STILL ON IMERIENWE DECLARATION – WHEN SELFISH INTEREST MEETS POLITICAL NAIVETE
MAZI EJIMOFOR OPARA
Naturally, you do not expect a well trained dog not to bark when the security of its master is threatened. However, the larky barks of an “ekuke” cannot be compared with the ferocious barks of a high breed alsatian. While I focused on interrogating the merits of the highly narcissistic Imerienwe declaration, some ill motivated “ekukes” took to barking at non issues and biting individuals who were neither consulted nor considered before and after the knitting of the piece. As expected, the tardy response was replete with non-issues, name calling and unprovoked vituperations. It is not enough that TOE and his restoration co-travellers had taken this path of least resistance for lack of political initiative, but had also raised minions to purvey and protect same like street urchins selling drugs to some junkies on the streets of Mexico.
Though I concede to anybody’s right to political interest and freedom to associate with others who shared same, I beg to differ with any attempt at foisting one’s selfish interest on others as the blanket desire of every other person within the larger social collective of political actors. TOE and his league of Imerienwe agitators have a right to their opinion. However, that is what it is – their opinion, which is borne out of personal considerations and cannot pass for the collective sentiment of the Ngor Okpala people nor those of the broader Owerri zone arrangement. Within the Owerri zone political structure, there are four (4) distinct blocs of people, viz; the Owerri bloc comprising the three LGAs of Owerri West, North and Municipal, the Mbaike bloc made up of Mbaitoli and Ikeduru LGAs, the Mbaise bloc represented by Aboh, Ahiazu and Ezinihitte LGAs, then the Ngor Okpala bloc constituting the largest single land mass of persons in not just the Owerri zonal arrangement, but the entire Imo State. Thank God, it was themed the “Imerienwe Declaration” – a small town in Ngor Okpala – not the Ngor Okpala Declaration or Owerri zone Declaration.
The illusive intent of the Declarants has made it very impossible to have credible deponents from the zone, except for pockets of media hushes that is part of the grand plan to legitimize this hasty declaration. The argument against this declaration among discerning political actors and analysts has been its inability to address the basic issues of inequity within Owerri zone, which is one of the major albatross to the Owerri zone project. First, is the hopeless subjugation of the Ngor Okpala bloc within the larger Owerri zone political structure which the key actors from other blocs in the zone had deliberately neglected believing that the people of Ngor Okpala are “big for nothing” and deserving of nothing. Until the emergence of the Rescue Mission government, it was a mere wishful thinking to imagine that an Ngor Okpala person would ascend to the enviable position of the Secretary to the State Government. Not when the “Mbaise Nation” is there with a long list of their eminently qualified persons, the Mbaike bloc seizing the formidable influence of an Iwuanyanwu or the Owerri bloc lashing on the spatial advantage of housing the Capital city to make their claims – all leaving Ngor Okpala in the woods of her towering palm trees to wallow in concocted ignorance.
If the Imerienwe Declaration had been a call for equity within the larger Owerri zone political arrangement, one that advocates for the just consideration of Ngor Okpala eminent sons and daughters for possible election into the plum job at the People’s House, it would have made far reaching meaning and impact to all concerned. Sadly, the Declarants, who are by their actions playing some predetermined scripts, are not concerned with the success of the Owerri zone project. Their action, at best, is emotive and self driven without any trappings of public good whatsoever.
It is speculated in critical quarters that the Chief declarant – Chief TOE Ekechi – is protesting what he considers a personal skirmish against the State Government and by extension, the party, for the delayed reward of his efforts during the 2015 elections. He has neither gotten the Ambassadorial placement or Ministerial appointment he expected as a worthy recompense of all his hardwork in building the party. This is outrightly selfish, even when his selfish request appears to be a legitimate entitlement.
Another draw back to the spurious Imerienwe Declaration is the established linkage between the Chief Declarant and some sponsors from Okigwe Zone. Political pundits have long established this and consider it a huge possibility given the nature and style of politics played by Chief TOE, which is “my way or no way” – Ask APC members who witnessed the gruesome betrayal and sell out of Chief Matthew Nwogu in 2015, bringing about the undeserved victory of the PDP and their unqualified candidate, Hon Bede Eke, for the Ngor Okpala / Aboh Mbaise Federal Constituency seat at the green chamber.
Painfully, as it were, TOE is set to repeat a record he is well known for. But, the question then is, in whose interest will all these be? Okigwe zone or the cynical Owerri zone mouthed by him and his ilk of do-gooders. While we applaud this shrewd upholding of his intrisinc nature, we must also remind him of the futility in attempting to catch an Old dog with new tricks.
