Imo: Governor Uzodimma Won’t Undermine Party Decisions To Support A Pretender’s Presidential Ambition 

OGU BUNDU NWADIKE, M.A

Among the headline news that graced the front page of some Imo-based newspapers recently was the one that said: “Okorocha Laments Uzodimma’s Opposition To His Presidential Ambition”!

Earlier, Rochas’ Imo-based Special Adviser on Media, Sam Onwuemeodo, had written gibberish on the title: “Why Would Senator Okorocha’s Plan To Be Presidential or Vice Presidential Candidate, Becomes (sic) Uzodimma’s Headache”? I believe both writeups share same sources! 

Ordinarily, silence would have been the best answer to the question which was turned into a statement by editors. But at times silence is consent, and therefore ill-advised. So, let this due commensurate response, therefore, suffice! 

Not a few people in Nigeria screamed outrage when the news broke that Rochas was begging to be Tinubu’s vice. We don’t need deep research to know that Rochas shook the table by that expensive joke! 

That’s why Ndigbo nay Ndimo felt Rochas betrayed the collective expectations of Ndigbo that Nigeria’s next president should be an Igbo man! Why talk about vice when the desire is the president? 

It took a rethink by Rochas, who hurried to a national television, to clarify his queer statement that what he was being metaphorical when he begged to be Tinubu’s vice. He blamed it all on newsmen! 

Governor Uzodimma doesn’t have any time for Rochas in any ramification. The governor, as the world now knows, has proved to be a fine combination of brain box and engine room of the ruling party in Nigeria, the All Progressives Congress (APC). He hasn’t any spare minute for Rochas and his perennially utopic presidential ambition and aspiration. 

How could such a very busy leader as Governor Uzodimma have a minute to consider Rochas’ dead on arrival, outdated 20-year old presidential ambition and aspiration, which has capitulated into an emergency vice presidential ambition and aspiration that he was begging for?

As for Rochas lamenting this and that, right from day one of Rochas’ appearance on the political field of Nigeria, he has been a known agent of lamentations over his inexplicable and unfulfillable mirage of presidential ambition. 

In 2003, Rochas vied for the PDP presidential ticket against Dr. Alex Ekwueme, former vice president and top contender for the office of president. 

Rochas, for his fantasy island presidential ambition and aspiration, also roughened the then President Olusegun Obasanjo for the presidential ticket. 

Ultimately, Rochas was fingered as having been bought to share votes that should have been won by Ekwueme in the PDP primary election. History catalogues it appropriately! 

In 2007, Rochas vied for the office of President under the canopy of his amateurish AA Party. Of course, he couldn’t get any far with his crabby backsliding antics. 

In 2015, Rochas tackled the then General Muhammadu Buhari for the presidential ticket of the then newly registered APC. That move in Lagos, even when he was still the governor of Imo State, went down in history as the day he lost it in APC! It’s surprising that he didn’t know! Or does he pretend that he doesn’t know? 

Now, in 2023, Rochas is on the march again, struggling to be president of Nigeria! And the sole question on the lips of reputable pundits is: “When will Rochas know that as far as the office of President of Nigeria is concerned, he’s a pretender, struggling to prove that he’s a contender?” 

Is it by force that anybody must be be president? Is power no longer a gift from God? Why do some people present the mien of being ordained presidents when they are neither here nor there? 

And sensing that he’s not suitable for the position, Rochas has reportedly been lobbying to be selected as Vice President to Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu or any other person for that matter, who may emerge the party’s presidential candidate! 

Though, he has since refuted the report and clarified his statement, truth is that Rochas is too ambitious such that he can actually beg to be vice to anybody, in spite of the grand great expectations of Ndigbo to produce the president in 2023. 

But even neophyte politicians know that politics things don’t work that way like social club things or Rotary things. There are systemic rules, systems and sequences which real political players understand and play by. 

Equivocal desperation is never a part of proof of a serious politician. Good politicians are great tactician, not great desperado. They’re cool, calm, and collected. They’re adept in strategizing like great chess or golf players.

But Rochas has proved to be a perpetually over-ambitious and over-confident presidential aspirant, who doesn’t care to decode the tide of the game in the field of play. Politics is a brain game and not a tongue game! 

Governor Uzodimma is a core democrat. He knows that every leader has a leader. He knows that of supremacy is the Constitution of the party and the binding decisions of the party. He knows and understands the rules of engagement! 

In 2021, he contributed his quota to see the successful conduct of Congresses at Ward, LGA and State levels. Recently, he has done his very best to ensure the party achieved a very successful National Convention. He’s a real member! Ezigbo member karaka! 

Do Rochas and his aides really nurse the dream that he’ll become Nigeria’s president or vice now or in the near future? That would be the grandmother of all wishful thinking! We can only wish them well! 

Rochas should know that though politicians may forgive, they never forget. How could President Buhari forget 2015 even if he forgives, when Rochas purchased nomination form and filed out to wrestle with him over the presidential ticket? 

Does Rochas actually know politics of the North as he claims? Didn’t all those that contested in the presidential primary against Buhari in 2015 sneak back to PDP thereafter? Atiku, Kwankwaso, et al! 

What’s Rochas still doing in APC? Does he need anybody to tell him that he has outlived his usefulness in APC? Even _Nwaebeleako_ knows how many times he will be afflicted before he learns wisdom! Once! And Rochas? 

On a more personal note, if a critical search is made for a Nigerian president of Southeast extraction, the calibre of personalities that will make the list will unsurprisingly sidetrack some people that are struggling too hard to be noticed for nothing.

Rochas should better concentrate on his chosen role to serve Orlu Zone people as their Senator. So far, his hijack of Imo West Senatorial seat in the Senate has been more of an unrewarding waste! 

Orlu Zone people are yet to see the head or the tail of Rochas’ representation of their interests in the Senate, just as other two Senators from the State have been suffocating their constituents with assorted constituency programmes and projects!

If Rochas can’t serve a Senatorial District well in the Senate, what’s the assurance that he’ll serve Nigerians well in Aso Rock? 

Maybe, if Rochas proves himself capable in the Senate, then he may be preparing for Aso Rock in an unforeseen future! Certainly, not now! 

He has 15 months to prove his leadership mettle in the Senate by pouring constituency programmes and projects into Orlu Zone! We wait! We move! 

By God’s grace, Imo State is being rehabilitated, reconstructed and recovered by Governor Uzodimma!