Okorocha Prepares For A Tough Lonely Road Ahead

Rochas Okorocha sought to make joke of his well-known beef with Adams Oshiomhole, the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC as he welcomed dignitaries to the award of honours to Muhammadu Buhari on his victory in the recent presidential election.

“There is someone that is not here, he is not as tall as you, in other words, he is short, he is full of trouble and if I call his name you would know him, his name is Adams Oshiomhole,” Okorocha, who is chairman of the APC governors trade group, known as the Progressives Governors Forum, PGF said.

The joke caused a laughter through the precincts of the Presidential Villa, venue of the ceremony. But beyond the joke, there were few doubts that Okorocha was also pulling a last joke on himself as he sets to exit office after a tumultuous eight years as governor of Imo State.

Reflective of the joke on him was the absence of the majority of APC governors especially from the north. Only four northern governors out of the 16 APC governors were present at the ceremony.

The absence of the governors who were supposed to be giving an award for whatever reason was a major setback for Okorocha to pull one last obsequious gesture for comfort within the polity before his imminent exit from office. Okorocha leaves office in 19 days. Reflective of the dire political straits Okorocha could be trudging in few days time was also the absence of Oshiomhole. The national chairman for whatever reason sought reason not to be present in a show many believe the outgoing governor staged to worm himself into the president’s good books.

However, the governor may have exhausted his positives after he caused the party to lose Imo State to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Critical stakeholders are peeved that Okorocha’s action in stubbornly pushing for his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu to succeed him may have caused the party to have lost the only state it had in the Southeast.

So, as he prepares to exit office, the fact that Okorocha’s circle of friends has been curtailed was not just reflected in the poor attendance at the award ceremony for the president where majority of the governors would have rushed to attend.

The party’s seeming lack of concern over his difficulties in obtaining a Certificate of Return for the Imo West Senatorial District is another indication. Indeed, the governor has accused his party of being against him saying last Wednesday that the troubles he ran away from in the PDP have been multiplied upon him ten times in the APC.

For his efforts in working against the interest of the party’s governorship candidate in Imo State, Hope Uzodinma among others, Okorocha was last March suspended from the party by the National Working Committee, NWC.

Oshiomhole was personally affronted by the decision of Okorocha to insist on Nwosu. The outgoing governor it was learned was supported in the Nwosu project by some powerful figures in the presidency who he had assured of his capacity to retain the state on any party platform through Nwosu. Those men in the presidency are also said to have turned against him.

The joke was that Okorocha organized the award ceremony for the president as a one last move to find grace in the eyes of the president.

Indeed, the outgoing governor pointed out to Buhari that “most of us will not be here to share those wonderful moments with you,” in his welcome remarks.

In fact, besides Oshiomhole, presidency apparatchiks and Imo APC stakeholders who are bitter with him, even the president it is assumed also has a beef with him on two accounts.

The president’s visit to Okorocha’s mansion in 2014 before the following year’s General Election was said to have left sour memories in Buhari. For good or for bad, Okorocha will definitely have a challenging time in Buhari second term. How far the award may have silenced the president or removed the wrath of his enemies is one that is bound to unfold in the next few weeks.

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