the government despite what they do and the other for those that are perceived to be against the government, even in the face of evils. That was why under Buhari, a judge could be asked to resign because of allegation of corruption, whereas the SGF would be backed not to resign, and those calling for his resignation on grave allegation of corruption are chided by the same mouth that called for the resignation of a judge over allegation of corruption. That is what the APC has brought.

Under the APC we now have in our political lexicon the 97 percenters and the 5 percenters, a dangerously discriminatory term where those who were seen as supporters of the president were ab initio destined to gain from government largesse whereas those erroneously termed 5 percenters are now under the worst political, infrastructural and economic degradation ever. Under the APC government armed herders appear to be untouchables while unarmed IPOB are hounded constantly.

And ordinarily, Okorocha’s wailing would have got the support of the majority of Igbo people. The Governor had wept before Acting President Osinbajo during his visit to Imo State in his ongoing consultations with the Niger Detla Community. This was what Okorocha said: “No other group in Nigeria that had invested as much into our nationhood can sing the song of marginalization as much as Ndigbo has been made to sing it. We have nothing to show that we are part of the Nigerian project; neither do we have any sense of belonging in the present government at the national level.

“We have been marginalized both in terms of projects and appointments. In Imo State, for instance, all we have is a Minister of State to show for all the efforts and extreme sacrifices we made to ensure that the All Progressive Congress (APC) had a good outing in the last general elections. I know you are the Acting President and has the ears of the President. So, there is no better person to tell our painful story than you. You need to take a second look at what is happening in the South-East. No serious political appointment, no visible federal infrastructure so far, to show the presence of Federal Government in the South-East in general.

“I beg that as the government gives subsequent appointments, let the qualified sons and daughters of the state and region be considered. Imo State played major role in bringing APC to power because if what had taken place in other states was allowed to happen in Imo State and other states in the South-East, probably we wouldn’t have had the APC government today.

“Given the roles that I personally played as a sacrificial lamb in the South- East during the elections, my state deserves a better deal. There is no Federal Government presence in the oil- producing areas, and none of our youths benefited from the Federal Government’s Amnesty Programme. I also use this opportunity to ask for the quick refund of the money spent by the state on Imo International Cargo Airport and on some federal roads in the state.”

Okorocha got it right when he said he played very vital role in the making of President Buhari and the APC. He got it right when he said he has not been treated well. And he was more than right when he said he was the sacrificial lamb for the APC in the South East. But what he didn’t say was that his plight in the APC is a self-inflicted wound. He caused himself all the calamities he wept for, and of course, just like the Acting President told him, he should blame nobody or try to hide under anybody. He should talk to the President himself, since no other Governor has the ear of the President more than him.

We had warned Okorocha that there could be no peace between the hammer and anvil. We had cried from the rooftops that the marriage Okorocha was entering with the North dominated APC was unequal yoked marriage. But he chose to throw our words away. We reminded him that the devil you knew is better than the angel you never knew. But he chose to try. It was Okorocha who told all of us that Buhari was the best thing to happen to us. He told us that under the Buhari regime all good things in life would come to the Igbo nation. He told us that under the PDP government the Igbo nation gained nothing, but two years into the regime of his new APC friends, he has kicked off the cry for the marginalization of the Igbo nation.

To convince us to accept the new Buhari as President, Okorocha invited him to Owerri and gave him a new name: Okechukwu Buharia Government. Today, and true to his new name, Buhari has buhariala government and Okorocha has become the newest weeping boy in APC. Okorocha’s action is similar to the sheep that messed up his dwelling in the false belief that it was being wicked to its owner, but in real sense it would lay in the mess again. That is Okoroha’s lot: he is laying in his mess, but painfully we are laying in it with him.

You remember the story of Esau selling his birth right to Jacob for a meal ticket? Okorocha sold his birth right. That was why under two years we have seen the greatest marginalization and misrule ever. In his desire to become the Igbo leader - better put - in his desire to become the President of Nigeria from the Igbo nation, Okorocha forgot that anyone dining with the devil was safer holding a long spoon. In dining with the APC leaders and assisting them conquer the Igbo nation; he sold the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to them, a party on whose wings he flew to the power.

Someone mentioned to me that Okorocha’s plight is the cry of nemesis. You see, the Igbo say that when a child wrestles his father he would be blindfolded by the old man’s loincloths. Okorocha is being blindfolded by the old man’s cloth as a result of his actions against the Igbo people when he forced on us the unholy marriage of the APC. And he does not have my pity or consolation, even though we all suffer the pain together, all be it in various forms and degrees.

Beyond the nemesis of Okorocha’s unholy marriage with the APC lies yet a graver issue, and that is hypocrisy. No matter the words, and the level of emotions Okorocha put in his words, it was sheer acts of hypocrisy. Thank God the Acting President saw beyond the veil of Igbo marginalization. Okorocha who wept over marginalization is himself marginalizing the people of the state. For example, Okorocha is marginalizing the members of his party in the state. Members of the APC have told me that they don’t feel the presence of the party in the state. They lamented that the leadership of the party has been emasculated, and as such all affairs of the party are run at the government house. They weep that the state secretariat of the party is not open, comparing that to the office of the PDP that is always open, even though the PDP is an opposition party.

They said that they are pained that even though the PDP is in deep crisis, it is nevertheless a very busy one. They told me that despite the ongoing revalidation of members and registration of new members, you don’t feel that the ruling party is present in the state. What marginalization could be worse than pocketing one’s party, denying the members the rich pickings that should accrue to them for belonging to the ruling party? Perhaps one needs to mention the cry of non-funding of the ongoing revalidation and registration exercise in the state, as everywhere you turn all you hear is the cry from party officials that they are not being funded.

What do you make of some draconian methods of the APC government in the state, where the people wake up in the morning and see their property pulled down without compensation? What do you say of the dislocation of businesses and the rising rate of poverty and unemployment in the state? What do you say of the incessant war between the labour unions in the state and the pensioners? What do you say of the Governor’s broken promises and abandoned projects littered everywhere?

Okorocha should weep and wail and nurse his self-inflicted injuries, we are consoled with our never failing faith in God and our realization that “…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning”. Same way, the bedbug consoled his children to be patient, that what is hot would soon become cool.