The recent conduct and utterances of Chief Rochas Okorocha, the former Governor of Imo State, has been described as highly unfortunate.
Okorocha had accused the party of lacking ideology and was also reported to have said that President Muhammadu Buhari has not sorrounded himself with capable minds.
Reacting to Okorocha’s attacks on the party and the presidency, Dr. Tom Ohikere, a Politician, Publisher and Media Consultant said the former governor should have availed himself with the internal communication mechanism in the party rather than going public.
Ohikere who tried to excused the former governor, said he (Okorocha) may be fustrated by the local politics in the party back in Imo state.
“There are internal mechanisms within the party that Okorocha could have explored as a more viable alternative to this public outburst. He is one of the people that the party unfortunately respects well. And I believe very strongly that it’s the politics playing out in his place that is not favourable to him that is making him cry out. You know, were living in a dynamic world, things change, leadership is an act of God. You see, Okorocha is an ungodly man, highly ungodly. While he was governor, he facilitated the senators’ election, virtually all elections and he now expects the sitting governor not to have his own structures in place. He’s not a good person, any good politician should know that power changes,” the APC chieftain said.
On the kind pf people around the president, Ohikere said they are people of immence capabilities.
He said, “The president is surrounded by men of value, very talented men of high repute, both in their professional and political career. So, he cannot say that about the president. Is it the party chairman for example, that started his political career as a Councilor, from Councilor to party chairman and Governor of Yobe state? Is it Mister President’s robust record of public service? Or which of his ministers do you want to talk about? The president is surrounded by men of cherished reputation; So Okorocha is just talking out of frustration.”
On ideology, Ohikere said the former governor is “a man of short memory, or should I say a man of corrupt memory. How would he say APC has no ideology? We have great ideology and philosophy. And we have been building the party based on the ideology. The ideology of change is there, and this is in progress in the federal republic of Nigeria. He benefitted from the APC ideologies. If you go to his past records and when he was governor, some of his campaign points and official utterances as governor of Imo State, you will conclude that Okorocha has short memory. This is a man who was very proud of APC ideologies only for him to come up now with this. I should expect his new party which he is going to respond to this. But to us in APC, we have great ideologies.”
He also added, “Don’t forget that one of the cardinal principles of a working democracy is freedom of association, freedom of the formation of political parties here and there, the Constitution of the federal republic permits him to do such. But he must guard his utterances. He can associate with people of his likes, democracy and the constitution of the federal republic permits him to do that. But in the fullness of time, Okorocha will regret his action.”
