Only Araraume can dethrone Okorocha in 2015, says Ogunewe

Hon. Independence Ogunewe

Governorship aspirants, especially, those from Owerri zone were shocked when one of their sons, Hon. Independence Ogunewe was appointed Director-General of Senator Ifeanyi Ararume Campaign Organisation. The lawmaker who represented Ahiazu Mbaise/Ezinihite Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives from 2003-2011 in this interview, speaks on various issues including why the PDP should adopt Araraume as its candidate for 2015 governorship election in Imo State. Excerpts:

Why did you accept to be the Director General, Araraume Campaign Organisation when Owerri zone where you hail from is laying claim to producing the next governor in 2015?

First of all, may I state categorically that, I’m a citizen of Imo State, and before being this, I’m a citizen of Mbaise in Owerri zone. The popular reggae icon, Bob Marley, once sang that when it rains, it doesn’t rain on one man’s house and stop. What I’m communicating is that, the bad government that we are experiencing in Imo State today is not limited to Owerri, Okigwe or Orlu zones. The entire state is suffering under the burden of bad leadership as represented by the current administration. Therefore, the task before us is to ensure that the present government is replaced with a better one. It’s not the task of Owerri, Okigwe or Orlu zones alone, but that of all citizens of Imo. To that extent therefore, I surveyed the horizon and looked at all the sons and daughters of Imo who are aspiring to become the governor next year and put some factors into consideration. I conclude that for now, I wouldn’t know about the future, but Araraume is best man who is best prepared to sack this government if all of us should rally round him. That is not to say that the other people who are aspiring don’t have qualities to be governor but what we should understand is that the manner of person we need for a job at a time is defined and determined by circumstances of the job as at that time, circumstances of the task and challenge at that time. However, for today, even the other aspirants particularly from the PDP appreciate the fact that if, indeed we are determined and really desirous of voting out the incumbent from office, we can do it. An incumbent of the type of Rochas Okorocha, we must look for the man who has the extra capacity, extra quality that is needed for this particular kind of challenge. In other kind of challenges, he may not be the best person for it. So, we are looking for that man who is prepared to take up this challenge. By my assessment, Araraume is the person. And we should also understand one fact; Araraume could have been from Owerri, perhaps, from Orlu zone. That he is from Okigwe zone is by accident of birth which is by providence. So, where he comes from now is not the issue, the reality now is who can remove Okorocha. I had discussed with one of my cousins who is a businessman in Owerri, he asked me exactly the same question you put to me and followed it by saying in our language, ”Onye orun beke na agu ego agula ahu ya” meaning, “a civil servant counts money towards himself”. I agreed with him that he was absolutely correct but I also pointed out to him that for a civil servant to count money towards himself, he must have secured a job from the beginning. You don’t begin to count money when you don’t have a job. So, right now, we are trying to secure that job by removing Okorocha from office and we look for somebody who is best to do that. When he does that, then a job would have been created, a job would have been found. Then when the next opportunity or occasion comes, Owerri zone within the PDP family might begin to say, we lay claim to this and it would now become an internal PDP arrangement.

Is there anything like Imo Charter of Equity on how power should rotate among the zones?

To the best of my understanding, I don’t think there was. I wasn’t an active player in 1998-99 when the current dispensation of democracy began, but I was an adult, old enough to know that during that period, Orlu and Owerri contested. I also know that in 2003, when Chief Achike Undenwa wanted to do a second term, he didn’t just have a jolly ride into the second term because an Orlu person contested against him where he hails from. Owerri zone also ran. If we must mention names, you know that somebody like Nze Desmond Iwuagwu, Banex, is from Owerri Zone, Ugochi Nnana Okoro also contested and there are other people who from Orlu in 2003. Then in 2007, the same scenario played out. Udenwa was just finishing his second term in office. Orlu also ran. It was a very strong race where even Senator Hope Uzodinma came second, a close second at that. Assuming Hope had won, nobody should have said he shouldn’t become governor because he is from Orlu. In that same competition, Okigwe and Owerri zones participated. In 2011, Orlu, Okigwe and Owerri zones took part. So, in that circumstance, you wouldn’t say there had been a Charter of Equity because if zoning has been instituted, what it means is that at any point in time, that zone from which we expect to get the candidate or the governor would be allowed to produce it even if they had 1,000 aspirants who must come from that zone and one person would now be taken. But it has not been so. You may not strongly say that there has been a charter of equity. Of course, if there is any, it may be a gentleman’s agreement. It should be documented, it should be a reference point, stating that Imo people met at so-so point and agreed on so-so point and looked at the communiqué that came from the meeting and it stated that this is how the governorship position should rotate. I don’t think there has been anything as Charter of Equity in Imo State. It is just something that has existed in the figment of imagination of some people.

Many people still believe that Araraume may be a hard product to market having tried twice to become governor. How do you intend to correct the wrong impression hitherto, created by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the build up to the 2007 guber election in Imo?

I would disagree with the issue you raised that Araraume may be a hard product to market. In 2007, he contested the primaries against all odds and won. He didn’t just vote for himself; people voted for him. His victory was made possible by people who voted for him. That was even when Obasanjo came to Owerri and made the kind of provocative statement he made about him. Ararume still went ahead and won that election. Imo people voted for him. The emergence of former governor Ikedi Ohakim in 2007 as governor is known to all. The situation that threw him up is known to everybody; Ohakim himself knew that he didn’t win election but was imposed on the people by Obasanjo. In 2011, Ararume contested again and of course, you know that if he lost that election it wasn’t because of his person but some other extraneous considerations like platform. Because it is difficult to imagine that the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) which was considered to be a Yoruba party would win that election in Imo. That, it even came third in the election was because of Ararume’s personality. If it was not for a person like Ararume, ACN would not have made such impact in Imo. Even at that, if the first election, that is the National Assembly election that was cancelled was not cancelled, perhaps the result also wouldn’t have been the way we found it. So, anybody who says Araraume is a hard product to market is all part of the propaganda we have here locally. If somebody like my person after spending eight years in the National Assembly and my eight years in the green Chambers would settle down to say Araraume should run means that the whole lots of people are also saying he should run and he will win. So, he is not a difficult product to market at all. But that is not to say that there are one or two things Araraume himself did not get right. Perhaps, he didn’t begin to appreciate on time this issue of perception. The time Obasanjo came and labeled him with all manner of negative labels, he decided to play the role of Jesus in the book of Isaiah 53, which said, “Jesus was led like a sheep that is being led to the slaughter before its shearer but opened not his mouth”.  So, Araraume decided not to open his mouth. He felt he shouldn’t join issues, he felt it doesn’t matter and that people would know what is the truth. But that was the wrong thing he did. He didn’t even issue a statement to debunk such kind of insinuation that came from no less a person as the President at that time. So, such things began to stick with time. But with time, people are beginning to see that those statements are lies. It may interest you to note that Ararume is a devote catholic, a knight of St. John International and if the Catholic Church is any institution or organization to reckon with, you would know that they have their own system of investigating people. And I want to assure you that if Araraume had been found wanting, an institution like the Catholic Church which has the greatest followership in the world would not have confered knighthood on Ararume.  So, Araraume is not going to be a hard sell at all.   He has from his personal resources helped more than 40 kidney patients get trans-plant in renowned hospitals in India. In fact, there are three couples, I may not want to mention their names but some of them have decided that they want to come out to make it open, who had challenges with child bearing. He sponsored their trip to a hospital in Maryland, United States of America where they met the best fertility doctors and today they are proud parents of children.

Do you foresee a repeat of supremacy clash between Ararume and the former governor of the state, Chief Ikedi Ohakim; both of  them are from Okigwe zone and are in the race, won’t they divide their votes?

I don’t want to talk about anybody or the chances of anyone but Araraume. I do know that even in the deepest of Ohakim’s heart, he knows what his chances are. If he doesn’t know, then it is unfortunate. I don’t foresee any supremacy clash between them.

From what you are saying, it seems Araraume is the only person that can wrest power from Okorocha?                                 

What I said is, it would be wrong to say only Araraume can do it. He may not be the only qualified person but the only aspirant that has the muscle to wrest power from Okorocha. Let it be put on record that he is the only person who has what it takes to sack Okorocha.