• Friday, March 29, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

When Okorocha struck the right chord in the Senate

Okorocha

When penultimate Thursday, on the hallowed chamber of the Senate, Rochas Owelle Okorocha, immediate past governor of Imo State, and now senator of the Federal Republic, threw down the gauntlet on the over-bloated number of federal lawmakers, he drew enemies and friends in equal measure.

He suggested that the number of lawmakers should be reduced. Perhaps, the reaction that trailed his innocent suggestion could have been different if it were from another legislator. But not from a legislator who rose to the Red Chamber on the platform of the ruling party.

Okorocha said the country could not afford its expenditure anymore, saying that there was no sacrosanct thing being done by senators and House of Representatives members that only few senators could not do.

“Mr. President of the Senate, distinguished colleagues, let’s tell ourselves the truth. Look at the number of House of Representatives members and Senators; to me, what is too important that a House member is doing that a Senator from the same state is not doing?”

“It is time for us to sacrifice and I want to say that a Senator is enough to represent a state in order to cut cost. We must do sacrifice for the nation.”

Lauretta Onochie, President Muhammadu Buhari Social Media aide, in her reaction on her Twitter page, praised the former governor, adding that he had spoken the mind of Nigerians.

Onochie wrote: “I never thought that we would hear this on the floor of our National Assembly. In Nigeria, Wow!

“I must applaud Sen. Okorocha for his bravery. I hope he spoke the mind of the majority of our Assembly men and women because he spoke the mind of most Nigerians. God bless Nigeria.”

But in Nigeria, politicians are not people to be trusted. Whatever they do or say, almost always, is meant to serve personal interest or political expediency. It is only in Nigeria that, as politicians, people say what they don’t mean or meant what they don’t say. It has been taken to a bizarre and ridiculous level where it is being accepted as a lifestyle.

When somebody makes a statement in which he is serious, he would urge you to believe him because “this is not a political statement.” It means that statements made by politicians are “…a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying nothing”(William Shakespeare).

Rochas Okorocha whether an ordinary man or a politician, lives and thrives big in controversy. His life is as controversial as his trajectory in politics. Like Aristophanes, a Greek playwright, would have said if Okorocha lived in his days, “You have all the characteristics of a popular politician…”

Like every other popular politician, the former governor perfectly understands his calling into politics, that “politics is a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles; the conduct of public affairs for private advantage.” So, like every other politician also, Okorocha knows exactly when to say what.

Okorocha also understands that in Nigeria, political contestation is not done in the market place of ideas but on the platform of deceit and diatribes that generate controversy, intrigues and disagreements.

Depending on who is describing him, the senator representing Imo West senatorial district in the National Assembly, could be likened to the proverbial elephant about which 10 blind men gave suiting but variegated descriptions depending on the part of the body they touched.

In the eyes of his beholders, the senator is a good, bad, and ugly politician! Sometimes, when you hear him speak, you could be tempted to see him as a saint losing himself in politics, but the truth is that Owelle is a politician trying his hardest to become a saint.

If Okorocha were a saint, he would have yielded to the advice of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States of America, that “Politics is such a torment that I would advise everyone that I love not to mix with it.” But he appears not one. The former is willing and ready for a macabre dance, if only to stir controversy to serve selfish interest.

What transpired in Imo in recent times, during the 2019 general election were enough to define Okorocha persona that could attempt the improbable to achieve the impossible in an impregnable state.

He had insisted that his then Chief of Staff and son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, would succeed him as governor. His stand was at variance with the wish of his party and most indigenes of the state, but he stuck to his guns.

He went ahead to work for Nwosu who contested the gubernatorial election on another political platform. He worked against his party for private advantage. While he was supporting his son-in-law in Action Alliance (AA), he himself was contesting for senatorial seat on the APC platform. Despite all the legal acrobatics that attended his victory, he is today in the Senate.

But this can only happen in a depraved society like Nigeria where electoral process has no guiding principles and seeking elective position is a cash and carry venture. Nigeria is also a country where democracy thrives on leaders deceiving and short-changing the people. Here, political leaning or persuasion does not depend on party ideology because there is none anywhere.

As a man that cherishes public adulation, Okorocha has located a populist issue to worm his way into the hearts of the over-traumatised citizens. Today, he has picked up a gauntlet to lead the battle against waste in government and how to reduce the cost of governance.

But he is the same man that the current administration in Imo is criminalising and crying foul against his alleged profligacy while in office. Many indigenes of the state are pointing fingers at him, accusing him of wasting their resources on useless projects, particularly the statues that had nothing to contribute to the economy of the state.

According to his political foes, Okorocha established many unviable ventures, schools, colleges and universities for the sake of using them to further his personal estate. While he is at the Senate championing the cause for a reduction in the number of federal lawmakers, those schools remain playgrounds for snakes and rodents.

When he made the call on the floor of the Senate, he received immediate applause and his rating soared. But a commentator wondered why the Senator fought tooth and nail to be at the upper legislative chamber despite obvious oppositions to his parliamentary dream, even from within his party fold.

But a case could be made for him in this regard that he wanted to be there in order to pursue this agenda. It could be a life dream which he wants to realise and thereafter yield his position to Nigeria.

Another observer said that “it was his right as a citizen to fight to be at the Senate because since the constitution allows for three senators to represent a state, it would have been naïve on his part if he decided not to be there simply because he thought there were too many people and too much waste.

“Being inside would help him to fight the cause better and it would also carry more weight since he is one of them. People would say, if one of them is saying it, he knows what he is talking about,” the observer said on condition of anonymity.

 

Zebulon Agomuo